In a post earlier this week, I talked about the scandalous state of science education funding in one Iowa town, where we learned that teachers were working with equipment budgets of 40 cents per student per year. Well, I have an update from the teachers involved. Apparently meeting with us and receiving our equipment donation was inspiring. Afterwards, the teachers went to their administration to discuss the budget they’d been handed. The outcome?
Some say climate change is too hard to teach to kids because it's so depressing...or too controversial...but here’s one school district that has turned that idea on its ear!
It may be possible to teach about energy without ever digging into the dynamics of human-caused climate change. (Quick note: I don’t endorse that tack, but it’s possible.) Indeed, many energy education programs sidestep or avoid climate change altogether.
What do ISO 14000 and 4-ESS3-1 have in common? Both are standards. The first is a family of standards from the International Organization for Standardization developed in 1996 to “help organizations…minimize how their operations (processes etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land)…”
It's down to the wire as I complete the proofs of my upcoming book, Climate Smart & Energy Wise, which Corwin Press will release around the autumnal equinox, September 23—one of two times in the year when day and night are roughly balanced at 50/50—and which also happen
Kentucky’s Education Commissioner Terry Holliday was in the news recently, discussing the treatment of evolution and climate change in the Next Generation Science Standards, which Kentucky’s public schools are scheduled to begin to use in the 2014–2015 school year.
I’m a pretty enthusiastic person. In casual conversation, I don’t shy away from hyperbole and tend to think a lot of things are “the best thing ever.” But truly, truly, getting a position with NCSE, having my very own NCSE avatar? Best. Thing. Ever.