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Students using Environorth
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One of the most effective ways to raise awareness of savanna land
management issues is to help tropical savanna schools improve their
teaching materials that relate to the environment and land
management. An increasing number of people are growing up in
tropical savanna environments whether it is in growing cities like
Darwin or Townsville or smaller settlements, yet there is often
very little local content in school curricula when it comes to the
environment.
To meet this need, the Tropical Savannas CRC’s Tropical
Savannas Knowledge for Schools project worked with Education
Departments, teachers and students as well as land managers and
researchers to produce engaging and accurate materials on the
Tropical Savannas that worked with school curricula. The result was
three interactive web-based modules
Savanna Walkabout
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"The Quoll Files" from Savanna Walkabout
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This module engages students so they gain key understandings
related to biodiversity in the tropical savannas. The module
includes a guided tour by “Terry the Termite”, video
interviews with active researchers, and an interactive section
where you can plan your own biodiversity survey. The key
understandings include the idea that biodiversity covers more than
endangered species; that tropical savannas are found across the
globe and that while Australian tropical savannas may lack lions,
elephants and gazelles they have their own fascinating plants and
animals adapted to a distinctive environment. A key insight is that
people are an important part of our savannas and that our
management of those landscapes play an important role in trying to
maintain biodiversity – and that hanging onto the diversity
of life has many likely benefits.
Burning Issues
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The module features knowledge from traditional
custodians
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The Burning Issues module provides insights into how people manage
fire in the northern savannas with a focus on the spectacular
Kakadu National Park. Key understandings include appreciating that
climate, fire and vegetation are all inter-related and a change in
one will trigger changes in the others; another important insight
is that people and fire have been linked for millennia and the way
Indigenous people managed fire has shaped the savannas and the way
we manage fire today is continuing to shape the savannas. The
module includes videos of a traditional Indigenous fire management
walk narrated by a custodian of the Arnhem Land Plateau country; a
computer simulation of the impact of different fire patterns in
Kakadu’s eucalypt savannas; and opportunities to test-drive
the latest technology used to track fires by satellite.
Two other modules are being developed: one on the
cattle country of the savannas and one on Indigenous land and sea
management.
