Jon Gemmell transformed an unused area at the back of Eumundi State School into an 'Enviro Centre' after the school won a $250,000 grant for being Queensland's Healthiest School in 2011.

The imaginative and constantly evolving space now spans more than 9000m2, roughly the size of seven Olympic swimming pools, includes an orchard of 35 trees, vegetable gardens, composting facilities, worm farms and chicken coops.

There’s also a kitchen where students can harvest and enjoy the food they’ve planted.

“Many solutions can be found in a garden,” Mr Gemmell said.

“My goal is to develop 21st century learners who can problem solve and evaluate through interaction with the garden landscape.”

In addition, he collaborated with colleagues to design and develop a program that focuses on permaculture design and implementation with lesson plans and activities firmly rooted in the STEAM fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics.

In many cases, students transfer their newfound knowledge from the natural world into a designed object.

“We’ll do botanical drawings but pay close attention to the actual structure of the leaves and how they photosynthesise,” he explained.

“Then we translate that into redesigning attempts using form and function of leaves as inspiration,” he said.

Recently, Mr Gemmell completed a Master of Applied Science (Research) to examine how outdoor learning environments affect student engagement in primary schools. He now uses this research to fuel his teaching.

“One of the main findings was the students were highly engaged in the activities and were also demonstrating significant long-term retention of concepts,” he said.

“They developed a deeper understanding of concepts because they were engaging and linking.”

Having formed a partnership with local markets, the Enviro Centre has set up worm farms that process the market's organic waste into organic fertiliser, which also benefits local community gardens.

Like any good garden, the effects keep growing with care and attention.

“I feel like what we’re doing here is greatly influencing the kids. It’s the ripple effect. They go home and it influences the parents, and those parents start to influence friends around them,” he said.

“I’ve had parents come up to me and say, ‘Guess what we had to do this weekend, we had to make a garden. And now we’re getting chickens!’”

Mr Gemmell is a finalist at the Queensland College of Teachers TEACHX Awards, in the Innovation in Teaching category.

Winners will be announced October 27th, on the eve of World Teachers' Day in Queensland.