And today, Earth Hour 2013

Earth Hour

http://earthhour.org/

Today, Saturday 23 March, at 8:30 PM (local time), lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

The simple idea of switching off lights for an hour to drive action on climate change began in Australia in 2007.

"Born out of a hope that we could mobilize people to take action on climate change, Earth Hour now inspires a global community of millions of people in 7,001 cities and towns across 152 countries and territories to switch lights off for an hour as a massive show of concern for the environment."

It may only be symbolic, bu watching iconic buildings such as the Eiffel Tower and Sydney Opera House be plunged into darkness sends a powerful message.

http://www.earthhour.org/

In 2011 more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011! 

In 2012, more than 7,000 cities and towns in 152 countries worldwide will switch off their lights for Earth Hour, making it the largest climate campaign ever! 

In Portugal, more than 90 cities and towns and 500 monuments switched off their lights such as Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, Cristo-Rei and Convento de Cristo.

This year, follow the Timeline (country by country) for Earth Hour 2013 here

Education:

As you know, I have been out in Brussels to participate at the European Forum Learning Futures and Innovaton. I had to prepare my presentation the last two weeks before. And I came home on 20 March.

So, it has been difficult to me to write three posts in three days in a row. I already wrote that blogging is for inspire teachers when I have the time between work.

Students like to commit on environmental causes. A lot! They dare and they do! I wrote about Earth Hour 2011 and Talking about Earth Hour with students.

And my ex-students prepared a post on their blog Hora do Planeta 2013. They are amazing! They continue their blog even they left school. We only met on the internet now.

Please search for some activities if you like. But I am sure that you prepared your lessons carefully and your students are well motivated to dare to save the Planet, today 8:30-9:00PM (local time).

At this moment, many countries are celebrating already Earth Hour. Follow on Facebook or Twitter.

Dare the World to Save the Planet! I will dare ! 

G-Souto

23.03.2013

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 

And today, Earth Hour by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Forest Photo Contest : UNFF

http://www.un.org/

"Look deep into nature, 
and then you will understand everything better." 

Albert Einstein

Everbody knows that I am for Environmental education as a cross-curricula activity. There are so many post about the theme on this blog!

Now, here another interesting contest! The UNFF Forest Photo contest invites everyone, in every part of the world, to share photos that visually capture their relationship to forests.

See! Don't you agree that it could be exciting to invite your students to take a photo from a forest near you?

http://www.un.org/

Education:

Environmental education and outdoor play is important for our children’s personal and academic growth. With students now spending 90% of their time indoors, “nature deficit disorder” is on the rise. 

Getting kids outside teaches them about the world around them and gives them an appreciation for nature while providing an opportunity for sunshine and exercise.

Portuguese forest

http://www.teamxanfre.com/

Not so difficult! I am sure that your students have beautiful photos from holiday time if they don't have a forest near school. If there is a forest near school, that's perfect!

You and your students take a lesson outdoor, and I am sure that will be a very interesting learning activity.

Let's do it! And how?

Download and fill out the entry form (pdf) here

Email the entry form and the Forest photo submission to forests@un.org

Deadline:

1 February 2013

Curriculum: cross-curricula Geopgraphy, Arts (Photography), Sciences, Languages, other.

Level(s): Elementary and Secondary education; Vocational Education.

Jury:

After the deadline on 1 February 2013, an international jury will select 15 semi-finalists and 5 finalists.

Prize: Finalists

The 5 finalists will be awarded at the United Nations Forum on Forests meeting in Istambul, with travel support to be provided.

“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” 

 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

G-Souto

20.01.2013

copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com

Forest Photo Contest : UNFF by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Schools : Talking about Earth Hour with students ! Resources

Earth Hour 2012

https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/

At 8:30 PM (local time) on Saturday, March 31, 2012, lights will switch off around the globe for Earth Hour and people will commit to actions that go beyond the hour.

The simple idea of switching off lights for an hour to drive action on climate change began in Australia in 2007.

In 2011 more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011 making it the largest climate campaign ever! 

Hundreds of millions of people are expected to switch of the lights as part of the 'Earth Hour' action organised by WWF this Saturday night.

A record 5411 cities and towns across a record 147 countries and territories will participate in Earth Hour 2012 tomorrow, Saturday March 31 at 8:30PM.

UN will take part at Earth Hour. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has pledged his support for Earth Hour. He promised that the UN would be switching off their lights. 

He called on people, organizations and businesses to do the same, in solidarity with the 20% of men, women and children who don’t have access to electricity. “Turning off our lights is a symbol of our commitment to sustainable energy for all,” Ki-moon said. “We need to fuel our future with clean, efficient and affordable energy. By acting together, we can power a brighter tomorrow.”

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova has urged all World Heritage sites to switch off for Earth Hour, to show leadership and commitment for a sustainable planet. Watch here

The European Parliament will once again participate in the global WWF initiative Earth Hour in order to raise awareness of the need to combat climate change.

https://www.earthhour.org/

Portugal participated on Earth Hour since March 2009. It started with 11 cities and now there are more than 80 that turn off the lights as a sign of support for the planet. 

This year, Portugal 81 cities will switch off the lights of some emblematic monuments ! Families, friends, will stay together to switch off the lights at home. Some go on the street and illuminate the cities with candle lights. 

Education:

Students are more and more motivated for environmental causes. The young green generation is there!

Since 2008, my students participated on Earth Hour. We worked on some activities in the classroom in Languages and Civics curriculum. 

• Three blogs have several posts about our participation: 

BlogdosCaloiros (Portuguese language), BlogSkidz  (French Language) and Geração Verde (Environmental education in Civics). 

This year, this blog shares Earth Hour 2012: Talking about Earth Hour with students proposing some school activities and involve Portuguese young people on Earth Hour.

• Level: all levels (as an educator, it's up to you adapt the activities to the level you are teaching)

• Curricula: Languages; Geography, Sciences, Civics, Arts

Earth Hour network has new ways to share your "Earth Hour". Challenge your students:

Challenge Earth Hour on YouTube

Make your Dare! "I will If You Will" Earth Hour channel already features challenges from hundreds of supporters and quite a few famous faces! 

Make sure you’re with your students among them.

• Curricula: cross-curricular project : Arts, Languages, Geography (elementary education and secondary education)

Join Earth Hour Group on Flickr

Earth Hour needs people help again to make sure it get the best shots as the lights go out around the world. 

What to do ?

All we need to do is join Earth Hour 2012 Flickr Group, ask students to take some photos of their Earth Hour celebrations (at home or on street), upload the best shots to the school own Flickr account and add them to Earth Hour Group. 

The best shots will be featuring on Earth Hour 2012 homepage. So on the night of March 31st, invite your students to go on www.earthhour.org to see if their shot is there. 

Cool isn't it? They will love to see their photos!

• Curricula: Arts, Languages, Geography, Civics (elementary education and secondary education)

Engage students with Earth Hour on Twitter 

Ask your students to write inspirational tweets (140 characters), sharing photos, videos and updates with Earth Hour on Twitter by using the  #EarthHour hashtag in their tweets.

Earth Hour can retweet the best content to the rest of the world. 

Follow Earth Hour on Twitter to get the most up-to-date images, news and action from the lights out events as Earth Hour makes its way across the globe. 

Ask students to choose some news, images, events from Earth Hour hashtag and discuss some of them on next Monday in the classroom.

• Curricula: Languages, Arts (secondary education)

Other ways to challenge Earth Hour : Instagram or Pinterest 

There is a map that can be explored here. And you have other tools and downloads here

Primary education:

For the youngest you have some fun staff here (games and applications that help spread the message of climate change action through Earth Hour):

Earth Hour

https://www.facebook.com/earthhour/

• Virtual Lantern project 
• Virtual Lightswitch (with Mom and Dad approval)

• Lights Out Game

• Pocoyo's Earth Hour Recycling Game 
• Pocoyo Activity Book

Lorax

https://earthhour.org/

To celebrate Earth Hour, Dr. Seuss’ legendary character The Lorax has promised to turn his moustache green for a whole day on 31 March.

According to The Lorax, "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not," so now is your chance to do something. If 500 children promise to switch their lights off for Earth Hour, The Lorax will turn his moustache green for a whole day on 31 March.

• To take part in The Lorax’s challenge for Earth Hour, visit with your young students www.youtube.com/earthhour

Kids click on the link to “Accept” the challenge. Then ask them to tell parents to turn out the lights at 8:30pm on Saturday 31 March. 

• To see The Lorax change his moustache, they must visit www.earthhour.org on 31 March with Mom or Dad.

• Of course, they can watch the trailer of The Lorax and have fun before going to the theatres with family.

• They can also see what Green Tips The Lorax has for "Earth Hour". Whether it’s recycling at home or planting some trees at school, we can all do our bit to save the planet.

Lorax

https://www.earthhour.org/

"This Earth Hour we want you to go beyond the hour, so after the lights go back on think about what else you can do to make a difference. Together our actions add up."

Visit Earth Hour on Facebook.  Earth Hour Portugal is on Facebook too.

Turning off your computer, your TV and all those other power-hungry devices is an important part of the process. Your Geeklet ritually disconnecting from their game and shutting down the computer is really making a sacrifice. 

So, we are all on it! Tomorrow, 8:30 PM (local time) switch our lights, disconnect our geeklet ritual, light on our candles!

I will if You will !

G-Souto

30.03.2012
Copyright © 2012G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com® 

Schools : Talking about Earth Hour with students ! Resources by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.