Educational Materials Library
Enviroed.com.au is an educational portal for people interested in learn about the environment, focusing on South East Queensland including Moreton Bay and the Moreton Bay Region. The purpose is to highlight the value of online education for raising the appreciation of our natural world. This portal is under construction.
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Saltmarshes are vital intertidal ecosystems typically found between mangrove forests and dry land. These areas experience tidal flooding during king and spring tides. They support a diverse array of vegetation, including grasses and sedges, low shrubs, succulents, algae, and salt flats.
Dr Bob Crudgington, Director, EnviroEd and Manic Multimedia, has generously agreed to make available some educational materials on the ecology of salt marshes.
Two-page fact sheet – About Saltmarsh Ecology in Moreton Bay.
More to come.
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This booklet (34.1 MB), compiled by the Syllabus Notes Committee of the South Coast Inspectoral District of the Education Department, Brisbane, Queensland and published in 1932, was compiled as a curriculum resource for teachers of the era.
Its Introduction commences:
“Nature Study should be a very popular subject, and by its aid it is intended that children should be trained to see intelligently, to compare and contrast, to record observations, to express themselves precisely and to develop within themselves a love for all that is beautiful.
But the subject has its difficulties, and not least of these is the want of confidence felt by the teachers. These cannot be experts in all branches and it is not easy for them to get from the text-books available just the information needed. Most of the works published deal with the various branches in a world-wide or continent-wide fashion, and the difficulty of selecting from the multiplicity of objects offered just those which may be treated observationally is so great that many become disheartened, cease to be Nature-students, and finally give up the task, or treat it in a half-hearted and disinterested way.
The teachers of the South Coast Inspectoral District, eager to carry out their duties in an efficient manner, have decided to combine for the purpose of pooling the facts available, concerning the birds, plants, and industry insects of their District. To supply the necessary information for this volume each school sent in a list of the birds found in its neighbourhood, and from these the hundred commonest birds was selected, special drawings are made, and descriptions were written up in simple language. It is felt that now every teacher will have sufficient data to enable him or her to deal effectively with this part of Nature Study.”
The curriculum may be very different these days but these sentiments have a modern resonance.
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This series of seven scenarios in a hypothetical Department of Crown Lands is pitched at tertiary level students in land, regional planning or environmental management.
Subjects covered include the nature of public service and the public interest, managing conflict within a public authority, the tension between development and environmental protection but in particular between advocates of each.
QSN has uploaded these scenarios in Word format so that lecturers may adapt the notes to suit their own curriculum. However, as we cannot be confident that the Word document will retain its format during uploading or downloading, the PDF is also available.
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How different lesson materials are in the 2020s ! However, one can’t be confident that this knowledge-packed volume of 178 pages will be useless for modern-day teachers.
First Studies in Insect Life in Australasia by William Gillies is 41.5 MB and has been rendered searchable.
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This charming booklet was first published in 1957 and reprinted several times, with this printing dated 1964. It lacks the first-rate colour images that modern publications can use but it should serve as a good teaser for primary age students.
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Primer
Dr Peter Dart and Col Lynam, members of The Royal Society of Queensland, have compiled this primer on the coal seam gas industry. Are you aware that Queensland coal seam gas is a risk to food security? The paper includes a useful table of recent reports and media columns with hotlinks. The paper has been written exclusively for the Queensland Science Network.
Glendon Event 26 August 2023
Some 179 farmers attended a field day on 26 August 2023. A declaration – the “Glendon Declaration” – was unanimously endorsed by the gathering. The program flyer identifies the main issues and a list of numerous expert contributors.
Read the opening address Protecting Prime Agricultural Land Liza Balmain, ‘Glendon,’ Nangwee, Queensland. 4407. Saturday 26th August, 2023.
Read the Executive Summary of the Glendon event, a lucidly worded explanation of the failure of the Queensland Government to fulfill its obligation to secure the public interest while administering mining and gas tenures.
EOS Data Analytics has picked up this story and given support. See its blogpost or a screenshot captured on 27 Nov. 2023.
Also see the dedicated page on State policy re good quality agricultural land.
Queensland Farmers’ Federation issued a press release on 24 May 2024 about the proposal to inject CO² into the Great Artesian Basin.
Irreversible subsidence
Zena Ronnfeldt of Boss Agricultural Pty Ltd, Dalby, Queensland, has supplied a photo of damage to their property:
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“Arrow Energy’s mining of methane gas for export has caused this damage to our paddock. The sunken areas caused by the mining hold water, stopping us from growing food.” Not only is the gas contributing to heating the planet, it’s also reducing food production.
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This guide to environmental activities (23MB) from the US Peace Corps has information of general usefulness, but the ideas here are always subject to the Queensland curriculum.
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Dr Pat Dale, member of The Royal Society of Queensland, has been investigating methods of mosquito control for more than 30 years. In particular, she has trialled “runnelling”, a low-impact form of habitat modification, as an alternative to spraying pesticides. In this article published in the Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association, she and co-authors compare control methods using economic tools, notably “present value”. Discount rate can be manipulated to yield very different economic conclusions.
P Dale, J Knight & P Daniels (2018). “Using present value as a simple approach to compare mosquito larval control methods“. Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association 34(1): 25-33.
ABSTRACT. Simple economic-based comparisons of source reduction and larvicide treatment are generally lacking in the mosquito control literature. The aim is to address this by developing an Excel tool that calculates the total present value (PV) of control methods. We use 15 years as the time frame, but this can be varied. Total PV is calculated based on the cost of each method at the start. A 3% discount rate is applied to recurring costs, and one-off costs are included throughout because they are part of the total PV. The data are based on information provided by mosquito control agencies in southeast Queensland, Australia. Values in the tool can be simply edited to reflect specific program characteristics. The outcome for the data used showed that source reduction is an appropriate option if maintenance is minimal. When major maintenance is needed, then larviciding may be the better option, particularly if money is the main consideration. However, if the frequency of applying larvicides increases, then source reduction becomes an increasingly attractive option.
Here is a PDF of a slide presentation explaining the study (2.6MB).
Here is spreadsheet in Excel format and in pdf format with genuine data.
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In 2018 the United Nations declared 20 May annually as World Bee Day. The World Bee Day websites international and Australian contain useful videos, case studies and written materials explaining the role bees play in agriculture and biodiversity. Also see the website for the Australian not-for-profit Wheen Been Foundation.