Environments - GREENKEEPER
Case
Study: Greenkeeper: Just a Minute
Water
and Golf Courses
Water
and The Royal Adelaide Golf Club
Best
Practice
Case
Study: Greenkeeper: Just a Minute
Primary
Middle
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Personal and social capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Teacher
You are to have a look at the process of
Just a Minute
here.
Local Copy of a case study of James Melville, a
Greenkeeper at Victoria Park Golf Course, Brisbane City Council. The
original is in the
Web Archive.
You are to get each team of students to read the document and memorise as
much as possible. You will then start - Just a Minute.
"Simple but skilful panel game where students have to talk on a given topic
without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
Breaking any one of these rules allows one of your three opponents to
challenge and, if a correct challenge is made, you get the topic for the
remainder of the minute. You pick up one point for each correct challenge,
and a bonus point if you're the person still speaking when the whistle blows
at the end of the minute.
The "repetition" rule regarded repeating ones ideas and thoughts, rather
than individual words.
Also "penalty rounds" [a tied situation in points ] where a common word such as "I" or "they" were banned were in force."
At the start of Just a Minute - put on a digital timer for one minute.
Students.
1. In teams of 3 - 5 students, you are to read through
the following case study of a greenkeeper for 5mins.
2. Set up the panel - two teams on either side of the teacher.
3. Start Just a Minute by selecting one team member to tell the rest of the class about James Melville for ONE minute without any hesitation, repetition or deviation.
4. Breaking the rules allows the other team to take over where the first team left off. Again, breaking the rules allows the first team to take over.
Water
and Golf Courses
Primary
Middle
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:Sustainability
Priority
1. "Environmental concerns over the use of land for golf courses have grown over the past fifty years. Specific issues include the amount of water required for irrigation and the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers in maintenance, as well as the destruction of wetlands and other environmentally important areas during construction. The United Nations estimates that, worldwide, golf courses consume about 2.5 billion gallons/9.5 billion litres of water per day. Many golf courses are now irrigated with non-potable water and rainwater." (Source: Wikipedia)
2. Australia has the third highest number of golf courses per capita in the world (behind Scotland and New Zealand). We have 1530 clubs (2015) nationally according to the Australian Golf Industry Council.
3. Calculate the number of litres of water per day consumed by the total of Australian golf courses.
4.
As a class, discuss:
Is this ethical to use so much water in the driest continent on Earth? Why? Why not?
Water
and The Royal Adelaide Golf Club
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Critical and creative thinking
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:Sustainability
Priority
1. Read the following
article:
The RAGC Stormwater Project brings significant benefit to the community and
great benefit to the golf club.
The Problem.
Achieving a sustainable supply of irrigation water for the golf course.
South Australia is known as the driest State in the driest continent on
earth and golf courses need a large supply of irrigation water to survive.
Royal Adelaide Golf Club has traditionally had access to unlimited free
underground water for its irrigation needs. The course currently
uses in excess of 200 megalitres of bore water from the aquifer (200 metres
below the surface) each year, most of it over the four or five dry months of
summer. [Editor - highlight]
The Government of South Australia is in the process of regulating and
restricting access to this water and will inevitably charge users for its
consumption.
The club wished to secure its future supply of water if at all possible.
The Solution.
With the close cooperation of the Government of South Australia, the club
has developed within its boundaries a wetland to harvest stormwater runoff
from the surrounding suburbs. The stormwater is cleaned by the reedbeds in
the wetland sufficiently to be injected back into the underground aquifer.
The club should be able to put as much water back into the wetlands over
winter as it takes out over summer, becoming a net zero user of aquifer
water.
Funding.
The total cost of this project was some $A2.7 m, which was shared equally
between the club, the Australian, and South Australian Governments. The
total project of some $A8.0 m. included similar wetlands and aquifer
recharge systems at The Grange and Glenelg Golf Clubs nearby.
Benefits to the community.
Adelaide has a problem with the discharge of turbid stormwater into the
ocean which restricts sunlight to the native sea grasses and kills them. The
wetland schemes significantly reduce the flow of stormwater into the ocean.
A further benefit is that a large user of underground water can reduce its
usage to zero and in fact could become a net provider of water. This is
significant as aquifer water levels are dropping and salt levels are rising
over time.
Benefits to the Club.
The aquifer water contains salt at 950 parts per million. Use of this water
causes a salt build up in the bent greens, which can cause bare patches by
the end of summer. The cleaned stormwater contains salt at approximately 100
parts per million, which is lower than Adelaide´s potable water supply. Use
of this water will eliminate the salt build up problem.
The wetland has greatly enhanced the appearance of an area of the course
that grew only scrubby vegetation in salty soil.
The Result.
The Royal Adelaide Golf Club has just begun to inject cleaned stormwater
down into the aquifer. The project brings significant benefit to the
community and great benefit to the golf club."
2. Using the following diagram, summarise each step:
3. If the cost of water is $0.0872 per kilolitre (source: City West Water charges), and the club uses 200 megalitres/year, how long will it take for this Project to start saving the club money (after the recovery of the $A2.7M)? 1 megalitre=1000 kilolitres. How much money would the golf club save per year?
4.
Is this a solution you would promote to other Australian Golf Clubs as an Sustainable Solution? Why? Why not?
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities:Sustainability
Priority
1. You are to create an informative online pamphlet to be given out at a Greenkeepers' conference, informing Greenkeepers on the lastest information to improve their golf-courses and other areas by ...
a. Get in touch with a local golf club or
using online resources (provided) -
describe the optimum grass lengths of the main areas on a golf
course.
b. What equipment is needed to maintain
golf courses? Why are they needed?
c. What seed/ grass runner is most
commonly used and why?
d. What are the most reputable
fertilisers?
e. What other places require greenkeepers
and how do their requirements, equipment and resources differ from
golf courses?
2. Using the following article as inspiration:
a. How would you improve the irrigation and maintenance of your local golf course to make it more eco-friendly? What costs could you save each year for the club? Which initiatives would you use: Worm farm? Reduction in chemical fertilisers? An orchard?
b. Write an article describing your proposal and success at your current (imaginary) golf course and the possible implications for other golf courses.
c. Publish your work with password protection using Jimdo
3. Gather the information that you have found and collate it in an online poster using Canva.com or Kittl
