‘Navigation’ is a System 4 Meta-System Support in the Viable System Model. By Davie Phillips The objective of Navigation is to monitor the outside world in order to identify opportunities that could further the aims of the IPT project and potential threats to its viability. It will build relationships with stakeholders and strategic partners outside of our EPT in order to disseminate the findings of the partnership widely."
The Partnership's kick-off meeting was held in August 2012 in Escherode near Kassel in Germany. Helder Valente shares a video of impressions of that first meeting.
Day 5 was a long one, with most people moving from Mas Franch to Can Masdeu, where we enjoyed a site tour (along with another group of American students) and an incredible meal before heading to Barcelona centre to visit Aurea Social and learn more about that project. The day ended on the beach where we met with people from Permacultura Barcelona and enjoyed yet another lovely meal. Some photos follow below.
Day four was more restful, but the schedule endlessly busy with meetings on the future of the partnership, collaborating with others, and feeding back on the days gone by, interspersed with 'contemplation in motion' (shown right) and witnessing many people hit by a 'zombie virus'. For the body, activities included collecting firewood in the forest, swimming in the natural pool, morning Yoga and of course, the essential celebration.
Day three was packed with another round of micro-sessions and inputting materials to The Compost ('Collection of Materials about Permaculture in Order to Support Teachers'), a site visit to Ecollavors Seed Saving project, an Open Space and of course, lovely foraged food and meals prepared by a Barcelona collective! The day's micro-teaching sessions included:
(Note: This session would be best to give early in a PDC. The session plan for this session can be found at the bottom under "Resources")
Time needed: Best as a one-hour session, possibly longer. It can be flexible to fit the time available. Introduce the topic of patterns to the class and state why it is important in Permaculture. Invite the group to step up to the square paper sheets (different sizes) and ask how many times they can fold in half. Keep going until you can’t go further. Ask if there are any common experiences?
The objectives of the Educational Structures group are:
On this page you will find:
Day two is flying by and has been packed with micro-teaching sessions, writing, collating and inputting materials to the website, progress with using VSM (the Viable Systems Model), a lecture on Systems Thinking and more. We're beginning to capture the micro-sessions in text, images and videos, as resources in our Teacher's Manual. The sessions included:
Opening question: The teacher asks if the students know the ethics of permaculture, and if they can explain what they mean for them. Afterwards, the teacher summarises the main points, and can add some comments as appropriate.
