Classroom Conservation – WWF invites us to join its 18th January Conservation in the Classroom livestream with WWF Youth Conservation Leadership Award winner and youth activist, Alexia Leclercq, as this will “inspire … students to contribute meaningfully to their communities and planet.” During this event, Alexia will share their own activism journey, discuss the important history of civic engagement, and highlight the pivotal role youth play in leading transformative change for both people and the planet. You can register here.
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Net Zero Education – In December, GEEP ran a workshop: ‘What’s the Buzz About Net Zero Education’. You can view the entire recording on YouTube. There is also more detail here. You can also subscribe to the GEEP newsletter.
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Enabling Youth Social Action – You can apply now to join Global Action Plan’s expert facilitators on a free and exclusive ‘Enabling Youth Social Action’ 15-month interactive course starting in February. It has been designed to support people to enable youth social action with a group of young people using the Dirt Is Good Project methodology. Applications close on Monday 8th January. You can find out more and apply here.
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Climate Education Policy – In North America, NAAEE has a set of resources created with the Coalition for Climate Education Policy. This series of case studies offers an overview of state and local climate education policies from around the USA.
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Global Action Plan – Generation Action Youth Panel applications are open: They are looking for young people aged 14-16 to be volunteer youth representatives at Global Action Plan between now and April 2024. Panel members will join current youth panellists, and help to co-create content for Transform Our World’s Earth Day Youth Summit in April 2024 which will be watched by schools across the country. You can find out more here.
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Book Launch – The Earth Authors for Climate Change (EACC) global book launch took place on November 18 and November 19, inviting guests from around the world to hear from authors between the ages of 10 and 15 about the books they wrote to bring attention and action to the negative effects of climate change. EACC is a book-authoring programme that amplifies children’s unheard voices on climate change, especially those from underprivileged communities. It is facilitated by 2023 CEE-Change Fellow Aneesa Jamal. You can read more here.
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Network Conference – TEESNet has announced that its 14th network conference will be held on Friday the 27th of September 2024. It says, hold the date.
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Virtual Mangrove – The virtual mangrove tour has been developed by researchers in the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) and was filmed in the Jebel Ali Mangrove, near Dubai. It sits alongside existing free education resources which bring the effect of elevated CO2 levels on a UK oak forest directly into the classroom. Users can visit the resources by clicking on links in the interactive 360 degree environment or using a VR (virtual reality) headset. They can find out how mangroves, found on tropical shorelines around the world, are different from the UK oak forest. In particular, how they have adapted to live in hot, salty environments where drought, storms, and poor soil conditions can all present significant challenges. The tour also highlights how mangroves help us and our natural environment, providing a buffer from the effects of storms, improving water quality by filtering out harmful particles and protecting the environment – as well as capturing and storing CO2.
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Generation Hope – London’s Natural History Museum will be delivering its second annual Generation Hope event from Wednesday 7 to Saturday 10 February, offering a variety of free events, workshops, and panels. This activity will be created for and by young people as part of the museum’s mission to create advocates for the planet. These activities culminate in the Generation Hope Celebration Event on the evening of Saturday 10 February at the museum. To register, contact rsvpgenerationhope@nhm.ac.uk by Friday 2 February.
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EE 30 Under 30 – Sian Crowley writes about her podcast, The Seed Pod, which explores nature connections. Sian and guests share stories from childhood, adventures, experiences, and their favourite nature facts; all in the hopes that we can collectively have a place to share in the awe of nature.
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Teaching In – The seventh annual international SDG Teach In will take place in March. This annual campaign calls on all trainers, lifelong and workplace learning facilitators, and formal and informal educators across all disciplines and levels globally, to pledge to include the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) in their teaching, training, and learning throughout March 2024. Whether through case studies, debate, discussion, training, CPD, group work, team tasks, activities, or simulations relating to topics included within the SDGs. The 2023 campaign saw over 1284 educator reach over 121,000 students and learners, across 23 countries in discussion around the SDGs.
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Good News 23 – Future Crunch has published its annual roundup of good news stories for people and planet.
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Clean Wind – Data from the National Grid ESO has shown that the UK set a new wind energy generation record of almost 22GW of clean electricity. The record was set in the half-hour period between 0800 and 0830 on 21 December, providing 56% of Britain’s electricity. This beats the previous record of 21.6GW set on 10 January 2023. There’s more detail here at renews.biz.
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Puddles – In a The Conservation article, Mike Jeffries, from Northumbria University, explores the secret world of puddles, arguing that they are an often-ignored but crucial habitat for rare and unusual wildlife.