Teach those Goals – SOS-UK’s fifth annual SDG Teach In will take place between Monday 21st February and Friday 11th March 2022. The campaign calls on educators across all disciplines and levels of education to pledge to include the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development (SDGs) in their teaching throughout the three weeks. The 2021 campaign saw nearly 500 educators reach around 50,000 students in discussion around the SDGs and their relevance to their subject. The Teach In sets out to:
– raise awareness of the importance of sustainable development.
– catalyse curriculum reform and test new ideas.
– embed sustainability and social responsibility across all learning.
– link teaching, learning, and assessment to local and global concerns.
– prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and attributes to tackle the world’s greatest challenges.
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Green shoots – The Royal Society of Chemistry is promoting a sustainable chemistry curriculum for a sustainable planet. It has set out priorities for chemistry education on sustainability and climate change that have been identified by young people, educators, and practising chemists in industry and academia. Detail here.
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Insights in Sight – In 2021 the OECD collaborated with UNESCO and Education International on Teaching for Climate Action, which gathered views from over 850 teachers on what makes a difference in promoting student agency on climate matters. A Summary of InSights from this is now available until 31st March, and we are invited to read it and provide feedback through this survey.
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Can We? – The International Climate Action Network, I-CAN, has published a practical climate action guide to help us think critically, collaborate sustainably and act justly. The guide has details about working on these issues in schools “to make lessons inspiring”.
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Commonwealth Awareness – The latest issue of The Elephant Times is available now to read on-line. There are featuring articles from Dorit Braun, Darius Jackson, and Isabelle Schafer. This issue is the first of a series that seeks to support teachers and learners in developing what is being called “Commonwealth Awareness” which has been stimulated by Sathnam Sanghera’s book, “Empireland“, and Philip Murphy’s “The Empire’s New Clothes – The Myth of the Commonwealth“.
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GEEP Update – The Global Environmental Education Partnership (GEEP) is a learning network designed to build capacity in countries around the world to strengthen environmental education and lead to a more equitable and sustainable future. You can learn more at the GEEP website, and access its case study (library) and country profile collection. There’s also an explanatory video.
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Ward & Knight – Carl Ward, Chair of the Foundation for Education Development (FED) is in conversation with Lord Jim Knight of Weymouth, FED Ambassador and Council Member. You will hear Jim talk about his private member’s bill, Education (Environment and Sustainable Citizenship) Bill to enable young people to make the link to really understand that they too can do something about climate change and that we all have a role to play. You can tune-in here.
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Climate at the FT – On March 1st, FT Schools is hosting a free digital event for school-aged children around the world to discuss climate change and its link to different subject areas. This is available to students and their teachers whether or not you are yet part of the FT free Schools programme. It will be streamed and can be watched live or on demand at home or in the classroom. Each session will be hosted by a senior FT journalist in discussion with a leading external expert, with time for questions. You can send your questions ahead of time here.
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Writing the Future – The Change the Story project features young people’s voices and the compelling stories that they want to tell about their future. It encourages pupils to explore how the climate crisis is affecting their lives and what needs to be done. The initiative is offering support to schools including teaching materials and case studies of how these have been used by pilot schools. It includes examples of how children at KS2 have explored change in the past to create their own digital stories. A free online teacher training event will take place on the 28th April from 3:30-6:00pm. Click here for more info or to book a place.
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Positive.News – The Urban Worm Community Interest Company has been funded by the National Lottery to send packs of tiger worms to UK schools, community groups and households – provided they have a DIY worm farm to house them. Details here.
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A Helping Hand – Ark Wildlife has created a resource to help attract wildlife to gardens. In it, Sean McMenemy provides advice on how to spot wildlife, how to attract more of it, and how to give animals a helping hand.
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Cranes Fly in the UK – 2021 was the most successful year for UK cranes since they vanished from these islands in the 17th century. 72 pairs of adults were seen last year, 65 of which bred, 40 chicks were fledged (23 did so in 2020). More detail at the Great Crane Project.
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11 Megawatts – A nuclear fusion prototype reactor in the UK has generated around 11 megawatts of energy for five seconds. Dr Amy Gandy, Senior Lecturer in Nuclear Materials Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said: “These results really do represent exciting and meaningful strides forward in adopting fusion as a source of power. JET is the only fusion experiment in the world that uses the same fuel (deuterium and tritium) that will be used in future fusion power plants and so these new experiments have allowed researchers to test key components in real-life conditions for the first time. Commercial development of the technology is estimated to be 20 years away.
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NAAEE 2022 – The North American Association for Environmental Education says “Join us for our return to an in-person gathering in beautiful Tucson, Arizona.” Run in partnership with the Arizona Association for Environmental Education, the 19th annual Research Symposium (October 11–12) and the 51st annual Conference (October 12–15) will explore EE: Educating for Change. A virtual option will be available. Stay tuned.