Monday Round up – December 18 to 29

1. NAEE brings you news from the other end of the earth.  If you click here, you’ll see a range of publications from Education Outdoors New Zealand.  EONZ has a commitment to fostering and advocating for quality outdoor learning experiences which can educate for a sustainable future.  Its mission is to increase participation in quality outdoor learning experiences, and its goals are

2. A new priority for FACE and LEAF is the training of student teachers to ensure they are confident to introduce the topics of food and farming into their teaching.  FACE has carried out training with a variety of universities and it is now expanding the range of institutions it works with.  As part of this, its team of Regional Education Consultants recently spent a day at Dorrington Hall Farm where Jane and Steve Ellsmoor have worked with FACE and Keele University over a number of years.  If you are interested in being involved in this work at primary or secondary level, let FACE know.

3. Communicate 2018 will be on October 23 & 24th next year.  Put it in your diary now.  It is the UK environmental communications event of the year.   If you need to refresh your memory after Communicate 2017 just click here to view presentation slides from the conference.  Meanwhile, the Communicate 2017 volunteer media team have put together a short video on what delegates took away from the conference. Take a look at the video by clicking here.

4. 90% of the plastic trash entering the ocean comes from only 10 rivers: the Amur, Ganges, Haihe, Indus, Mekong, Nile, Niger, Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow.   These are some of the world’s longest rivers with huge populations living beside them passing through countries with poor control of waste.  These data come from a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology and the authors found the quantity of plastic per cubic metre of water was significantly higher in large rivers than small ones.  The greatest problem is the Yangtze, which carries up to 1.5 million tonnes of plastic into the ocean every year.  By contrast, the Thames carries 18 tonnes of plastic annually into the sea.  This, though small by comparison, is still a lot.  The paper was based on analysis of previous studies involving 79 sampling sites along 57 rivers.

The Times carried a number of articles about this issue on December 12th (including this graph).

5. Tree Power is an education programme for schools that sets out to support teachers and schools to inspire new generations about the local and global importance of trees and forests through an innovative combination of global / outdoor learning.  The first Tree Power Teachers’ Resource Pack provides Key Stage 2 teachers with 8 interlinked sessions to deliver with their class. It is a cross-curricular resource and will help primary teachers to deliver a range of curriculum elements in a creative and engaging way.  Its objectives are to:

1. Enable children to explore the role of trees and forests in environmental, economic, social and cultural terms.
2. Enable children to explore the causes of deforestation, and its impact on the environment, farming, climate change, and livelihoods.
3. Engage children as local guardians of trees (through tree planting and care projects)
4. Engage children as global guardians of trees (through taking action against deforestation and irresponsible

You can download the resource here.