Experiential Learning Activity

Due to the way I teach (coming from a one to many lecturing background), I have found it difficult to imagine an experiential activity for students. However I do use my own experieinces as a teaching tool to assist with knowledge transference.

My most 'reliable' story is that of our whanau connection to the Titi islands.

We experience 'strong sustainability' issues on a day to day basis on the islands: Titi are seabirds and require a certain topography to exsist within. the trees, the undergrowth, the soil substructure all play a part in making this environment home for the titi during the nesting season. The local seas provide the food sorce while the birds are nesting and rearing their chicks.

We know as traditional food harvesters that we hold a certain responsility to the environments that allow this harvest to take place.

And while the harvest is a 'cultural food right', it also plays a very important part of our economy, it is now used, informally, as a revenue source.

So this activity plays a part in our social (reaffirming whanau relationships) cultural (reconnecting with the practices of our tupuna), spiritual (a sence of recharging) and financial (income stream) selves.

Looking after these Islands and the flora and fauna that inhabits them is to all intents and purposes, looking after ourselves in a wider, holisitc manner.

This practice is pratising 'strong sustainability'.