Emerging environmental science in early years education

Sue Dale Tunnicliffe, University College London, writes about environmental science in the early years. Research  Science is all around, an integral part of our world. Young children are intuitive scientists (Gopnik, 2009).  They observe, ask questions, investigate, collect data and work out what it means, forming an understanding, which is their basis for understanding their world. This…

February 5 News round up

The British Science Association says that following British Science Week’s virtual race, Run the Solar System, it is announcing a new race for 2018: Run to the Deep.  Produced in partnership with Six to Start, Run to the Deep will be an immersive running app which chronicles a journey from the sea surface to the Marianas Trench – the deepest…

Natural England latest

Click here to read a round up  from Natural England of evidence and reports, policy agenda developments, large scale delivery sector initiatives, resources and news items. This supports the Strategic Research Groups for Learning in Natural Environments and Outdoors for All to develop better coherence and collaboration in research and to improve links between research, policy…

January 29 to February 2 News round-up

Leicester City Council is organising a conference on March 16th with its focus on Creating Young Leaders in Sustainable Development. The aims of the conference are to help practitioners support learners to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development (Global) Goal 4.7.   It  will be a combination of workshops and activities “to inspire and engage”…

Climate Fiction

On January 29, 2017, the NOAA Book Club is discussing: Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction Everything Change features twelve stories from the Arizona State University’s Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative 2016 Climate Fiction Short Story Contest.  It has a foreword by science fiction author and contest judge Kim Stanley Robinson and an interview with climate fiction…

Finding Nature

In a recent Nature Connections blog post, Miles Richardson examines recent research into whether it’s nature knowledge or nature connections that are most likely to lead to pro-environment behaviours. This begins: “A fundamental component of environmental education, and a traditional aspect of nature engagement is environmental knowledge. Knowledge of nature is seen as being indispensable to…

January 22 to 26 round-up

NAEE’s new review – Opportunities for Environmental Education across the Secondary Curriculum – was published yesterday.   You can download it here.  This complements our primary review that was published in 2016. The review focuses not only on geography, science, and design & technology, but on a wide range of other subject areas as well, including Spiritual,…

Reaction to the 25 Year Plan

We’ve been covering the government’s 25 year plan for the environment this week with a couple of blogs by NAEE trustees Justin Dillon and Morgan Phillips.  Here is a sample of other views out there: RSPB – Martin Harper – Good news for a Thursday “If, like me, you believe that politics can change things for the…