Schools : Earth Day 2014 : resources & activities

Google Doodle Earth Day 2014
doodler: Kevin Laughlin

https://www.google.com/doodles/

Today, April 22 is Earth Day 2014 . As I've done in the past, I share some thoughts to teach Earth Day and environmental science in general. 

Last years I shared different Earth Day-related resources. That list presents different resources :   middle schools and high-junior schools. 

Google Doodle:

Google Doodle Earth Day 2014
doodler: Kevin Laughlin

https://www.google.com/doodles/

But let's begin showing joy by the  lovely Google Doodle Earth Day 2014. Awesome!

"The notion that the 'animals' we share our planet with can cause such positive repercussions within their habitat moved me to focus on the many and varied beings that the Earth has given rise to."

Kevin Laughlin

This year's Earth Day is the 44th, since its inception in 1970, which was widely viewed as marking the beginning of the contemporary environmental movement. 

It is organised by the Earth Day Network, which aims to "inform and energize populations so they will act to secure a healthy future for themselves and their children".

Green Cities

http://www.earthday.org/greencities/

Education:

"Education is at the heart of Earth Day. Learn more about how your school can get involved. And be sure to register your class’s Earth Day events"

Earth Day Networking

Green Cities

http://www.earthday.org/

Theme 2014:

The theme of Earth Day 2014 is Green Cities. So what exactly are we supposed to do to make our cities green? 

We can start with transportation. That means transforming our public transportation systems so that they’re accessible, convenient, and run on clean fuels. It also means making our cities more walkable and bikeable—with protected bike lanes, plenty of public green space, and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks. 

Finally, it means switching over to electric, hybrid, and other eco-friendly vehicles and relying on ride-sharing, rather than driving alone.

This year the Earth Day Network is looking for people to share stories of climate change by uploading pictures that represent "the faces of climate change."

Cities throughout Europe are gearing up for "Earth Day". With several events going on across the continent, Europeans cities and European schools are celebrate and promote a more sustainable and healthy planet this Earth Day.

http://ec.europa.eu/

UN scientific panel #IPCC says our globe is warming and encourages the world to prepare for risks from a changing climate.

Green Cities/ EC

https://ec.europa.eu/environment/

The United Nations scientific panel on climate change presented its latest report on the impacts of climate change, society's vulnerability to them, and the capacity and limits to adapt to the changing climate. 

Activities:

In the most European countries and almost everywhere in the world, today is the first day of back to school, after Easter holidays. Of course, Earth Day is not only celebrated on April 22. It must be celebrated every day.

• You can start by introduce Earth Day Google Doodle to your students into your school curriculum and explain it.

Google Doodle:

Earth Day 2014 is marked with a collection of five animated doodles by Google, showing the Rufous hummingbird, the veiled chameleon, the moon jellyfish, the dung beetle, a puffer fish and a pair of Japanese macaques.

Google Doodle and its creator Kevin Laughlin have done well to choose an intriguing selection of critters to illustrate the movement, although not many people would put the dung beetle on their list of favorite animals. The Japanese macaques are a far more traditional selection, shivering stoically in their hot springs as the snow falls.

• If you could do one thing to help the climate what would it be?  A good question to your students. Pay attention to the answers and ask the students to develop their ideas in different projects.

• This year the Earth Day Network is looking for people to share stories of climate change by uploading pictures that represent "the faces of climate change."

Another interesting activity to propose your students, don't you think?

#Global Selfie Earth Day 2014

https://www.nasa.gov/globalselfie/

• NASA invites you and your students to take part in a worldwide celebration of Earth Day this year with the agency's #GlobalSelfie event. 

How do students take part?

• NASA will be monitoring photos posted to five social media sites: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Google+ and Flickr.

• Post your students photos to Twitter, Instagram or Google+ using the hashtag #GlobalSelfie, or post it to the #GlobalSelfie event page on Facebook or the #GlobalSelfie group on Flickr. You can also join the #GlobalSelfie Google+ event page.

This activity your students will love it !

Level : Higher Education ; Vocational Education (up-to 18 years-old)

http://images.latintimes.com/

Resources:

• The Earth Day Network is the best website to start your search for Earth Day information. The Earth Day Network offers a K-12 Toolkit How your school can get involved in Earth Day or  nine lesson plans (2013) about preserving the environment. 

• National Geographic has some other great resources for learning about environmental science and Earth  Day. 

• Ways students can  fight climate change:

By taking small steps, you can contribute to the global climate change effort - and save money on your energy and heating bills! Learn how easy it is with these simple tips. Read more here

• EcoKids is a Canadian organization that provides free resources for teaching and learning about topics in environmental science.The games and activities section for kids offers dozens of online games across eight categories. Within each of the eight categories the games and activities are again categorized according to age appropriateness. 

The eight games and activities categories are: wildlife, climate change, energy, water, waste, land use, the North, and First Nations & Inuit.

If you need other resources for elementary and secondary schools, take a look at the thematic Earth Day posts on this blog. Here are the posts of the last three years:

• A Story about the Forest (2011)

• A Special Earth Day (2012)

• Wall-E, a green resource to Earth Day (2012)

• Let's talk about Earth Day (2013)

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." 

Native American Proverb

G-Souto

22.04.2014

Copyright © 2014G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Education : Earth Day 2014, resources & activities by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Education : Earth Hour 2014

http://www.earthhour.org/

This Saturday night, March 29 2014 at 8:30PM (local time), hundreds of millions of people will turn their lights off in a symbolic gesture for the planet following WWF's Earth Hour. 

Lights in homes, buildings and famous landmarks will be turned off for an hour tomorrow to mark WWF's annual event.

We will use our power wih Earth Hour Blue. Of course I could not forget this important call to support such an important world project. Neither our students.

They are working some while ago to join this wonderful commitment to save the planet.

With just one day to go until Earth Hour - New Zealand is the first country to switch off the lights - a record of 158 countries and 7 000 cities and towns will be participating in the world's largest event for the planet. 

In Portugal, 91 cities and towns will be participating in this wonderful event.

Now in its eighth year Earth Hour, organised by WWF, has evolved into the largest environment grassroots movement connecting hundred of millions of people across all seven continents.

Students were excited since the first year we participated in Earth Hour 2008. Sifter that, all every Earth Hour have been celebrated in school, Languages curricula until last year. 

Students like to commit on environmental causes. A lot! They dare and they do! I wrote about Earth Hour 2011 ; Talking about Earth Hour with students ; And today is Earth Hour 2013.

Students are preparing some posts on their blogs. They are amazing! They continue their environmental blogs even they left school. We only met on the internet now.

All of you are prepared, of course, activities and projects finished to celebrate tomorrow, right?

I am sure that you prepared your lessons carefully and your students are well motivated to dare to save the Planet, tomorrow night at 8:30-9:30PM (local time).

Don't forget the interactive map to discover events all around the world. Amazing!

Turn it Off by Jason Bruges

https://static.guim.co.uk/

Other ideas? 

Looking at the stars, hopefully easier with Earth Hour's temporary drop in light pollution - going for a run, having a candlelit dinner, or a picnic in the park of your city or town, heading to the high ground in the city to watch the lights, getting a board game out (Scrabble on a table still beats the iPhone version), for example.

In Portugal, a big yoga lesson will take place in 10 cities at 8:30 (one hour).

See ! Impossible to resist to Earth Hour Ambassador Spider Man. Students are huge fans of comic novel and of course movies based on it. 

They loved the new saga the Amazing Spider Man featured by Andy Garfield, the new Ambassador. They can't wait for the Amazing Sider Man 2.

https://www.earthhour.org/

Super Hero? 

Earth Hour propose the Instragam Challenge. Students can join super hero ambassador Spider Man and share some photos about how they are super heroes for the Planet by publishing the photos on Instagram using #EarthHour #SpiderMan and #YourPower.

The best photos have prizes. For more information read Join the Instagram Challenge.

Level : Middle and Secondary Education.

Only 17 hours and some minutes in New Zealand, one day and two hours in Portugal to celebrated Earth Hour. 

Follow Facebook or Twitter.

That's the limit of my imagination. What are yours? Probably better ideas to do in the dark this Saturday?

One bright suggestion? We will see us under the starts?

G-Souto 

28.03.2014
Copyright © 2014G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®


Education: Earth Hour 2014 by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Let's talk about Earth Day 2013

http://www.earthday.org/

Big day approaches! April 22nd ! Earth Day 2013! After Earth Hour 2013, this is the most important day of the Planet!

And Earth Day is a special day for schools! All over the world, teachers and students work on fantastic projects to commit to actions that go beyond the planet. More than 100 million schoolchildren around the world will learn about the importance of clean air and water and about climate change;

Earth Day 2013 theme is "The Face of Climate Change" to highlight growing impact on individuals through interactive digital campaign.

“Many people think climate change is a remote problem, but the fact is that it’s already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places all over the world, and these Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day,“ said Kathleen Rogers, president of Earth Day Network. “Fortunately, other Faces of Climate Change are also multiplying every day: those stepping up to do something about it. For Earth Day 2013, we’ll bring our generation’s biggest environmental challenge down to size – the size of an individual faced with the consequences.”

http://www.earthday.org/

Thousands of people but most of all schools around the globe are sharing their activities and stories - stories of the impact that climate change has had on their lives, and the extraordinary efforts that they are making to fight it. Each one represents a different Face of Climate Change.

Education:


After Earth Day 2011 and "A Story about the Forest" by the Canadian author Franke James, or Earth Day 2012 and Wall-E by Pixar, let's continue inspiring our students, this time for Earth Day 2013 by elevating the importance of environmental issues at school curricula. 

School time is a wonderful place to teach and share those values. 

"If you have any sense of wonder or faith in humanity, you would have to agree that Earth Day is an extraordinary event. It combines the functions of educator, movement builder and the largest public service project in the world. More than one billion people from almost every single country on earth will take an action in service to our planet."

One more thing! This year Universities Participate in Climate Changes Efforts. 

Campuses around the world have been stepping up to participate in The Face of Climate Change. 

Earth Day Network is receiving some great student #faceofclimate photos from places as far-flung as Taiwan, Iran, Costa Rica, and the USA. 

The Face of Climate Change Photo Mosaic is a fantastic wall with  people sharing their stories on the impact of climate change.

Check out these awesome photos, and send yours! Earth Day Network wants at least 200 campuses represented on The Face of Climate Change wall by Earth Day.

Let's continue inspiring our students, this time for Earth Day 2013 by elevating the importance of environmental issues around the world. 

School time is a wonderful place to teach and learn about and green values.

Well, this year I have a real story: The Team Aurora! A group of four young people was going to the North Pole to declare it protected on behalf of all life on Earth. 

They began their journey on April 5. Backed by millions they will plant a flag for the future on the seabed and call for a sanctuary in the uninhabited area around the pole. 

Team Aurora

http://www.greenpeace.org/

And they did it! On April 14 Ezra (USA, Renny (Seychelles), Josefina (Sweden) and Kiera-Dawn (Tso’Tine-Gwich’in youth from Denendeh in the Northwest Territories, Canada) have planted a flag. 

The flag is attached to a glass and titanium time capsule containing the names of 2.7 million people who joined the campaign to Save the Arcti. 

The four young ambassadors went to the Pole to say "this special area of the Arctic belongs to no person and no nation, that it is the common heritage of everyone on Earth."

Yes! It is indeed! The Arctic is a common heritage pf everyone on Earth.

http://www.greenpeace.org/

Before lowering the pod, the four ambassadors held a ceremony at the top of the world, offering their wishes for the future, their dreams for a different tomorrow.

• Share and discuss those dreams (image above) with your students;

• Ask them for their dreams about the planet Earth;

• Writing: news, storytelling, reports, poems, slogans;

• Green tweets at school's account: #EarthDay #FaceOfClimate

Ideas or some Activities for students? 

Ecological Footprint Quiz

http://www.earthday.org/footprint-calculator

Become a Climate Report

http://www.earthday.org/takeaction/index.html

North Pole Expedition (interactive)

http://www.intothearctic.gp/#/map

Green Blog ( my students)

http://aprendizagensnanet.blogspot.pt/#!/2012/04/telhados-verdes-dia-da-terra-2012.html

You may read (French language) my pedagogical experience in 2008 with students published on a French academic website for teachers :

Journée de la Terre

http://www.edufle.net/+Journee-de-la-Terre+.html

"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children."

Native American Proverb

G-Souto

19.04.2013

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

Let's talk about Earth Day 2013 by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

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