Neat school recycling web project from US

Park School's Recycling Website Some inspiration from our US neighbours....

PolarHusky.com / Education {Experience Authentic Learning Online}

PolarHusky.com / Education {Experience Authentic Learning Online} GoNorth!, an adventure learning program for K-12 students, announces "Cool Science," an online information source about scientific activities at the poles, in conjunction with its Chukotka 2007 Expedition, a 16-week, 900-mile dog sled journey in northeast Russia from February through May 2007. In an effort to get students excited about polar research, GoNorth! invites scientists to participate by posting information about their own research on the "Cool Science" page of the GoNorth! website, visited by 20 million users annually. "Cool Science" will be launched in February 2007 and will highlight ongoing scientific research in the polar regions. Scientists interested in participating should submit a photo of themselves, a short bio (100-200 words), image(s) that relate to the research project, and a brief description of the research (300-500 words written in first-person and in language intended for elementary students). These materials should be sent to GoNorth! Program Director Mille Porsild (mporsild@polarhusky.com). Developed at the University of Minnesota, GoNorth! is a five-year adventure learning program based in social and natural science curricula that reaches three million students in over 2,900 schools on six continents. From 2006 to 2010, the team of educators, scientists, and explorers is dog sledding to five locations in the Arctic. A 300-page Curriculum and Activity Guide is developed each year reflecting the expedition's current arctic locale, its indigenous culture, and a relevant environmental question. Inquiry- driven and aligned to national education standards, the curriculum is free to all educators. The online learning environment delivers comprehensive resources about the region of travel, collaborative opportunities, live field updates, and field research findings synchronized in real time to the curriculum. The 2006 expedition took place in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Future expeditions will travel to Fennoscandia, Greenland, and Nunavut, Canada.

EcoAction: Sources of Funding for Eco-projects

EcoAction: Before You Begin: "National Green Source Funding Guide The Green Source is a resource guide prepared by Environment Canada that will help you locate numerous sources of funding for environmental projects. It includes information on public and private sector programs and organizations that provide financial assistance, labour costs or in-kind donations to community groups."

Promise of Place | Enriching Lives Through Place-Based Education

Promise of Place | Enriching Lives Through Place-Based Education Web site offers program ideas, case studies, research, links, and other resources to support place-based education projects. The Promise of Place Web site is project of the Center for Place-based Learning and Community Engagement and was supported by the USDA Forest Service as part of Electronic Commons competitive grants program. http://www.promiseofplace.org/

The Pembina Institute: Environmental Education

The Pembina Institute: Environmental Education: "Environmental Education The Pembina education program staff is committed to developing high-quality educational resources for use in Canadian schools. Our education programs are designed for a number of grades, levels and learning styles. Program materials are used in a number of situations such as classrooms, distance learning, special programs, workshops and pre-service and inservice environments. Find out more about Pembina education by clicking on one of our programs."

TEDTalks (audio, video)

TEDTalks (audio, video) Another interesting site for those of you who may be able to listen to "podcasts" and video on your computer.

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Bet: Kids vs Politicians energy challenge

WorldChanging: Tools, Models and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future: The Bet: Kids vs Politicians energy challenge Interesting initiative idea from an interesting site...

Calling all Teachers: A New Earth Curriculum by Guy Dauncey

Calling all Teachers: A New Earth Curriculum

by Guy Dauncey

Common Ground Magazine, January 2007

Let me think aloud about our schools. I was told recently that when a group of children was shown 10 vegetables, they could identify only one: a tomato. When they were shown 10 corporate logos, they identified all 10. It makes you worry.

If we are to stop outstripping our planet’s resources and navigate a way to a sustainable, low carbon-emission world, it is critical that our children learn what it means to live on this crowded Earth, with its growing forests, vast oceans and tiny creeks. So let me cast my thoughts ahead to the year 2015 and imagine that our teachers, parents, school boards and ministries of education have realized the urgency of what’s needed.

Every school now has a garden where children learn to care for the soil, make compost, gather seeds and cultivate the fruits and vegetables they later eat at their own table.

By the time they leave school, students will have learned the harsh lesson of Easter Island: when humans over-consume resources, the result can be hunger, cultural collapse and death.

Every school instills its students with a passion for solutions. There are solar systems on the roofs, electric vehicles charged from the sun, and buildings refashioned to make them a model of clean air, daylight, comfort and efficiency, with a green buildings budget to pay for the changes.

All children learn about the Earth’s carbon cycle, what fossil fuels are, and why their use is causing Earth’s temperature to rise. Every spring, they calculate their personal carbon footprints and work with their schools to become carbon neutral.

Children are no longer ferried to school – learning lazy habits – by their parents. Every student who lives within three kilometres or so of school either walks or cycles, using the Safe Routes to School program (www.saferoutestoschool.ca) or a walking school bus, while the rest travel by alternatively fuelled school buses.

By the time they leave school, every student has spent a week in the wilderness, learning the rhythms of nature, the wisdom of the aboriginal elders, and the resilience to live without email, instant messaging or cell phones.

They have also learned to appreciate Earth’s oceans and the fragility of life within its waters. We are the generation that is driving every commercial fish stock to extinction by 2050, and if our children do not learn otherwise, they will live in a world without fish.

They learn to appreciate water, how it cycles through the drains into the ocean and back through the sky as rain. Schools collect rainwater, and use it to flush their toilets and irrigate their gardens.

By the time they leave school, every child has also visited a landfill where they have seen the mountains of garbage. They’ve connected it to their own behaviour, and learned that there is no place called “away.”

All these lessons are integrated into the curriculum as solar calculations in math, carbon cycles in geography, bicycle efficiency in physics, and toxics reduction in chemistry.

How could we trigger this to happen? It could start with a contest in which one school challenges another to score more points for waste reduction, toxics reduction, trip reduction, energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable energy production, food production and healthy catering. Will one school step forward to issue the challenge? There are many skilled people within the environmental movement who could help you design the contest.

Now imagine a college announcing that starting in September 2008, every new student would be required to pass a test called Earth Literacy 101. This would require local schools to integrate eco-literacy into the curriculum, which would get the ball rolling. Reading and writing are fine, but if we lack Earth literacy, we’ll have no civilization in which to practise them.

Teachers, will you write to your principals and school boards, and to the ministries of education, asking for help to make this a reality? Together, we can build a movement for Earth literacy that will change the face of education.

Resources: http://www.greenteacher.com http:// www.greenlearning.ca http:// www.bcsea.org/education http:// www.re-energy.ca http:// www.walkingthetalk.bc.ca

Guy Dauncey is president of the BC Sustainable Energy Association (www.bcsea.org), and author of Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global Climate Change. (www.earthfuture.com)