A Curriculum for Wales – We mentioned Llanfhidian school lasy week as it’s a pilot school for the Curriculum for Wales initiative. You can see videos about the new curriculum here and here. And this is a link to an OECD webinar focused on the new curriculum.
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University Degrees – The 2021 People & Planet University league table is now on-line, and you can see ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ here. Jonathon Porritt, Chancellor of Keele University (1st class honours and 27th in the league) said: “There are still too many universities who do not give sustainability the attention or significance it deserves. Never has this information been more urgently needed or more valuable – especially from a student perspective.” Info on the P&P methodology can be found here.
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Diversity Environment – IEMA, SOS – UK and NERC are collaborating on a project to update our understanding of diversity within the environment sector. The project builds upon the 2017 Policy Think Tank report on race, inclusivity and environmental sustainability. The outcomes form this project will be published in 2022 and will be informed by: [i] a community survey; [ii] a review of national statistics; and [iii] a student survey (to be issued in the new year). HE sustainability teams and environmental research departments are invited to engage in the project by either providing data and input in a community survey or by contacting Rachel Drayson (Head of research and impact at SOS-UK) to arrange a short interview.
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Subject to Change – This is the title of a new report presenting the case for a national project to empower young people and the public to set a new direction for learning. There is no mention of climate change.
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Climate Conversations – Francisca Rockey – @franciscarockey – is a geographer, campaigner, writer and founder of Black Geographers. She has written the Foreword to a new report from GAP: Supercharging the climate conversation: Engaging the next generation with climate change, whose key insight is that whilst climate change is a major concern for Gen Z, engagement in the climate conversation is low.
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On the Edge – The Edge is a multi-disciplinary, campaigning built-environment think tank which is focused on the need for action in the face of climate change and global heating. If you click here you will see the deliberations of The Edge’s climate action workstream. Another Edge initiative, Learning from the past revisits historic policy initiatives that have influenced and driven change across the vocational education and training (VET) system.
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RE – NATRE is the UK association for religious education teachers. It produces resources and case studies on environmental matters for RE lessons. There’s an annual competition called Spirited Arts which in 2021 had a climate theme. The Religious Education Council also has ideas for a climate week
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Soils – We noted last week that the new Environment Act for England became law in November. This sets binding targets to stop nature’s decline by 2030, and requires government to set out those that are particularly related to water, air, nature and waste. In an article for The Conversation, a team from Lancaster University, explores how soil is at the centre of this, and that one outcome is that farmers will be paid to improve the environment by growing plants in fields through winter. They say that this could transform how some of England’s countryside looks in the winter months and may lead to a more sustainable future for England’s agriculture. There are perspectives on this and other soil issues on the Soil Care Network’s website and there’s a review of 2021 here from Soils UK.
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Explaining CO2 – December’s Explaining Science blog has a focus on how the concentration of the greenhouse gas which has contributed most to global warming, carbon dioxide, has risen in recent years and how it continues to rise rapidly because of the lack of effective action at a global level. There are a lot of useful summary charts and graphs. A future blog will focus on methane.
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Picea abies? – In the hope that it’s not too late for 2021, Paul Caplat, senior lecturer in global change ecology, at Queen’s University Belfast, offers us an ecologist’s guide to buying (or not buying) Christmas trees. It’s from The Conversation.
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Donner und Blitzen! – Ecologist Mike Jefferies, also writing in The Conversation, offers a seasonal exploration of the contribution of reindeer to the zero-carbon running of intercontinental sleighs.
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Deep Diving – The Our Shared World coalition is running a “deep dive” into the DfE’s draft Sustainability Strategy on January 11th 5-6pm. Details here. And then on February 3rd 5-6pm there’ll be another dive, this time into UK Environment Bill.
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South Downs View – In the new year, Learning through Landscapes will be running some free biodiversity and outdoor learning workshops in schools around the South Downs National Park. Let them know [ rstaples-rolfe@ltl.org.uk ] if you would like your school to be involved, or if you would like to attend online.
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Looking back in Time – On December 24th an Ariane 5 rocket will take off from the Space Centre in French Guiana with the $12 billion James Webb Space Telescope on board – the most expensive scientific instrument ever launched into space. It will orbit the sun around a million km from the Earth and look for the faint illumination of the Big Bang around 13.5 billion years ago. It will use a wavelength range from 0.6 microns, at the red end of the visible light range, up to 28 microns in the infrared. Click here for more detail from Explaining Science.
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Happy New Year – This is the last news round up of 2021. We’ll be back in early January.