Aboriginal Ranger STEM virtual excursions to schools nationally

World-first, NT Aboriginal Rangers presented a STEM virtual excursion to schools nationally yesterday and students document their learning into published books.

Kakadu National Park Rangers and DEMED Rangers delivered curriculum-aligned STEM content on Crocodile monitoring to thousands of students all around Australia.

Kakadu Ranger and Crocodile guru Garry Lindner and Jonathan Sean Nadji overcame technology problems to showcase their on-country conservation work. “Luckily Sean is good with technology and hopefully he’ll take over my role when I retire”, Garry Lindner said.

Deputy CEO of the DEMED Rangers, Josh Oddy said, “This is such a great opportunity for the Rangers to educate young people at a scale that has never been achieved before. The Rangers, Jethrow, Silver and Nipper, were nervous at first, but they enjoyed sharing their knowledge on harvesting crocodile eggs for conservation and commerce.

This was great practice for the Rangers to develop new technology skills, and they liked that the students were interested in their stories and near-miss encounters”

Schools pay to join the virtual excursion, and this funds the Rangers who present and the online workbook technology to document students’ learning. Excursion recordings are available on demand, and this generates ongoing revenue for Ranger groups.

This time the Rangers donated their time and DEMED executives are considering funding future excursions to donate free to schools.

Carey Furze, Founder of the online workbook technology, FamilyBookform said, “I’m collaborating with over 150 Aboriginal Rangers groups throughout Australia to deliver monthly virtual excursion to showcase the amazing science and conservation work Indigenous and region communities are doing. And students’ books showcase Rangers’ work even further.

We hope to stimulate an interest in STEM amongst Indigenous and minority youth and cultivate pathways for diversity in Science and Conservation careers.

We collaborate with the Department of Education NSW STEM, DART and AECG divisions and Virtual Excursions Australia to market these excursions to schools throughout Australia and overseas.”

Rangers demonstrate seasonal wildlife monitoring and land maintenance techniques, with a blend of Indigenous ancient knowledge, traditional tools, and modern technology.

Students interact with authentic Rangers from all over Australia and document their text and art into collaborative class books to showcase engagement, learning, and valuable primary-source Australian information.

Virtual excursions enable Aboriginal Rangers to reach a global audience and generate new revenue streams to benefit regional and Indigenous communities.

Business sponsors or schools pay $50 per excursion, which includes the interactive live webinar and recording, and a link to access the FamilyBookform online workbook.

Teachers use the online workbook technology to automatically collect up to 100 students' content into collaborative class digital books, published online for 1 year and PDF to print on demand.

Students are motivated to write well, as books are shared with Rangers, their communities, and on marketing platforms, and can be nominated for the monthly ‘Best Book’ competition for technology and cash prizes: November winner.

FamilyBookform is an Australian start-up, a Google for Education and AWS Partner, and is used by students to document any inquiry learning into published books, more examples:

Biography: Students interview their family or community elders to create personalised biographies as a service, e.g., 5 minute TV video.

Qualitative Research: Teachers or students collect primary-source interviews and content from their community, e.g., Covid 19 and Me.