September 16th 2019

We had an email from UKSCN last week.  This is what it said:

The climate crisis is the number one challenge facing us all — it’s down to us to make the government realise that urgent climate action can’t wait.  To do that, we need as many people as possible to turn out for the Global Climate Strike on Friday 20 September — we’re aiming for one million people across the UK.  Then our message will be impossible to ignore.  So we’re setting a challenge: will you join the Climate Quest and bring more people out for the strike?

UKSCN says that it’s easy to take part; you just accept simple challenges to earn points and spread the word about the climate strike. This involves sharing strike details on social media, getting yourself informed about strike plans, even joining a strike near you joining millions of other strikers around the world.  Are you ready to accept the challenge?

Here’s a reminder of the UKSCN demands:

1. The government declares a climate emergency and implements a Green New Deal to achieve climate justice
2. The national curriculum is reformed to address the ecological crisis as an educational priority
3. The government communicates the severity of the ecological crisis and the necessity to act now to the general public
4. The Government recognise that young people have the biggest stake in our future, by incorporating youth views into policy making and bringing the voting age down to 16. ∫∫∫

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Ashden says that it is joining the Climate Strikes on 20 September in Westminster, meeting at Millbank at 1100.   They will be talking about the solutions “we know exist, and what’s needed to scale up and end the age of fossil fuels”. ∫∫∫

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The September 20th day of action is nicely timed before the UN meeting on September 23rd, when world leaders will gather in New York for a Climate Action Summit.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres is calling for countries to take significantly more ambitious action to address the climate crisis.  You can check if there is an event near where you live and WWF has put together shareable graphics for use on social media. ∫∫∫

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Here’s a link to eight stories addressing children’s rights and sustainable development, written by child authors from all around the world and produced in conjunction with UNESCO’s Voices of Future Generations initiative which works to empower children.  The stories in this book are written by children aged between 8 and 12 from: Canada, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, South Africa, Taiwan, Uruguay and United Arab Emirates. ∫∫∫

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An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gives details of a dig which sheds further light on the day an asteroid struck Earth resulting in the demise of the dinosaurs (and many other species), and giving rise to the era of the mammals.  The meteorite which was about 15 km wide was travelling at 18 miles a second when it struck.   Click here to read a news article on what the paper reveals. ∫∫∫

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Coordinating an Outdoor Curriculum is a two day course designed for those who would like to further their Outdoor Learning skills, be a part of successfully embedding Outdoor Learning in their organisation and make this unique approach accessible to all.  The course is provided by Teaching Trees Training in association with Cambium Sustainable.

The course covers:

• Why do we do it? Look at the research behind Outdoor Learning
• What do you do which is good? How to recognise your strengths and assets
• Best practice for making outdoor learning a whole school strategy
• Site planning and sustainable management of your own ground
• A four season curriculum – planning a year round approach to Outdoor Learning

There’s more detail here. ∫∫∫

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Geographical has a feature on whether hydrogen should be the fuel of a sustainable transport system (as opposed to electricity).  It reviews the latest reported research on the topic. ∫∫∫

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A special issue of Research Intelligence: new perspectives on international, intercultural and global education focusses on change and transitions.  The articles include:

• the challenges of internationalising the curriculum in higher education, and of translating an international strategy into practice in curricula and classrooms
• critiques of Unesco’s reconceptualisation of education as a ‘common good’ and its implications for policy, and of its ‘counterproductive’ focus on ‘universal values’ in its promotion of global citizenship education
• the contradictions presented by the internationalisation of education, including the fact that internationalisation is a both marker of privilege and a means of tackling inequality
• how lesson study can be used as a collaborative research tool to investigate how students from diverse backgrounds experience learning, and to enhance inclusive pedagogy in higher education. ∫∫∫

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Here’s a selection of recent articles from the Children & Nature Network:

• Children Living in Countryside Outperform Children Living in Metropolitan Areas in Motor Skills
• A New Zealand Petition Urges the Government to Allow Outdoor Schools
• Washington State Invests $126 Million in Grants to Expand Outdoor Recreation Opportunities
• Aussie Pre-teens Spend Most of Their Day Sitting Still, Study Shows
• An Hour or Two of Outdoor Learning Every Week Increases Teachers’ Job Satisfaction . ∫∫∫