For more than three decades, Jane Goodall has inspired generations of conservationists through her youth-led action program Roots & Shoots. Now it’s time to take this approach into schools.
Refilling a reusable water bottle has become routine for many, and education can inspire similar large-scale behaviour shifts. A water bottle filling station in Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana.
(NPS Climate Change Response/Flickr)
Sparking global momentum and energy in young people through climate education can go a long way to addressing climate change now and in the near future.
Understanding the success of the ABC’s War on Waste is a lesson in behavioural psychology. Research reveals five ways to guide other entertainment-education interventions to similar success.
‘The Sad and Cheerful Story of a Certain Dandelion’ was a theatre project in Poland that saw students create a script encouraging audiences to protect the local species.
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For young people seeking to engage with the world’s most critical challenges, the UN Sustainable Development Goals can serve as an entry point. The arts open up possibilities to take action.
When we walk together in a good way, we learn to see the world from multiple perspectives.
(Walking Together/Emily Kewageshig/Annick Press)
‘Etuaptmumk’ or Two-Eyed Seeing is the gift of multiple perspectives in the Mi’kmaw language. A key practice of this in an early childhood outdoor program is walking together and sharing stories.
Final year students of Geography, 2014 cohort, University of Nigeria Nsukka who participated in the research.
Nigerian students can support positive environmental behaviour if they learn about the impact of solid waste management on society.
Trouble in paradise: Disappointments in school and community gardens point to the need for systemic changes in how our society organizes land, labour and resources.
(Mitchell McLarnon)
Gardens require huge labour, and outcomes like health, well-being or food security are affected by systemic barriers people face in cities and schools.
Teachers in a study shared how they solve the challenges they meet when leading outdoor education.
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This Plastic Free July, we need to be teaching children to demand less plastic from the world’s worst producers instead of expecting change from individual recycling efforts.
Youth protestors in London in 2019.
Ben Gingell/Shutterstock
Teachers and young people told us that action was needed in classrooms, schools, communities and from the government.
One project with the Art Gallery of Western Australia, researchers and children saw children respond to a painting by Wangkatjunga/Walmajarri artist Ngarralja Tommy May.
(Mindy Blaise and Jo Pollitt)
There are ways to convey the hard scientific facts about climate change and help young generations adapt in the face of adversity and manage change over time.
Indigenous Peoples protest the Brazilian government’s efforts to exterminate their rights and legalize destruction of the Amazon forest at the ‘Luta Pela Vida’ (struggle for life) protest, in August 2021, in Brasilia, Brazil.
(Vanessa Andreotti)
The climate emergency can’t be addressed with simplistic solutions. A network of Indigenous communities in Brazil invites us to reorient colonial approaches and embrace deeper change.
Northern European folklore had different ways of referring to distant lights known to spontaneously appear on peatlands, including will-o’-the-wisp, and the more familiar jack-o’-lantern.
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Peatlands have been central to how northern European folklore has explored fear and a sense of the supernatural for hundreds of years. Their persistence is also key to slowing down climate change.
Children play at the Children’s Centre at Capilano University in Capilano, B.C.
(Sylvia Kind)
Canada has an opportunity to become a world leader in early childhood education. With monumental federal support, this is the time to build a sustainable and relevant early education system.
Will the pandemic influence schools’ return to practical skills traditionally gained through home economics?
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Some designers, makers and consumers are imploring us not to stop sewing after the pandemic because of the potential for utilitarian, psychological and environmental benefits.
Insects are an inexpensive and effective way to teach children about science.
Ariel Skelley/DigitalVision via Getty Images Plus
Insects are plentiful and inexpensive. Even when children aren’t attending school in person, they can learn from the encounters they have with insects outside.
Policymakers could seize this time to support schools in choosing to take students outside.
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Moving classes outside deserves serious consideration not only for better ventilation, but also to introduce more education devoted to learning on, from and with the land.
Black bear in Jasper National Park, Alberta.
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