The 2015 Ashden sustainable school awards

The four winners of the 2015 Ashden Sustainable School Awards are: Thornhill Primary School, Cardiff – young eco warriors make big energy savings North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, Nuneaton – joined up approach to carbon management equals win-win  Home Farm Primary School, Colchester – Essex Primary School on its very best behaviour Marton Primary School, Lincolnshire – pupils’ efforts to reduce carbon footprint of school brings…

Ever seen a pine marten?

We certainly haven’t, but the possibility of doing so seems to be on the increase, if a recent report in the Independent is anything to go by.  And not just in Scotland, where these charismatic animals have survived. The Vincent Wildlife Trust is a charity which focuses on our rare mammals and collates any reports of pine martens…

Another update from San Diego

Here’s Bill Scott’s latest comment from the NAAEE conference in San Diego. I went to a session on whether climate change was changing the face of EE.  Marianne Krasny, from Cornell University, led the session that used data from work done following Hurricane Sandy’s devastation of New Jersey and New York, and there were contributions from the floor about…

The richness of the NAAEE conference

As we noted earlier in the week, our President, Bill Scott, is attending the NAAEE conference in San Diego.  Here’s a comment from him on experiencing the event … The first thing to note is that there are around 1200 people here representing all aspects of environmental education in North America: teachers, NGO staff, university academics,…

President to President

NAEE President, Bill Scott, has been at the North American Association of Environmental Education [NAAEE] conference, and will be commenting on this on this blog. Whilst there, he met NAAEE President, Pepe Marcos-Iga, to compare notes on their two organisations, and on the two presidential roles. The picture shows Pepe and Bill at an event during the conference where the…

The Countryside Classroom

The Countryside Classroom was launched last week. We tried out the Places to Visit page, which says: “Countryside Classroom helps you to arrange high-quality class visits that enhance learning about food, farming and the natural environment.  You can use the filters on the left of this page to help you find the perfect venue in…

OUP’s missing words

Did you read recently that the Oxford University Press has been steadily removing (over the last few years) nature-related words from its Junior Dictionary?  Examples include: acorn   blackberry   buttercup   fern   heather   minnow   moss   sycamore   willow An OUP spokesperson said the dictionaries are “designed to reflect language as it is used,…

National Poetry Day

Today in National Poetry Day in the UK, and here is NAEE’s offering by Thomas Hardy … Proud Songsters The thrushes sing as the sun is going, And the finches whistle in ones and pairs, And as it gets dark loud nightingales      In bushes Pipe, as they can when April wears, As if…

How carbon literate are you?

Manchester Metropolitan University says it’s leading the world when it comes to teaching students to become “carbon literate”. Students studying Masters degrees in events, hospitality, food and tourism management in the Department of Food and Tourism Management have become the first in the world to gain a Carbon Literacy Certificate as part of their university course.  The teaching programme was…