The impact and potential of water education in early childhood care and education settings

With increasing numbers of children spending time in early childhood centres, there is a ready cohort of potential participants- children, carers, parents and other community members- who could be educated around sustainability issues. One of the most important sustainability issues in Australia is water consumption and water conservation, and many schools across Australia have been engaged in a wide range of water education and water conservation programs. Queensland University of Technology, in collaboration with ROUS Water, on the North Coast of NSW, engaged in pilot research to gather baseline data about water use in early childhood centres services; and to evaluate the impacts – environmental, economic, social, educational - of the current “Water Aware Centre” program.. This presentation reports on the findings of this study and makes recommendations for future practices and research. This presentation comes from the work of Dr Julie Davis, Megan Gibson, Wendy Boyd, Hilary McLeod and Clevo Wilson from QUT in collaboration with Barbara Jensen, Rous Water.