Getting Closer to Nature – The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom(CLOtC) and the Canal & River Trust are launching a new programme to help students connect with the natural environment, enhance their wellbeing and support schools. Outcomes include: 500 schools will become members of CLOtC, 250 schools will be supported through training and personal mentoring to build staff knowledge and confidence to develop learning beyond the classroom, and 50 schools will be supported by the Canal & RiverTrust to get closer to nature. More details here.
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#NaturePremium – The Nature Premium campaign sets out to guarantee regular time in nature for all children and young people with additional funding and support to level up those with the least access to nature. The argument goes that the impact of COVID-19 on mental health, the demands of young people in response to COP26, and the climate and biodiversity crises mean we urgently need to help children “grow up greener”. The organisers say: “We are asking Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Nadhim Zahawi and Sajid Javid to make the evidence-informed, economic and political decision to support a Nature Premium for early years and school children. More detail here.
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Girl-led Action on Climate Change – The 66th session of the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women, will bring together the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, YUNGO and YUNGA to explore: [i] How do we ensure that girls from diverse backgrounds, are listened to, can make their priorities heard and have a seat at the table? [ii] What is the role of context and age-appropriate climate change education in equipping girls to lead change? And [iii] What is the status of girl-led action on climate. It’s on March 17th. Details here.
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1 Million Girls – To mark International Women’s Day, the Prime Minister launched a new global partnership with 11 businesses to improve girls’ access to education and employment in developing countries. The UK Government will be working with UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited (GenU), with funding from Accenture, Standard Chartered, Unilever, Microsoft, and the United Bank for Africa. The programme aims to provide high quality skills training to around 1 million girls around the world.
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Climate Education Olympics – The ClimateScience Olympiad is a free to enter online competition for anyone age 12-25. It sets out to educate young people about issues related to the climate crisis and empower them to be future climate leaders. It’s organised by ClimateScience, which is a global charity working to provide accessible, reliable and engaging climate education to people of all ages. Registration is open until August 2022.
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Social Media Support – Doug Specht and Anastasia Kavada from the University of Westminster write in The Conversation about social media can support environmental movements – but not necessarily in the ways we might think.
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Tree Generation – The Forest Education Network for England (FENE) National Conference is on Tuesday 5th April, 9am to 4pm, at the Rosliston Forestry Centre in Derbyshire. Booking details here c/o the Royal Forestry Society.
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Book Reviews – Is there a new book that relevant to environmental education that you’d like to have? If so, and you’d be willing to review it for NAEE’s website and journal, we’ll try to get it for you. Just let us have the full publisher details [ send to info@naee.org.uk ] and we’ll do the rest.
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Max Planck Gesellschaft – It is well known the greenhouse gas methane is produced by special microorganisms, for example in the intestines of cows, or in rice fields. For some years, scientists had also observed the production of methane in plants and fungi, without finding an explanation. Now researchers from Heidelberg and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg have shed light on the underlying mechanism. Their findings suggest that all organisms release methane. Read on here.
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Hedgehog Highways – Writing in The Conversation, Lauren Moore from Nottingham Trent University says that hedgehog numbers may be stabilising in towns and cites, helped by routes through gardens. She says that gaps under boundary fences – hedgehog highways – can create a valuable, connected network of green space that hedgehogs can roam through. Whether it is a drilled hole in a wall or natural gap in an old wooden fence, highways help hedgehogs in their search for food and mates.
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100,000 Wetland Hectares – National Grid and other members of the Blue Recovery Leaders Group are to work with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust on a new initiative “to help fight the climate, nature and wellbeing crisis” by creating networks of healthy wetlands across the UK. Details here.
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Volts and Amps – Two British engineering groups, Britishvolt and Aston Martin, are collaborating to develop new high performance, low carbon, sustainable battery cells technology for electric vehicles. Details here.
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GALLANT – The University of Glasgow is looking for a doctoral student for newly launched project GALLANT. This is a NERC-funded (£10.2M) partnership between the University of Glasgow and Glasgow City Council. Glasgow will be considered a living lab to trial new sustainable solutions throughout the city taking a whole-systems approach using doughnut economics as a framework. The deadline is Thursday, March 31st, and application details are here.
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A Busy Week Coming Up – Monday March 21st is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, World Poetry Day, and the International Day of Forests.
March 22nd is World Water Day.
March25th is the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.