The deadline for applying for fieldwork funding with the Frederick Soddy Trust Schools Award Scheme is January 18th. The Trust was established in 1957 under the terms set out in the will of the chemist and Nobel Laureate, Professor Frederick Soddy FRS. It aims to encourage interest in field studies by providing modest financial support for expeditions…
Eco-Schools has announced the nine schools that will hold its Ambassador role for the next two years. These are the exceptional schools across England that have been chosen to represent the Eco Schools programme, and encourage new schools to join. To be considered for the role, the schools must have held the Eco-Schools Green Flag award for four consecutive years. The idea…
The UN has published The Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World. Apparently, this guides us on how we can all on how to save the world, without even moving from the sofa, although if you want to move from Level 1 to Level 3, you will have to move around. The UN website says: End extreme poverty. Fight…
National Geographic magazine is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the US National Park Service with a year-long exploration of the parks. The January 2016 edition features day-to-night images of landmarks including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park, by Stephen Wilkes who uses digital-imaging technology to create time-spanning panoramas, continuously shooting thousands of images day…
Mothering Nature – the shape of things to come is the title of an article by MIT’s Neri Oxman in The World in 2016. It begins: Imagine that you could actually grow the future. By bringing together design and technology, we can, in effect, edit biology—and create physical objects that point to the shape of…
Here is the latest newsletter from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation with stories about: German worms devouring food waste smart hybrid electric buildings in the USA LED LiFi technology – and more Although what the Foundation does is not directly related to environmental education, we think that what it does relates to how we might come…
You can read the latest Forest Education Network [FEN] update here. FEN began in 2012, and seeks to engage young people by supporting education in forest and woodland settings. It also promotes networking and sharing practice, and facilitates communication between sectors and practitioners. FEN is hosted by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (CLOtC).
Garbage in, garbage out – a big test for an innovative approach to remove plastic trash from the ocean is a feature article by Alun Anderson in The World in 2016. In 2016 the Ocean Cleanup project is planning to build a 2km floating boom off the island of Tsushima in Japan. If it can remove floating…
The USA has signed up to the Paris Agreement, but doing what it has pledged will be hard work – as it will be in the UK. For anyone teaching about all this, the Washington Post has produced some great graphics which you will find here. These show how each State generated its electricity in…
The US Council of Energy Research and Education Leaders (CEREL) (part of the National Council for Science and the Environment NCSE), has released the report from the first National Energy Education Summit. The report is available here, and presents a vision for energy education in the USA that encompasses the energy literacy of citizens and…
Here’s a handy guide from the BBC on distinguishing between UK owls. It is written by Laurence Whitaker a Springwatch researcher. The clue, it seems, is in the wingtips. You can find other posts by Laurence here.
Which do our 7 year-olds need most, asks Ben Fogle in a recent Guardian article. He begins: Government plans to introduce national tests for seven-year-olds shows just how far our exam obsession has come. Our kids now face constant assessment as politicians attempt to measure the success of schools. Children have become tiny cogs in a box-ticking…