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…
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,…
Do you think that the urgency of the threats faced by the natural world demands new ways of working because these problems are too big and too complex for any single organisation to tackle alone? Do you think that we must be open to collaboration, innovation and doing things differently – to partnerships of possibility? Do…
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…
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…
Today is Plastic Bag Tax Day across England, when stores with sufficient employees will have to charge at least 5p for every single-use plastic bag that shoppers ask for. Our President, Bill Scott, has argued that the day should be known as Nick Clegg Day from now on, to mark this shift, although he acknowledges…
Here’s a story from the Sydney Morning Herald on a new WWF report that warns again about over-fishing: “Humanity’s mismanagement of the ocean has led to the loss of almost half the world’s marine mammals, birds, reptiles and fish in a single generation“, an emergency edition of WWF’s Living Blue Planet Report says, revealing a 49% decline in…
Have you seen the new Natural Connections Outdoor Learning blog? It aims to bring together bloggers who are researchers or practitioners in learning in natural environments (LINE), to share their practice, evidence findings and enthusiasm for outdoor learning in schools. The aim of this blog is to build on the collaborative model that has been developed through…
An NAEE team will be at the Eco-Schools Roadshow at Nunnery Wood High School, Worcester, today. This is the second Roadshow we have been at in the last couple of weeks, and it will no doubt be another stimulating event with the opportunity to talk with teachers and NGO staff. An opportunity, as well, to see an Eco-School…
Here’s a link to an article in The Times of Malta which is about a recent field trip of Maltese (environmental) educators to Slovakia. The visit was an opportunity to share and exchange experiences in the integration of ESD in nature park management, home economics, and across the early years sector. Other themes explored included…
According to Climate Action, the railway system in The Netherlands will be 100% by renewable energy by 2018. Wind power already covers over half of the network’s energy needs and Eneco, a Dutch energy company, aims to source the remaining capacity from the Netherlands and neighbouring countries by 2018. The railway covers about 2,890 km and the network is…
Climate Action reports that Paris is to ban motor vehicles from many of its roads on 27 September in an effort to reduce carbon emissions. This will coincide with European Mobility Week. Mayor Hidalgo (pictured here) said: “Paris will be completely transformed for a day… This is an opportunity for Parisians and tourists to enjoy the city without noise, pollution…