The deadline for features in the latest CJS Focus on Environmental Education & Outdoor Activities is May 1st. You can secure free space in this CJS publication in association with the Countryside Education Trust. Its readership, estimated at 100,000, is involved in countryside, environmental & wildlife conservation across the UK; many work in environmental education…
Here is a selection of resources that youngsters everywhere might enjoy and learn something from. All of these activities can be experienced without leaving home. It has been compiled by Henricus Peters, NAEE’s on-line journal editor: #DoTheRightThing Insects / minibeasts Buglife charity has resources on beetles, bees, butterflies, moths, and dragonfly The Royal Entomological Society runs National Insect Week each June…
Wednesday 22nd Update Happy Earth day 🌏 . Tuesday 21st Update c/o Jess Tipton: Today pm Climate of Emotions conference Wed to Sun Earth Optimism Summit Mon 27th after school Eco-Anxiety in Young People teacher training online eco-resources and events digest . The Economist Education Foundation (which is an independent educational charity) has a video introduction to the climate protests…
In his latest newsletter from Poland, David Oldroyd discusses the Drawdown Review, which details how we might limit global warming. There are two Drawdown scenarios. They align, respectively, with meeting a minimum goal of 2°C and a more ambitious goal of 1.5°C. Drawdown Scenario 1 is roughly in-line with 2 ̊C temperature rise by 2100, while…
Victoria Hackett, an environmental education consultant, explores how environmental education and literacy can be linked in work with children. Step 1: Create signs What is the first thing you see when you walk into an outdoor classroom? Is it a welcome sign? There is nothing more inviting than a welcome sign! A welcome sign is an…
We begin with some good news amid the virus gloom. The results from the 2019 Butterfly Conservation UK butterfly monitoring scheme show that butterflies bounced back last summer with their best year since 1997. Further, just over half of UK butterfly species showed higher population levels in 2019 compared with 2018. click here for the full results. Butterfly Conservation also has…
Today’s post is by Ben Ballin and Richard Dawson and takes the form of a dialogue about the nature of a green curriculum. “It is interesting when you get quoted in someone else’s article. This happened to Ben, when he was approached by a curious journalist who was writing an article on ‘green schools’, having read a…
“When things get back to normal, we’ll …”. How many times have you heard that recently? It’s a fervent wish of countless millions of people, and yet, what will it look like? Will every closed small business re-open? Will every job still exist? Will all charities survive the virus? The financial health of the charity sector (which contains…
This is a link to a long article on the Ensia website by John Vidal, its environment editor. It’s not about COVID-19 specifically, but about the increasing risks of pathogens crossing species boundaries to humans. Here are a few extracts to give a sense of what the article covers: “Mayibout 2 is not a healthy place. The 150…
A week on and the country is in many ways barely recognisable as the changes to our lives because of COVID-19 take effect. Schools are mostly shut, but are supporting students learning at home, and universities are teaching on-line. Teach the Future has suspended its campaign, acknowledging that now is not the time to be trying…
A recently-published report by Natural England concludes that supporting human and environmental health, needs both contact and connection with nature. Furthermore, a new national measure of nature connectedness shows connection to nature is good for people’s psychological wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. Natural England says that nature connectedness is a relatively new and measurable psychological construct that describes…
Deep into March, there seems little room in the press or on TV to think of anything other than the effects of COVID-19, and we wish all our readers and their families and colleagues well in the coming weeks (and probably months). Although NAEE is a very small part of the complexity of the UK economy,…