SOS UK – Join Students Organising for Sustainability-UK on a farm visit between April and July and help it with critical research on the climate and nature crises. You’ll get free online training, accredited digital badge, and expenses covered. Details here.
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Nature Park News – Over 1900 schools, nurseries and colleges have now joined the Nature Park, and over 800 have added their site to the Nature Park map. There are resources to support teaching during British Science Week, and also storytelling resources to bring Nature Park journeys to life.
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All about Trees – MEEN’s latest newsletter for Spring 2024. Just click here to access it. This issue headlines with MEEN’s All about trees intergenerational conference and shares information about MEEN’s next Eco coordinators network meeting on May 3rd . It highlights the Great Science Share and the new school Eco refill shops popping up across Greater Manchester, training opportunities at RHS Bridgewater, support for International Schools and shares information on how to engage with The Big Plastic Count and Ocean Generation.
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Free Camps – Action for Conservation is a UK environmental action charity that works with young people across the UK to inspire the next generation of environmental leaders. This summer they are organising free Summer camps for 12-16-year-olds living in England and Wales. Applications for the camps are open and the application deadline is April 7th. Click here for details.
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Let’s Go Coalition – The Climate Action Countdown has been created by Let’s Go Zero. It comprises 15 organisations, with a membership of 1 million people. It is “taking on major climate challenges across curriculum, campus and culture working towards a fairer, greener future. Let’s Go Zero is supported by over 2,800 schools.
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Framing ESD – Advance HE has launched a framework for Education for Sustainable Development. It is designed to be of value to a broad audience and can be particularly beneficial in:
- supporting course teams to understand ESD and adopt a consistent approach to integrating it across programmes, including supporting co-curricular and interdisciplinary opportunities
- helping students identify the necessary competencies for sustainable citizenship and fostering agency for a sustainable future
- supporting institutions to develop comprehensive approaches that encompass policy frameworks, interdisciplinary learning, engagement with community groups and stakeholders
- aligning strategy to create a sustainable learning environment.
The framework is part of the Essential Frameworks for Enhancing Student Success series.
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New Connections for Nature – Communicate 2024 will take place on the November 26th, 27th and 28ththis year and registration is now open. This year’s theme is New Connections for Nature. There are with live events in Manchester, London, and Bristol and an online programme. You can see view the range of ticket options here.
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More Learning Cities – Manchester and Wakefield District have become the latest UK cities to join the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, connecting education, training and cultural institutions and engaging a wide range of partners such as public-sector representatives, civil society organisations efforts to make lifelong learning a reality for all at the local level.
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Quaternary Stratigraphy – After 15 years of discussion and exploration, a committee of researchers has decided that the Anthropocene — generally understood to be the age of irreversible human impacts on the planet — will not become an official epoch in Earth’s geologic timeline. Twelve members of the international Sub-commission on Quaternary Stratigraphy voted against the proposal to create an Anthropocene epoch, while only four voted for it. The ruling is being challenged by the committee chair (palaeontologist Jan Zalasiewicz) and a vice-chair (stratigrapher Martin Head). Nature has more detail, as does The Conversation.
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Not Waste, but Opportunity – Global recycling day is March 18th this year. Click here for stories of 10 #Recycling heroes from round the world.
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Infrared Heating – Michael Siebert, Nottingham Trent University, says that new infrared fabric technology is easy to install, cheap to run and affordable so it has huge potential as a future alternative to heat pumps, especially for retrofit projects. This is his The Conversion article: Five reasons to heat your home using infrared fabric.
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Toadpoles – Do you know the difference between toadspawn, frogspawn and newt eggs? Newts lay individual eggs usually on the underside of leaves, toads lay long ribbons of spawn, and frog eggs come in clumps. Toadpoles stay black even when quite large, unlike (frog) tadpoles which turn brown or greenish. Toadpoles are also slightly poisonous. Froglife has more details.
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Aircraft and Climate, the good, the bad and the downright difficult – The next University of Bath I-SEE webinar is given by Dudley Shallcross, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment. He will provide a brief overview of the Earth’s atmosphere, reflecting on the role of ozone in the stratosphere, how the Earth’s climate is balanced by the presence of greenhouse gases and how atmospheric pollutants are removed but affect climate and, in some cases, stratospheric ozone. Within this framework he will then look at the benefits of flying (business and pleasure) but how aircraft impact on the Earth’s climate (CO2 and non-CO2) and how these may be mitigated by using alternative fuels, formation flying or contrail avoidance. You can register here.