Winter Greens – The Winter edition of Green Teacher has now been published. As usual, there are two freely-available articles: Camera Trapping by Cate Rigoulot: A new lens on inquiry, and Project Management in EE by John Negru Educating the environmental leaders of tomorrow about project management today.
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Teacher Views – The latest edition of the journal, Educational Education Research – has an article by NAEE President, Prof Justin Dillon, and colleagues reporting on research they did with 626 primary and secondary school teachers: The views of teachers in England on an action-oriented climate change curriculum. The abstract says: “Teachers supported an action-based CCE curriculum including issues of global social justice, beginning in primary school with mitigation projects such as conservation, local tree-planting and family advocacy. Local campaigning (e.g. legal demonstration) was considered appropriate around the primary/secondary transition, with most supporting inclusion of civil disobedience but indicating this should begin at secondary school (11+ years)”.
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Dialogue, Democracy, Debate – A video report from Monash University in Melbourne says that humanity is at the tipping point: from climate change and inequality to social fragmentation and political extremism, we have to change the course of our future. And the most powerful weapon at our disposal, it argues, is education. It focuses on UNESCO’s latest report which acknowledges how education can bring about profound change. The video explores how Australia can help reimagine education to create a future that’s peaceful, just and sustainable for all.
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Bills Galore – A look ahead to 2022 by Teach the Future lists the second reading of their Education Bill (January 28th), the launch of their Scottish and Welsh Climate Education Bills, and receptions at both the Senedd and Scottish Parliament. As well as working on legislation, TtF plans to conduct new research to help its campaigns and connect with teachers and students from across the UK. If you’d like to see previous research, click here.
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Are you ESD Ready? – Education International and UNESCO have published a report on teacher readiness for global citizenship education and ESD. The survey focused on four key topics: education on climate change, sustainable consumption and production, tolerance and cultural diversity, and human rights including gender equality.
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The Attenborough Effect – The BBC Wildlife magazine has 16 wild resolutions to help us connect with the natural world, become a better naturalist, and help wildlife survive and thrive. Doing so will be good for us, of course. Details here.
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Postcards from the Future – Create the Future has issued an invitation to youngsters (5 to 12) to write a postcard about the future. Its purpose is to show them they can make a difference and their voice matters. Deadline March 13th.
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Chemistry Research – An article in The Conversation says that, as the citizen science field has developed, boundaries have blurred and scientists have begun involving citizens as more active researchers to carrty out important experiments, collecting environmental measurements and generating data. The article lists five of these with a chemical theme involving phosphates, composting, proteins and NOx. There is scope for school involvement here.
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Deep Breaths – The LiveScience website has an animation which shows how plants across the world take up and release carbon as the seasons change. The continents seem to deflate during summertimes, indicating times and places where vegetation is growing and plants are sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. When it’s winter, the continents seem to inflate, indicating that vegetation is dying off and carbon is being released.
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Boosting Polination – The Inkcap Journal reports that urban gardens are a dependable food source for pollinators throughout the year, according to a study by the University of Bristol, as pollinators are guaranteed a diverse food supply by visiting multiple gardens. This contrasts with previous studies on farmland, where pollinators are exposed to boom-and-bust cycles of nectar production with seasonal gaps. Lead author Nick Tew said: “This means that everyone has the potential to help pollinators in a meaningful way, even with a small garden, and there is a lot of room for improvement, with some gardens providing hundreds of times less food than others, depending on what people choose to plant, weed, prune or mow.” This argument applies to school grounds as well.
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Sewage and Slurry – A report by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee into the quality of water in England rivers highlights serious issues. Only 14% of English rivers have a good ecological status, with pollution from agriculture, sewage, road use and plastics creating a ‘chemical cocktail’. EAC Chair, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, said: “Rivers are the arteries of nature and must be protected. Our inquiry has uncovered multiple failures in the monitoring, governance and enforcement on water quality. For too long, the Government, regulators and the water industry have allowed a Victorian sewerage system to buckle under increasing pressure.” There’s more detail on the British Canoeing website.
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Tote that Bale – The Rewilding Britain website has a section on rewilding your shopping but this intriguing headline turns out to be an invitation to buy cotton tote bags and tee shirts. You’ll find their 12 steps to re-wilding here.
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Driving Change – The German companies Holcim and Magment are developing a magnetizable concrete technology that will enables electric vehicles to recharge wirelessly while driving. There’s more detail in Climate Action
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ISGAC – The International School Grounds Alliance conference will be taking place on the 7th-11th February 2022 with a week of online sessions. Bookings are open now via their website.