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…
The Teach the Future parliamentary reception is taking place this Wednesday on February 26th. It’s sponsored (and will be introduced) by Nadia Whittome (the youngest MP, aged 24). The purpose of the event is to make the case for education to be at the centre of the Government’s climate change plans. There will be about 50 young people…
Ahead of next week’s parliamentary reception to promote attempts by Teach the Future to increase the effectiveness of climate change education, the Department for Education is resisting. A parliamentary question [ #4444 ] was asked by Darren Jones (Labour: Bristol North West) “To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of…
NAEE has written to the Prime Minister to support the case being made by students for changes to school policy and practice. This begins: “Dear Prime Minister, We are writing in support of the letter recently sent to you by Zamzam Ibrahim, President of the NUS and SOS_UK, in which she called for your personal…
In today’s blog, Richard Dawson and Ben Ballin explore the work they are doing on climate change education within primary schools in the Change the Story project. Over the next three years, a group of six European education organisations will be exploring effective climate change education within upper primary schools as part of a project called Change the Story. Through…