A new paper from the Christina Kwauk at the Brookings Institute – Roadblocks to quality education in an era of climate change – has four goals. – First, it sets out to illustrate why more attention to, and investment in, education as a means of reducing risk and increasing informed action about climate change is needed, “lest the technofixes of…
Teach the Future is a joint campaign run by UKSCN and SOS-UK students to repurpose the education system around the climate emergency and ecological crisis. Are you interested in joining the project team as a volunteer? There are currently about 50 students involved, aged 13-25, and the group is run via Slack technology. They are running 3…
This is another update from Natural England this time in relation to Nature Connectedness. . Human-nature relationships in context. Experiential, psychological, and contextual dimensions that shape children’s desire to protect nature M Giusti – PLoS ONE, 2019 What relationship with nature shapes children’s desire to protect the environment? This study crosses conventional disciplinary boundaries to explore this question.…
Students from Teach the Future are meeting Secretary of State Gavin Williamson at 0830 this morning to press their case for a government-commissioned inquiry into how the whole of the English formal education system is preparing students for the climate emergency and ecological crisis. We’ll bring you updates when possible. ∫∫∫ Tuesday update: The meeting was cancelled owing…
The secret life of Flies is a very enjoyable read. McAlister shows her love of this group of insects and, through her chatty style, opens up a secret world to us. Her factual information is punctuated with many anecdotes, often amusing, on the behaviour and role of detrivores and cophrages, necrophages and vegetarians, fungivores, predators…
Facing up to Climate Reality: honesty, disaster and hope is the sequel to an earlier 2014 collection of essays: The Post-Growth Project. The book’s task as set out in a Foreword is to “confront the brutal reality of the long-term climate damage that [economic] growth has already made inevitable. Honesty about this situation is something…
Yesterday the TES website had a feature on a survey carried out by Cambridge International Assessment (an exam board), as part of Global Perspectives Week. About 11,000 students aged 13-19 responded; 800 were from the UK. The TES reported that Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are seen as more trustworthy than teachers on global issues such as climate change and poverty.…
Would you like to sign an open letter about the Teach the Future campaign which NAEE is supporting? There is still time to do this. It’s being organised by NUS / SOS-UK. This link takes you to the letter. All you have to do is to add your details, wait until it says “saved” in the blue bar,…
The Policy Institute at King’s College London has published a report on what the UK public knows about environmental issues. Its title is: Britons hugely underestimate how hot planet has become and how much plastic waste is in the environment which neatly captures the problem. The study was accompanied by the publication of The Perils of Perception: Why We’re…
Year 3 pupils from Long Knowle Primary School in Wednesfield, Wolverhampton had an absolutely wonderful experience visiting the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. We are extremely grateful to have received the Hugh Kenrick grant which covered our entry fee to the gardens for staff and pupils, a teaching session for the class, as well as transportation costs. This…