Environmental Educators Network ACT: Summer-Autumn Update ACT Chapter HERE

Welcome to the Summer - Autumn edition of the ACT Chapter Update, sent every quarter to members, colleagues and friends of Earth, Nature, environmental and sustainability education in the ACT.

Get Up to Date Quick - At a Glance

Read : Chapter President, Vivienne Pearce: 'Climate for Change?'

Save the date for AAEECON2020 Sept 29th - October 2nd. This event is the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) 21st Biennial National Conference and 4th Research Symposium. Call for Abstracts NOW OPEN until 29th April.

Quick Dates : Clean Up Australia Day - Business Clean Up Day (25 February), Schools Clean Up Day (28 February) and everyone else (1 March Clean Up Australia Day); the Water-themed Green Ed Drinks and Site Tour on 3 and 14 March; special tours all day on 22 March at Jerrabomberra Wetlands to mark World Wetlands Day; the inaugural Junior Landcare Youth Summit here in Canberra on 23 March; and finally, not forgetting 28 March Earth Hour. Scroll down for more dates or bookmark our Calendar page.

Quick news : There are some new EE and EfS resources and initiatives in progress that are worth checking out from: Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience; Junior Landcare; and John Cook's Cranky Uncle App. Scroll down for more.

Quick socials : We've now joined the growing EE and education conversation on Twitter : we're at @AAEE_ACT and contribute when we can to #primarySTEMchat, #aussieED and #HASSchat - see you there?

But Wait, There's More ...

ozEEnews

December 2019 ozEEnews is available here in the AAEE members area. (you can join or renew there too, just follow the links)

If you have an article in you this year, eg an education project to report on to a large and appreciative national readership, why not send your proposal to us at aaeeact@gmail.com and we'll guide you through the process of getting it into print either in the quarterly ozEEnews or in the monthly E-Bulletin.

The next edition of ozEE is #150 - and celebrating International Year of Plant Health, as well as AAEEs 40th year.

AAEE members and educators in the EE network are doing amazing things - innovative, impactful and delightful education. NatureArt Lab is just one example - browse the blog spot for them all - or view the directory here - and please let us know if you know of a project or business that could be added, via Viv or Jodie at aaeeact@gmail.com

You probably know already that Skeptical Science's fake news expert Dr John Cook is about to launch his new 'Cranky Uncle' climate conversation resources, a book paired with an app. We were chatting with John on twitter ahead of his book launch (Feb 25) and he sent us this handy Fallacy Bingo card, for fun. Also check out 'Earth Optimism Teen Event: Changing the Climate Conversation' John is speaking at - get along if you happen to be reading this from anywhere near the Smithsonian in Washington DC on March 14.

Last Spring, before the worst of the fires, we received a tweet from @BrionyTowers at RMIT reporting on students presenting their excellent well-researched work on the links between bush and bushfire knowledge and fire preparedness at the 2019 Australian Disaster Resilience Conference. Then over the summer conversations inevitably led to a decision to collaborate on bringing this excellent and well-tested environment and disaster education pedagogy to more teachers.
So ... stay tuned! Read more here. SBS article here.

14 yo South Australian school student Mr Zel Whiting at the Australian National Climate Emergency Summit
Melbourne 14 & 15 February. Session recordings here soon. Read the Safe Climate Declaration here.
The 'Students Declare' session at the summit resolved to embark on a Schools Climate Emergency initiative, in partnership with supportive municipal governments (like the ACT, and hundreds of Australian local governments) , the wider community and business. Still on youth-led environmental education - Sign-up for a May 15 #ClimateStrike near you
Read about Advance Australia's new schools 'climate balance' campaign here. Read AAEEs climate emergency statement here.
Read more about ACT student voice on sustainability here at the 2020 See-Change ACT Youth Parliament on Sustainability

Did you know TheJuiceMedia now has a teachers page that provides non-sweary PG-rated versions of their satirical Honest Government Ads? Adult version of 'After the Fires' here. PG version of 'After the Fires' here.

ACT teachers are the luckiest in Australia. Why? Because as teachers inside the Actsmart Schools program they don't really need this resource to be successful at education for sustainability! However, for everyone else, you need to know that in 2020 AAEE is adding more curriculum links to more and better resources to help teachers really deliver the SCCP (Sustainability Cross Curricular Priority, for those not in the know).

You can now purchase the first edition of the first in the series - Learning Across the Curriculum in 3 versions - F-6, 7-10 and a combined F-10 here. These resources are being designed to especially help those new to school-based sustainability. Ongoing collaborations with both experienced and emerging teachers will take it a step further to articulate a wider range of successful projects, a variety of well-tested and familiar pedagogies and exemplars, all based on supporting achievement standards and content descriptions. Let us know if you want to collaborate - ACT educators in particular are ideally positioned to boost eduction for sustainability nationally ... aaeeact@gmail.com

Background: Setting an early foundation, the AAEE AuSSI program blazed the trail, then the Getting Started with Sustainability in Schools portal built the start of a wider resource base, and now the first edition of Learning Across the Curriculum documents what is already 'in the system' as well as gives tips on interpreting the Sustainability Key Organising Ideas, and how to make the most of the existing already-published ACARA 'SCCP elaborations'.

Joining forces with Junior Landcare, the popular TV star and Landcare champion Costa Georgiadis has launched the ‘What’s in your Backyard?’ campaign to encourage the next generation to get outside and document what’s in their local environment.

‘What’s in Your Backyard?’ is a key focus of the Junior Landcare’s new Learning Centre. With 30-minute learning activities developed by education professionals, the Junior Landcare Learning Centre has been created to help children be aware, empowered and active in caring for their local environment.

The Learning Centre will help children understand biodiversity, where their food comes from, Indigenous perspectives and recycling and waste management. Each activity includes an authentic story to help build formative memories, whilst participating in the learning centre helps to build intergenerational connections with an Australia wide community of experienced Landcare mentors.

For 'What's in Your Backyard?' Costa wants kids across Australia to get involved and grab a camera, and snap photos of the flora and fauna in their backyard. With the help from their parents, carers and teachers, kids can submit photos to Junior Landcare to be in with a chance to win one of ten $250 cameras. The major school prize will be a visit from Costa!

Costa says “the entire environment is your backyard…” Your backyard might be a garden. If you live in an apartment, your garden could be plants on your balcony. You may live near a park or bushland area, or a river or wetland. You may live on the coast close to the sea, or on a farm. The ‘What’s in your Backyard?’ campaign closes April 20! Get snapping and send us your photos today!

Get involved here: https://juniorlandcare.org.au/campaigns/whatsinyourbackyard/

The CRC Low-Carbon Living Centre's data and App based sustainability education program - ClimateClever - is about to do a global launch of its online footprint calculator tool, at the new National FutureSchools Festival EduTECH trade show and summit in Melbourne - watch out world here it comes! Watch a bit about the program here. Environmental education is not featured in the program of the Festival - maybe next time...