The Windmill Index

Ronald Rovers‘ latest blog is about the necessary transition to renewable energy, and he has been calculating how many wind mills (2GW turbines) the world will need to cater for life’s necessities (some of which are clearly luxuries).  For example, he calculates (it’s a guesstimate) that 110 wind turbines are needed for the operation of…

National Poetry day

We mark National Poetry Day with John Clare’s Anticipating the Coming Autumn.   Clare was not strong on punctuation, and is likely frowned upon in these puritanical days where the ability to put your apostrophes in the right place is so important, and knowing how to analyse sentence structure sometimes seems more crucial than any meanings it might…

EAUC and the SDGs

EAUC – the Environmental Association for Universities & Colleges – ran a series of webinars: A Cup of Tea and an SDG recently in celebration of Global Goals Week, and you can now watch them online: Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities Goal 11  – Sustainable Cities and Communities Goal 13 – Climate Action…

Outdoor maths

Juliet Robertson has a new Circle of Life Rediscovery blog post about outdoor maths: “6 ideas for using syringes in a mathematical way outside”. This begins: “I’ve always used syringes for water play, mark making, as air pumps in technology projects and for having fun in the snow. I’ve always chosen the biggest syringes I could…

The state of environmental education in secondary schools in England

A two-part report exploring the state of environmental education in secondary schools in England has been published.   The project was: Understanding Environmental Education in Secondary Schools. Where is it, what is it and what should the future be?  Here’s a brief summary with links: Report 1: Policy Perspectives Summary: The provision of environmental education in formal schooling…

An NUS survey for schools

Every year, for the last eight years, NUS has surveyed over 60,000 HE/FE students on their views on sustainability, which shows clearly that students want to learn more about it, and expect their institutions to do more to bring this about. Given the success of all this, NUS is now working with the Green Schools Project on a survey of school…

One simple thing

Here’s a link to the OneSimpleThing, blog for the naturally curious, dedicated to all things to do with sustainability.  This, the homepage says provides everything you need to help you make informed choices, and live lives full of passion and purpose. The section on the environment has recent foci on: Energy saving tips and tricks “Definitely sense a slight chill in the air…

National Get Outside Day

Sunday [Sept 30th] is National GetOutside Day which is an idea hatched by the Ordnance Survey with the aim is to get a million UK people outdoors to have a good time – and maybe even to learn something valuable – even if it’s only that you can have a good time outside. Wordsworth knew a thing to two about this: The…

EER Bulletin 11

Environmental Education Research Bulletin 11 has been published.   This synthesizes and summarizes research from journals on issues pertaining to environmental educators.  The following caught our eye: Scientific Citizenship: Understanding student knowledge, motivations, and beliefs Vesterinen, V. – M., Tolppanen, S., & Aksela, M.. (2016). Toward citizenship science education: what students do to make the world a…

Green Schools Blog

The Green Schools Project [GSP] was set up to enable young people to get involved with environmental projects.  The idea is that schools should be setting a good example, educating students about how to live in a way that minimises negative impacts on the environment.  GSP says that, in reality, this is often not the case…