1. The London Natural History Museum says:
“Inspire your class this autumn at our latest exhibition Whales: Beneath the Surface. Your students will discover the evolutionary story of these mammals, through viewing over 100 specimens including the Thames Whale to hunting for prey in an interactive echolocation game. The exhibition is perfect for KS2 and KS3. Pre-booked school groups receive a discount on all exhibitions at the Museum. This ends 28th February 2018.”
And clicking this will take you to the museum’s webpage showing the range of activities for schools.
2. It’s a risky world for cranes, wetlands and our world says the International Crane Foundation. A recent posting begins:
“I was working in Zambia when word came that the United States would pull out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change. Listening to this news with a group of Zambian colleagues, I was saddened. In Zambia, and nearly everywhere we work around the world, climate change is treated as a life or death matter. The prospect of intensely prolonged droughts and water shortages, chronic food insecurity, power outages, coastal land loss under rising seas, and extremely violent storms doesn’t bode well for poor countries like Zambia that lack the resources to adapt to these daunting challenges. These countries have contributed little to global warming but face the brunt of its impacts.” Read on …
3. If you have ever wondered what birds do during a total eclipse, just click here to see observations from eBird and Radar on August 21, 2017 c/o the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Some of their findings were
- Aerial insectivores dropping out of the skies
- Radar reveals an emptying sky
- Nocturnal (and crepuscular) birds emerge
- Roosting and confusion
4. Click here to see the latest from New Zealand Geographic.
5. The Schools for Future Youth project has issued a report for policy-makers across Europe who are engaged with, or interested in ensuring that education and international development programmes give consideration to the voices of young people. It also aims to contribute to policy-makers responses to how they are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.
6. Changing Minds: Tools from Behavioural Science is the title of an event on 3 October in Bristol as a lead up to Communicate 2017 – the UK’s annual conference for environmental communicators. The organisers say:“Understanding how people think, feel and respond to information is vital to successfully communicating environmental issues and influencing positive change. Join expert researchers and communications practitioners using behavioural sciences to explore and influence a shifting landscape of echo-chambers, divisive opinions and fake news.”
7. The Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) initiative supports city leaders in connecting more children, more equitably to nature. CCCN says that a pilot cohort broke new trail, expanding cities’ capacity to collect data on how well and how much children equitably connect with nature. The cities built their capacity through articulating strategies and identifying early indicators of progress. With much work remaining in order to institutionalize and standardize children and nature assessment within and across cities, the CCCN Metrics Toolkit offers a starting point for municipal leaders to consider what strides in institutions, infrastructure, and programming will lead to better outcomes for all young residents.
8. Click here to read about Biodiversity News on the Permaculture Association website. DEFRA’s Arun Kumar says:
DEFRA is aiming to publish the Autumn edition of Biodiversity news in mid-November, and we’d like to start accepting articles from now until the 6th of October. Please note that I cannot include every article, however there are some criteria which if followed will greatly improve an articles chance of inclusion these being;
- Try and keep the article around 1-2 sides of A4
- It needs to be relevant to biodiversity
- Have any pictures attached to the email
- Be written in plain/layman English
- We would like to include a few articles which give the readers a chance to get involved
- The article should be current
If there are any queries regarding entries please contact: biodiversitynews@defra.gsi.gov.uk
9. Last week was Global Goals week. What did you do? Did you make a special week of it? Never mind if that was very little, as every week should be Global Goals week.
10. If you’re booked to go to the 2017 NAAEE conference in Puerto Rico, you can follow the latest information about whether it will be taking place on the NAAEE Newsroom.