From Geoff Lawton:

"Matt Powers has focused his permaculture energy and enthusiasm on a critical audience, the children of the world, with the permaculture message that there are positive solutions to the world's problems and we can all engage in a meaningful life with an abundant future. This crucial commendable work which has been developed exceptionally well should be whole-heartedly supported.”

The Permaculture Student Series

When I finished my permaculture design course with Geoff Lawton, the first thing I looked for was curriculum designed for my two young sons who are homeschooled. I couldn't find anything for young students, only for teachers with school gardens. I wanted the PDC experience to be a normal part of my children's education. I realized that no one else was doing it, and I was qualified (MA in education, certification in Permaculture and training as a writer), and I wasn't the only one looking for it, so I felt compelled. I'm sourcing the experts as much as I can to review the work before the final print so I can make it perfect. I've already shared samples with numerous leaders in the permaculture world with only positive feedback - Geoff Lawton, Paul Wheaton, Diego Footer, Elaine Ingham & Diana Leafe Christian. My hope is that this becomes the standard for all public and home school programs, linking high school graduates into the college programs at their highest potential. Imagine the designs this generation will come up with. Imagine the exponential change for good they will innovate.

The Permaculture Student 1

The first installment in the Permaculture student series is the middle school volume. It is also for beginners of any age or for anyone wanting a simple, direct and academic reference for permaculture design science. It is a reference manual rather than a traditional textbook of units and assignments. It is modeled after and primarily sourced from Bill Mollison's Permaculture: A Designer's Manual with influences from Geoff Lawton, Elaine Ingham, Paul Wheaton, Sepp Holzer and Jeff Lowenfels. It is designed such that anyone can setup their site safely and begin their education in permaculture on a solid foundation based in science.

The Permaculture Student Workbook

The workbook is a guide with recipes to help anyone analyze and plan their own home site. Whether you need to make a topographic map, create a series of climate analogs, arrange the zones, or plot the sunpath or sun angles, this workbook will safely guide you and help you to stay on track. 

NEXT UP: Volumes 2 & 3 of The Permaculture Student Series

While PS1 is for the middle school or beginner learner, PS2 & 3 are the high school levels that connect to the 40+ college permaculture design programs already in place across the US. If students can test and fix their own home soils with a microscope in high school, the collegiate programs will be able to take the science and the students exponentially further. These will be released in future Kickstarter campaigns.

The Future of The Permaculture Student Series

The immediate future for the series is for translations to be made in as many languages as we can and to donate class sets to as many schools and permaculture research institutes as possible. Already the Polish and Italian versions are complete with nearly 10 others also in the works (Tagalog, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Hindi, Mandarin, and more). Once we are rolling as a business, we are going to setup (or take steps to qualify to be) a non-profit organization side to our mission that focuses only on donating books to areas and schools in need. We need a permanent website to host the shop, non-profit organization and free educational stuff like animations and pdf downloads. (I am already working with a young team of animators on a Permaculture Kids DVD).

Your Help

With your help we can make all our futures bright: abundance of resources, healthy communities, enough opportunity for everyone and plenty of healthy food, clean air and water, and affordable, sustainable homes to live in. Let's reverse the damage and the disorder; let's educate the future now with permaculture.

Recently I met Danial Lawton as he was working on a local permaculture project, and he has looked over The Permaculture student, given me feedback and connected me with illustrator Wayne Fleming who did the cover for Bill Mollison's Introduction to Permaculture. He is an illustrator that can demonstrate the science of permaculture like no other. We are going to bring him in to illustrate: the backyard food forest, the soil food web, a realistic map of a zoned permaculture farm, & one surprise!

As soon as Kickstarter gives us your donations, we can pay for the final illustrations from Wayne Fleming, pay Brandon Carpenter for all the other illustrations, the formatter to finalize the books and the printers to print and ship it to us; we will immediately ship them to you at that time. We hope that to be mid to late March. Your donation will fund future education to enhance future volumes, book donations to schools and areas of need, printing of more copies, the printing of translations, and the shipping costs & formatting costs for everything.

The future needs permaculture today. Your contribution brings that future closer.

THANK YOU!

MP

DONATE HERE:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattpowers/the-permaculture-student-1