Welcome to Earth Mother Studio's

Introduction to Permaculture Course 

Welcome to Earth Mother Studio's Intro to Permaculture Course!  This Entire Course is Patterned after Oregon State University's Introduction to Permaculture Course with Instruction by Andrew Millison.  The "Base Pattern" course is available online through OSU,  however only at certain times of the year.  We here at Earth Mother Studio feel this is a wonderful Intro Class and use it as part of our Communtiy Outreach Program.   We have added a personal one on one aspect to the course by tieing it to our Social Media platforms.  Earth Mother Studio believes in Building Relationships.  We want to know each one of you personally and to be part of your journey into Permaculture. 

Starting In 2020,  Earth Mother Studio will offer group session discounts for the OSU Permaculture Design Certification (PDC). The only fee will be that required by OSU.  Earth Mother Studio will serve as the assistant Instructor for the students who registar with us for the OSU Course. The discount that our Group recieves will depend upon how many people registar.  Current registration is 6 people.  Please join us for this adventure in the spring of 2020. Contact us Here...for more information.

Why Study Permaculture Design?

Permaculture Design is a method of landscape planning that can be applied at scales from the home garden to city block to village to farm. It is an ethically based whole-systems design approach that uses concepts, principles, and methods derived from ecosystems, indigenous peoples, and other time-tested practices to create sustainable human settlements and institutions. Although rooted in horticulture and agriculture, Permaculture design is interdisciplinary, touching on a wide range of subjects including regional planning, ecology, animal husbandry, appropriate technology, architecture, and international development. In this free online course, students will learn about the permaculture design process, its ethics and principles, and delve into climate-specific design elements through interactive technology, videos, graphics and readings. The course is designed to be as accessible as possible, meaning no matter your learning style, time commitments, or technology available, you will benefit from this course. 

Course Information
Over the next four weeks we will be virtually traveling all over the planet to look at how Permaculture has been applied at different scales and climate types. In the time it takes to complete this course, we are striving to stimulate your appetite to learn much more about Permaculture, and are providing resources worldwide where you can connect to Permaculture organizations and education.

This course will be taught using video, animations, readings, discussions, interactive activities, and lots of satellite imagery to look at landscapes and projects. We welcome you to participate in full, or just observe the content without interacting or participating, whatever works for you!  This is our offering, and you can receive it as you choose.
Thanks for joining us and we look forward to working with you! 

Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course you will be able to:
1-Define the Permaculture design system, its ethics and principles
2-Organize the order of the Permaculture design process
3-Diagram Elements of watershed, sector, zone, and design maps
4-Identify design elements appropriate for each climate 

Course Learning Activities & Badge Requirements
This course contains weekly introduction videos, lectures, asynchronous discussions, quizzes, and mapping and design activities (some which involve mapping tools)

The following activities are required for the Intro to Permaculture Digital Badge from Earth Mother Studio.  A digital Badge is also available from OSU for the completion of the course on their website at their programed times.  We hope that going through this course on a smaller scale will prepare you for the much larger student population that you will interact with in the OSU Course.

Week 1 - Permaculture Basics
Statement of Intent Discussion
Design Site Map Activity   

Week 2 - Permaculture Site Analysis
Watershed Basin Map Activity
Sector Map Activity
Challenges and Opportunities Discussion 

Week 3 - Permaculture Design
Permaculture Principles Quiz
Zone Map Activity
Design Goals Discussion 

Week 4 - Permaculture Design for Different Cultures
Design Challenge Discussion
Final Design Map Activity
Portfolio of Map Activities 

What is required?  How much time do I have to devote to this?  

In terms of time expectations, you should plan to spend approximately 4 hours each week working in the four week course for a total of 16 hours to complete the entire course.  This is a free (no costs for participating) and open online course. There are no admission requirements or prerequisites needed to take this course. While none of the discussions, activities, assignments, or quizzes are required, if you choose to complete all of the discussions, activities, assignments, and quizzes you can earn your "Intro to Permaculture" digital badge from Earth Mother Studio. You can display your digital badge on social media platforms, etc.  The same requirements can be expected for the digital Badge available from the OSU Course with Andrew Millison.

 
For more information on the Earth Mother digital badge, visit the Badges page.. Here

Please carefully review the course syllabus below.
Intro_to_Permaculture_Syllabus_April-2018.pdf

*This course contains special media/interactive content (mapping tools) that are designed to be accessed from a desktop.  While it is not required to use these tools to complete this course or to receive a digital badge (the use of mapping tools are optional), these mapping tools are NOT optimized for mobile devices, so please plan accordingly. Google Chrome is the preferred browser to use for the mapping tools, avoid using Safari if at all possible. 

Instructor Information & Course Communication 

Andrew Millison is the Online instructor for this course. To learn more about Andrew's background and work, view his profile on the:                            People of Permaculture Page. 

Shawnda Clawson will be your Teaching Assistant and Social Media Hostist for the course.                                                                                                Shawnda is the Director of Earth Mother Studio Permacultre Institute in Lamesa, Texas.  For more Info on Shawnda's background and work, View the "Team Section" on the "About Us" link.

As a participant in this course, you can expect the teaching assistant to go through discussion questions and select themes to address weekly as announcements. There are also two guest speakers in the course, both in Week #4. The soils lecture is given by Oregon State's own Jacob Kollen, a Master's Degree recipient in Soil Science and Hydrology.  The "Where to from Here?" lecture in Week #4 is given by Canadian designer and teacher, Javan Bernakevitch of B.C. Permaculture.

Let's Begin with Week One