Jamie's Food Revolution

Fresh food not French fries! Sign the petition to make school lunches better. http://bit.ly/JOfoodrev Plz RT. #foodrevolution

Earth Hour and Earth Day 2010

It's time to start working on Earth Hour and Earth Day projects. I have created an Earth Day wiki where people can collaborate to bring together the most resources - web links, films, images, recommended reading, children's literature, etc. Please join our wiki and enter your resources.

Earth Hour is on March 27, 2010 from 8:30 to 9:30 pm. People all over the world, entire cities, will turn off all their lights for that hour!

Earth Day is April 22, 2010!

Anne

http://earthday2010.wetpaint.com/

Share This!

We finally have a "Share This
" button at www.21stCenturySchools.com

We hope you'll visit and share our web site on all your social networks.

Sincerely,

Anne Shaw, Director
21st Century Schools

A Green New Year

Happy New Year! And new decade!

I have decided to make some changes by focusing more on Green (education, cities, and living). As you know I recently relocated back to Austin (from Pensacola). The cityscape is totally changed from when I left 3 years ago. And not for the better.

Austin, of course, is much larger than Pensacola. There are several new very tall buildings shaping the Austins skyline now, dwarfing, actually rendering invisible, the Capitol Building.

And driving around the city I couldn't help but be struck by the seemingly endless miles of plain brown roofs on huge apartment complexes (which are plentiful here), and the rising walls of steel and glass on our new downtown. NO GREEN ANYWHERE!

After having conducted intensive studies on green living during the past six months, I was particularly dismayed - and disgusted - that apparently no one (or very few) buildings in Austin are actually taking advantage of the many possibilities there are to make our environment not only healthier, but more beautiful.

I learned about green roofs which can provide assistance with heating and cooling, flowers, food, reduce stormwater runoff, provide water for use in the building, areas of retreat, rest and recreation for workers or children in day care (yes, we would have fences). I learned about vertical gardens (indoors and out) - actually, the fantastic Whole Foods store downtown has an impressive inner vertical garden. I learned about vertical farming - on skyscrapers!

Instead of green, it seems that the Austin landscape is an endless array of brown shingles, glass and steel all just soaking up the heat from the sun (and, by the way, a very noticeable lack of photovoltaics!)

I think I'll investigate this more.

AND I am in the process of creating a new curriculum unit on green living and education, and I have an idea for a new global collaborative classrooms project - very exciting stuff!

Happy New Year!

We're back in Austin!

Sorry about staying away so long. We have been on an extended temporary relocation to Pensacola, FL (as you can see from our posts below during Hurricane Ike), but as of November 12, 2009 (my birthday, by the way!) we are back home in Austin!

Sea Turtles, Robotics and Art!?

"When Dr. Reagan Flowers, Founder and CEO of CSTEM, steps to
the microphone, a wild cheer goes up. Close to 1,000 people have
gathered to celebrate the kick-off of the annual Sea Turtle Robotics
Challenge, an opportunity for children to experience hands-on
problem-solving and project-based learning.

"Many of the children have never stepped foot on a college campus.
On this day university deans welcome them and announce that they
are the future of science, mathematics, technology,
communication, and art. They explain to the audience that the
young people standing right here—the ones with backpacks and
baseball caps—will help to solve the problems of the world and
usher us into a new era of innovation, creativity, and possibility."

If you want to see your students excited, and making incredible achievments in CSTEM - Computer, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - please join this wonderful project organized by Dr. Rae Flowers, Founder and President of CSTEM.org in Houston!

The Sea Turtle Challenge Professional Development Training counts towards 27 G/T Contact Hours and schools participating will receive a scholarship of $7,500.00 that covers the competition fees.

Read more about it at www.CSTEM.org and watch the video!

From The Sea Turtle Robotics Challenge: CSTEM’S Answer to Hands-on, Project-Based
Education by Marcia Chamberlain (in print)

No Child Left Inside

"One night, a nine-year-old woke me up. She had to go to the bathroom. We stepped outside the tent and she looked up. She gasped and grabbed my leg. She had never seen the stars before. That night, I saw the power of nature on a child. She was a changed person. From that moment on, she saw everything, the camouflaged lizard that everyone else skipped by. She used her senses. She was awake."

This story, from Last Child in the Woods - Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv, was shared by a woman as she described an experience from her first counseling job in which she took children with AIDS to the mountains who had never been out of their urban neighborhoods.

Richard Louv is the recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal. He is credited with sparking the No Child Left Inside movement, which is growing in momentum. The book includes cutting-edge studies that point to direct exposure to nature as essential for a child's healthy physical and emotional development. It cites a growing body of evidence linking the lack of nature in children's lives to the rise in obesity, attention disorders and depression. His message has galvanized an international back-to-nature campaign. The book also includes 35 Discussion Points for book groups, classrooms and communities, as well as 100 Actions We Can Take - for parents, schools, businesses and governments.

Educators and parents will find wonderful examples of place-based education programs with evidence demonstrating that these programs not only are highly motivational for students, they increase parent and community involvement, increase student learning and result in incredible increases in standardized test scores.

It contains wonderful resources for environmental education programs as well as wonderful activities for parents and their children!

See Richard Louv's article, No Child Left Inside.

Two educators who work with 21st Century Schools have made major contributions to education in their communities by creating environmental, place-based education programs and implementing a schools sustainability plan.

Matt Schlein founded the Willowell Foundation and runs the Walden Project in Vermont (see video).

Ian Smith, as the Executive Director for Youth and Children's Services for Tameside Metropolitan Borough schools in Manchester, England, has organized and implemented a district-wide (100 schools) intensive sustainability program! All 100 schools joined our Global Johnny Appleseed Project this year! (Be sure to view the PPT here.) These two educators will be presenting our newest workshop, Green Education.

Other resources:

The Edible Schoolyard and a video of one of the projects featured at the George Lucas Education Foundation web site.
KidsGardening
The Center for Ecoliteracy
Orion Magazine
Photo by Kate Anderson