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                    EcoSchools Newsletter
February 2014                                                                                                Volume 6  Issue 4
Dynamic winter issue! Polar vortex--pipeline events--ice storm--resources--student videos--silencing science 
In this issue
Polar vortex
Winter Walk Day
Great Big Crunch
TDSB Earth Hour
PIF Short Film Festival
EcoChallenge workbook
Electricity in Ontario
Grade 7 Energy workshop
Step Outside
Silence of the Labs
Science Communication
David Suzuki's blog
Ice-storm
John Fisher PS
New Pilot Project
From the Editor's Desk


Stay connected--follow us on twitter!















2014 National Sweater Day is Thursday, Feb. 6th
  
Schools have found this a spirit-raising way to draw attention to conserving energy. Does your school go beyond the single day to make it part of a larger campaign? Any tips for schools that haven't celebrated National Sweater Day before? Write to us!

 
The Great Big Crunch 2011 Activity Guide is highly recommended for its thought-filled, engaging activities with plenty of curriculum content! This one is also available in French! GO RIGHT TO PAGE 3; FIRST 2 PAGES ARE OLD NEWS! For apple-themed story books (English only) click here.   
 



 

Kids' World of Energy Festival: 

Grade 5 and 6--registration begins Feb. 3rd!

 

 In this full day field trip students will learn about conservation of energy and resources, electrical devices, and biodiversity.

 

When:

April 30th - May 2nd, 2014

Where:  

Evergreen Brickworks

Registration: Opens February 3rd, 2014

 

For more information: 

click here  

 






Two more sizzling talks about oil and climate change Feb. 4th and 5th!
(Thanks to 350.org for this update!)

Photo presentation: "The True Cost of Oil"


Join tar/oil sands photojournalist Garth Lenz for an eye-opening look at this hot issue!
When: February 4th, 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Where: U.of T., 100 St. George St. Room 2102


Seminar: The Emerging Revolution and Climate Change

U. of T. Political Science Professor Matthew Hoffman will discuss the emerging revolution in the global response to climate change.

Bring your own mug for free refreshments!
When: February 5th,  4:00 - 6:00 pm
Where: U. of T., 5 Bancroft Ave. Room 149

 































Birdbone theatre presents the Tar Sands Dragon Opera--a puppet show about Enbridge's Line 9

 

A fairytale of sorts, the show will feature shadow and marionette puppets of both
absurd and understated proportions.
Suitable for grades 7-10, but all ages will enjoy this creative presentation!  

 

Admission is by donation.
Space is limited so RSVP to [email protected].  

 

1st show
Location: Upfront Theatre Foundation,
1290 Finch Avenue W. Unit 17
Date and time: Saturday February 8th, 7-9 pm

2nd show
Location: First Unitarian
Congregation,

175 St Clair Ave W  

Date and time: Sunday
February 9th, 12:15 pm

Organized by Toronto West  

End Against Line 9
www.facebook.com/Toronto 

WestEndAgainstLine9 

 

 





Looking for smart communication on climate change?
Check out the independent Sightline Institute for its monthly Flashcards. These provide "talking points" on sticky issues. The latest Flashcard, Climate Disruption with a Chance of Snow, offers strategies for talking about climate change with people who see our extreme cold weather as "proof" that climate change isn't real. Would these tips work for you?

 




 

Building Hope Through Mentoring & Deep Nature Connection

Author Jon Young visits Toronto to talk about his pioneering work from the streets of L.A. to the deep Kalahari--connecting people with nature to inspire global and personal transformation.

 

When: Tuesday, February 25th, 7-9:30 pm

Where: University of Toronto, OISE Auditorium, 252 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON.

Cost:  $15

 

Three-day intensive workshop (February 28th - March 2nd) at Evergreen Brickworks.

 

Awakening our Original Design: Nature Connection and Culture Repair with Jon Young  

 

Cost: $235 

 

 

 

Youth Summit May 30th--save the date!

 

What: This event is part of Evergreen's national HSBC Youth Action series Environment Horizon

 

When: May 30, 2014, 9:30 am-3 pm

 

Who: Grades 9-11 

 

Where: Evergreen Brickworks

For more information, contact Liz George at [email protected] or  416.596.1495x389.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Storms in literature
  

Some of the climactic moments of King Lear are on the storm-ravaged heath. It isn't an ice storm, and Shakespeare doesn't mention trees. But the pain that Lear feels for the homeless--"poor naked wretches...that bide the pelting of this pitiless storm"--could also describe the pain many of us felt upon surveying Toronto's battered trees. There must be lots of links here to literary works. If you think of some,  send them to us and we'll share them!

 





Funding for school/community environmental projects

The Live Green Toronto Community Grant provides funding for projects that address climate change issues such as reducing greenhouse gases. If your school is seeking funding, visit livegreentoronto.ca for more information on eligibility criteria and the full application form. For any grounds related projects, be sure to contact Gail Bornstein to discuss your project ideas.

Expressions of interest must be received by 5pm on Monday, April 7th.
 




























 
Quick Links
Winter as a teachable season!

 

Weather. Climate. People and nature. NHL hockey on an outdoor rink in L.A., the Olympic Winter Games in the subtropical resort town of Sochi (with snow being harvested from the glaciers and stored in huge freezers). How do we relate this to what we say in class about "living in harmony with the Earth" or "reducing our impact"? Who's making the connections? Science matters. So does civic action. Thanks for making your contribution as teachers in EcoSchools who care about equipping kids to see the world differently...and grow up to "be part of the change."

Polar vortex and climate change? Chunks of thoughts from a Science guy...

EcoSchools Section 4, Question 4.2

 

We asked Program Coordinator Steve Bibla to give us some straight talk on the polar vortex so we could wow our family or friends over dinner by making this strange new weather term a little simpler to understand. And of course to equip all our readers to do the same!

 

"Thinking about the entire atmosphere in one gulp is not very helpful in understanding global weather dynamics. It's best to think of the

atmosphere as a bunch of chunks. A chunk moves here, a chunk moves there. It's like musical chairs with the chunks moving around, depending on temperatures that drive low pressures and high pressures to move about. The chunks never stay exactly the same, but for short periods of time, seeing the atmosphere as a bunch of chunks is good enough. 

 

 

Given that nature abhors a vacuum, all this talk about a polar vortex leaves a question in one's mind. If a chunk of really cold air from the Arctic is ruining my day, what's taking the place of the chunk that's moved down from the Arctic? It can't be nothing. It must be something. And where might that something come from? Well, there's only one choice. From somewhere else. It's the "somewhere else" that is worrisome. Because you can't go further north than the Arctic--you'd be going back south. So the somewhere else is a chunk of air from the south. Polar vortex coming here means warm air is going there. Now the true mechanism is no doubt more complicated. And it may be that warm chunks of air are being driven north, which forces cold chunks of air south. Whatever.

 

If you've been paying attention to how quickly Arctic ice cover is decreasing, it might bother you that massive chunks of warm air are visiting the Arctic when the Arctic should be in a deep freeze to brace it against melting off over the summer.

 

It might bother you."

 

Try this in class - tell us how it goes! 

Events
Winter Walk Day is February 5th, 2014
EcoSchools Section 5, Questions 5.5, 5.6   
  
Walking is good for people and the planet--we need to do more of it! Active and Safe Routes to School's Winter Walk Day is coming soon. Visit the Winter Walk Day page for more information about this annual event.

See more on the ideas page. Also a Winter Walk Day poster available in several formats (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see your choices). 

Optional (but might be fun!): register online or download, complete and fax in the Winter Walk flyer.
Foodshare's Great Big Crunch is Thursday, March 6th, 2:30 EST 

EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.2, 4.3, 4.4; Section 5, Question 5.6

        
Crunch time is coming right across
Canada!! Join Foodshare's seventh annual Great Big Crunch and take us way beyond the half million crunches counted so far! For that feeling of instant connection, tweet your crunch at 2:30 EST! #greatbigcrunch

Use this event as a way to inspire classroom discussions about food and the many issues surrounding how and what we eat. Ask questions such as where does our food come from? What's in our food? For all activities, a video, and poems click here. The 2014 Activity Guide includes classroom activities for elementary math, literacy, and science as well as recipes--including an apple-pear drink from Toronto MP Olivia Chow that's good for soothing a sore throat! 

 

To register, click here and fax the form to Foodshare at 416.363.0474.   

 

TDSB Earth Hour: Friday March 28th 2-3pm

EcoSchools Section 1, Question 1.6; Section 4, Questions 4.3, 4.4, 4.5; Section 5, Question 5.7

 
Why bother turning out the lights for an hour?
Isn't it just symbolic? Yes...and no. Perhaps, WWF's website puts it best,
"Turning off lights for one hour won't solve climate change. But the strong collective message generated by people around the world turning off their lights together helps WWF create the political space and demand for the large-scale change that will."
  
Many of our schools have gone way beyond the hour. And symbolic actions, like the minute's silence on Remembrance Day, can be very powerful. Instead of a minute, it's a whole hour observed by millions of people around the Earth to build awareness of our need to reduce energy use--and create an appetite for doing more.
 
What about teaching? Earth Hour is a sure-fire way to add a new note to teaching about energy or citizenship action that has created change. Or writing that inspires questions to expand the action of the hour!
  
And, don't forget to help Toronto go dark on Saturday, March 29th between 8:30-9:30 pm, when the rest of the world will be turning off their lights!
Planet in Focus Short Film Festival (K-8) to celebrate World Environment Day June 5th
EcoSchools Section 1,  Question 1.6; Section 4, Questions 4.3, 4.4, 4.5
  
Interested in making films with students wanting to spread their eco-messages? All schools (K-8) are invited to submit videos with any environmental theme of their choosing. Possible genres include PSAs, live action, drama, comedy, or documentary.

We've found lots of great
resources to help you glimpse the possibilities of movie-making and enriched learning.  Sample one of these:

Making Movies Makes Sense is recommended by Pam Miller--simple-to-understand, comprehensive, good at breaking down the learning. A free "lite" version or the modestly-priced ($5) more complete one available (plus educational discounts)  

Our Ministry of Ed endorses student filmmaking! The Ministry's  monograph The Student Filmmaker gives you a lot of what you need!

Keep it Real: This spirited 3-minute video shows kids and one very old women encouraging others to document something they've got a passion for (or abhorrence of!).

Director in the Classroom: This chapter in the book by BC's filmmaker-teacher Nikos Theodosakis is inspiring, offering insight into the important role of the teacher in working with students.

Closing date for submissions is May 2nd. Not all films will be screened at the gala.  

 

For more information about this new Planet in Focus film festival for student-made films (K-8) click here or contact [email protected].  

 
Resources
Middle Schools Conference EcoChallenge Workbook
EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.3, 4.4, 4.5  
  
The four days of Middle Schools conferences brought 41 schools together at Downsview Park for a day of intense fun and learning about environmental issues, problem-solving, and teamwork. Four of the eleven challenge activities are tailored for the Downsview site, but can serve as a model for creating your own school site-specific activity. Comes highly recommended by our conference participants, and could become the basis for an eco-day at your school!

Resource also includes power point slides and an EcoChallenge overview complete with required materials and files.

To download these resources, click here.

Electricity in Ontario: Amazing teaching tools

EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.3, 4.4, 4.5

 

Sci-Tech Program Coordinator Steve Bibla has just alerted us to a stunningly good set of educational materials for understanding a LOT about electricity, its sources, and its costs here in Ontario. This new Ontario Ministry of Energy page dares to assume that if we're well-informed, we make better choices. This matters whether you identify as a taxpayer or a citizen--and also if you see yourself as a teacher wanting to help students learn about energy and climate. Take a look--click here--and DON'T be overwhelmed by the richness. This is not fast food. Good banquets like this one are best consumed over time!  

New Biogas Grade 7 Energy Workshop -- TREC comes to you!

 

Digest This!

How can zoo poo be converted into heat and electrical energy? TREC's new workshop allows students to discover how the digestion of organic materials can be used as a reliable form of renewable energy, and how these bio-digesters have the potential to reduce our impact on the environment. Links to curriculum abound.

 

To register: email [email protected]  

Call: 416-583-2233

Cost: $175 Special offer!--be one of the first 10 classes to book and receive 50% off.

Step Outside: Snow--"The Action Down Under"
EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.2, 4.4
Crusty conditions make finding lunch hard and injury likely!

Lots to wonder about when thinking of the world of snowy nature! After reading this piece, you may see the hazards of crusty snow thr
ough the eyes of a mouse or an owl. Crusty conditions can put other wildlife at risk too. Global warming may be leading to more freeze-thaw cycles--ideal for producing this crusty snow layer...and a perfect opportunity to make ecosystem connections, isn't it? Click to read about cascading impacts and
significant ecosystem changes.

You can help raise funds for Step Outside! Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is one of four organizations competing for $100,000 in the Shell Fuelling Change Competition. If LSF wins, the prize money would go to expanding this special naturalist program that highlights nature's ecology and our human impact on it. To find out more, and to vote, click here. Twitter: #StepOutside program to receive $100,000 in #funding from @Shell_Canada #FuellingChange! 
Resources for digging deeper
Where's the evidence gone?

EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.4, 4.5 

 

Many Canadian scientists are concerned about the federal government's reducing funds to science in areas focussed on nature and human health. This new documentary by CBC's the fifth estate lets us hear from scientists whose work has been halted by funding cuts. Programs monitoring things such as smoke stack emissions, food inspections, oil spills, water quality, and climate change have been greatly reduced or shut down altogether.

 

Does it matter if our elected leaders make some policy decisions without the benefit of independent, fact-based science? Is it important for them to pay attention to the science that doesn't fit with a particular government agenda? Where does critical thinking come in?

 

What's the gain, and what's the loss, of a shift in science funding policy to "strengthen partnerships to get more ideas from the lab to the marketplace and increase our wealth of knowledge"? This is the statement (along with a reminder that "our government has made record investments in science") from the office of Greg Rickford, Minister of State for Science and Technology, given to the filmmakers in place of the interviews requested.

Science communication:

Why this difference between Canada and the USA?

EcoSchools Section 4, Question 4.5 
  
Last year Ottawa Citizen reporter Tom Spears worked on a piece about a cooperative research project involving Canada's National Research Council (NRC) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a United States' governmental science organization. In one case Spears went through a communication department, in the other he spoke directly to a scientist.

This chart prepared by  visual.ly is a comparison of the dramatic difference between these two interactions.Take a look--you may be shocked!
David Suzuki's Friday blog "Science Matters"
EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.4, 4.5

 

"Rail versus pipeline is the wrong question" headlines the Jan. 23rd David Suzuki "Science Matters" blog. Delicious argument, as always.

  

Read about harm vs. benefits and what it means for jobs and risks associated with each method of transport.    

 

Here's what Suzuki says about climate change: "Beyond the danger to the environment and human health, the worst risk from rapid expansion of oil sands, coal mines and gas fields and the infrastructure needed to transport the fuels is the carbon emissions from burning their products -- regardless of whether that happens here, in China or elsewhere. Many climate scientists and energy experts, including the International Energy Agency, agree that to have any chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change, we must leave at least two-thirds of our remaining fossil fuels in the ground."  


The question isn't about whether to use rail or pipelines. It's about how to reduce our need for both.

 

Sign up for Science Matters--food for thought every Friday. And it's free!

Teaching and learning with current events

The ice-storm as "nature's way of pruning":

EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.4, 4.5
 

Inspired by ACER's work on mapping the health of trees over time, Science and Technology IL Leesa Blake suggests some possibilities for making the ice storm curriculum-relevant.

 

Grade 4 Habitats: How will animals find new habitat conditions for the rest of the winter and the spring? Are there any bird nests in the twigs that have fallen? Squirrel nests? Where are the squirrels going to go now? Can the branch piles offer new habitat? Should some of the tree-fall be retained? Will birds arriving in the spring have places to build their nests?

 

Grade 6 Biodiversity: Identification of trees through silhouette and bark. Collect bark rubbings for identification back in the classroom. Perhaps make a school collection to keep, display, share knowledge

Grade 7/8:

Link damage to form and function. Consider the strength of the wood, maybe take samples to see how the girth of the limb affects the elasticity of the wood; compare different types of wood and form; compare damage done by ice density vs snow density. Deciduous trees tend to suffer the most from splits, but conifers might topple over.  

 

What else? Write to us! 

Stories from our schools
Oranges take on new meaning at John Fisher PS!
 

John Fisher students were dismayed by what they found in the garbage during their December waste audit--such as completely untouched food, including a whole bagel and 3 whole oranges. Step 1 in finding  

a solution was to communicate their feelings so that others would share their concern and act to stop the waste. Picturing the "journey" of those garbaged oranges from Florida to their lunchbox made the amount of waste more vivid. Some students have produced comics; Ecoclub members decided that "announcements aren't as good" and chose to make classroom-to-classroom visits instead. Thanks to teacher Lorie Scarfarotti for this news tidbit and student Lincoln O. for sharing his poster. Congratulations to all for taking action.

 

Any stories about waste audit you'd like to share? Contact us

New pilot project--Changing thinking:

Video eco-stories from our schools 

   EcoSchools Section 4, Questions 4.4, 4.5

 

Of the 38 schools that applied for this pilot project, only 12 could be chosen to participate. As a project within the EcoSchoolsAccelerating Change program, the teachers will be supporting student video-making that focuses on changes being made (or needed!) in EcoSchools. Two days of workshops have launched the program. We are working with Planet in Focus and Science and Technology staff to provide resources. These schools will submit at least one video (5 minutes or less) to the Planet in Focus student film festival (K-8) with a gala on World Environment Day, June 5, 2014. (The "Changing thinking" topic is required only for schools in the pilot; if you choose it anyway, we'd be delighted!!! This "pilot" will likely be expanded next year.)

 

See "events" for details about Planet In Focus's new festival. 
From the editors' desk...

 

"Go out on a limb...that's where the blossom grows" -- Tom Forsyth quoted in Alastair McIntosh's Soil and Soul

 

Over the years, EcoSchools has asked teachers, students, principals, caretakers, parents, senior Board staff, and others to go out on a limb, to be part of the enormous task of re-imagining how we can live well without "costing the Earth."  Mostly we all just "chip away"--humans can't stand tasks that are too big. Gradual small changes have a better chance of lasting, and opening rather than closing people's minds.  A colleague resistant to carrying a re-usable mug to get a coffee because "it's too small to matter" may one day see how that small act can have a ripple effect, inside and out! We tell our students that "one person can make a difference." Sometimes it starts with us. And results are even better when we work in teams. 

 

Last week at the eco-video workshop, we touched on the need to be brave as we embark on a project that, however small, is part of "changing thinking." That bravery could be a small act of doing something different in how we work with students. Simple yet complicated. Following the workshop, teacher Matthew Brundle sent a reflection worth sharing: "we need bravery and tenacious ferocity about these issues asap...or we ain't gonna make it. Fear can be a wonderful thing that exists in us for a reason and we should embrace it and use it to drive us. It seems quite simple really. We need a substantial paradigm shift." 

 

This is but one perspective of many. Perhaps you will act out of hope rather than out of fear.  We wanted to share this thought as a reminder that the desire to be braver is out there; that we need to support one another in being braver as colleagues, and as members of school and Board communities. And at the same time, we always need to be making friends, not enemies, as we work for change. 

 

The tree limbs strewn on the ground after the December ice storm will not blossom. But many others will. And metaphorically speaking, there are "limbs that we can go out on" at our schools and in our homes and in our departments to shift our thinking and our behaviour into a more planet-friendly, people-friendly mode. The two are profoundly connected. The blossoms are waiting.

 

Eleanor Dudar, Jenn Vetter, and Diana Suzuki