Climate Education Needed – Cambridge University Press & Assessment is calling for the next UK government to appoint an independent review to gather evidence and advise on the climate knowledge and skills young people need and how to embed those in the education system. According to a very recent YouGov poll:
- More than 65 % of the British public would support a change to the school curriculum to include more content on climate change
- 58 % of UK adults think a focus on climate change would prepare students for jobs in a ‘green economy’
- Over 70 % think a greater focus on climate change at school would help students better understand how to tackle it.
Christine Özden, Global Director for Climate Education, Cambridge University Press & Assessment said: “Education is vital in tackling the climate emergency. We can’t expect geography lessons alone to address the climate crisis. Effective climate education must become available to students at every age and stage if we are serious about confronting this multi-generational challenge.” There’s more detail here.
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Bristol Fashion – Ahead of Earth Day on April 22nd, Bristol University Press has collated a Climate change, energy and sustainability collection with free articles, chapters and open access resources. You can also get a free e-book of Cities Demanding the Earth: A New Understanding of the Climate Emergency by Peter Taylor, Geoff O’Brien and Phil O’Keefe, if you sign up to one of Bristol’s mailing lists.
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Dangerous Times – On Thursday 25th April (1200 to 1330), Prof Stephen Sterling will be ‘in conversation’ with Prof Justin Dillon at UCL for the launch of his new book Learning and Sustainability in Dangerous Times. To reserve a place, either in person or virtually, click here. For details of the book, click here.
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Sustainable Scottish Schools – the Scottish Government’s Learning for Sustainability Leadership Group is supporting the commitment to ensure that every school and early learning setting in Scotland will be sustainable by 2030. The first annual progress stocktake for this will be carried out in June 2024, and a new LfS Portal is expected by August. If you missed the session on collaborating to engage with the Target 2030 movement for change ‘Call to Action held in March, you can watch these presentations:
- Setting the Scene (Julie Beckett, Education Scotland),
- Student-school collaboration on the UN SDGs ‘Teach-In (Caroline Jarvis, West Lothian College)
- Cairngorms 2030 and secondary school pupils (Tania Alliod, Cairngorms National Park Authority).
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World Happiness – The 2024 edition of the World Happiness Report (WHR) finds that the well-being of 15 to 24-year-olds has fallen in North America, Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and South Asia since 2019. See the World Happiness Report 2024 Assesses Happiness Across Generations.
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Outdoors Grant –The South Downs National Park has teamed up with National Express Transport Solutions to offer schools across the South East discounted coach travel. The partnership will mean the National Park’s Outdoor Learning Grant goes even further and can help many more schools. Here’s a video about the grant.
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Climate Justice – Details of the next I-SEE seminar sat Bath can be found here. It’s on April 30th with a focus on global climate justice. The speaker is Professor Chukwumerije Okereke, Professor in Global Governance & Public Policy at the University of Bristol. Register here.
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AI Frameworks – There is an Ed3 DAO and Global Dimension hands-on webinar from Reboot the Future where you’ll be able to explore AI techniques to enhance the teaching of sustainability in the classroom. You’ll gain insights into the AI landscape and discover how it can empower educators who want to maximise time efficiency, expand their expertise, and Innovate within a curriculum-focused environment. It’s on April 30th at 1600 and you’ll experience easy-to-follow AI frameworks to help you create teaching materials that bring sustainability issues into your classroom that complement your curriculum.
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Wild Island – WWF says are you ready to embark on a journey to Madagascar with your students from the comfort of your classroom? Join Wild Classroom and Court Whelan, Expedition Leader with Natural Habitat Adventures, on a virtual field trip to explore the biodiversity of the island and to celebrate Endangered Species Day on May 16th. From lemurs to chameleons, Madagascar is home to over 200,000 species of plants and animals found nowhere else on the planet. This immersive experience will take you on a virtual trip through Madagascar’s lush rainforests, vibrant coral reefs, and unique wildlife habitats. Court Whelan will provide insights into the rich biodiversity of Madagascar while discussing the importance of its diverse ecosystem.
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City Nature Challenge – From Friday 26th to Monday 29th April schools, nurseries and colleges will have an opportunity to record the wildlife living on their site and collect data that will contribute evidence of biodiversity gains, and guide decisions of how and where to implement habitat enhancements. The City Nature Challenge is a global collaboration / competition where cities and regions in 46 countries aim to record as much wildlife as possible over four days. 22 regions of the UK are taking part in the challenge, but observations can be made anywhere, you don’t need to be in a participating region for your sightings to add to the Nature Park map. Observations of animals, plants or fungi can be gathered using the iNaturalistUK app but teachers will have to follow a set of steps when creating their account on the iNaturalistUK website. It’s described in this news blog and an activity page has been developed. Further information on getting ready for the challenge and setting up your iNaturalistUK account is available on the National Education Nature Park website.
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Wildflower Offsets – An online carbon calculator, My Square Metre, which identifies often overlooked daily carbon-producing activities and offsets through wildflower planting, has been launched. My Square Metre has simple to use online calculators to work out carbon usage for everyday activities including TikTok scrolling, to how much tea and coffee we’re consuming. Using wildflower planting to offset carbon is highly effective as wildflowers sequester carbon within the first year of planting, in comparison to tree planting which can take years to sequester CO2.
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Tangible Heritage – In 1972, the General Conference of Unesco adopted the World Heritage Convention, a commitment to protect natural and cultural assets across the globe. Six years later, the first World Heritage Sites were ratified including the Galapagos Islands and Yellowstone National Park. 50 years on, Unesco’s list of world heritage sites continues to grow and there are 1199 of them. You can see them all here.