Switched on Schools

April 13, 2017Marilyn Leave a comment

Being the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhil.

Two schools across the country are showing leadership in environmental ansd sustainable change. Agents of societal change, students from Freemantle Senior High School and Melbourne Girls College are partnering with local community, influencing policy makers and through change leadership, are intrinsically motivated to make a difference. Pedagogical transformation to an otherwise outdated and uninspiring curriculum has led these students to deeper learning and more ambitious expectations about their own future.

In 2012, Freemantle SHS became the first Carbon Neutral High School in Australia by reducing their fossil fuel use, implementing renewable energy projects and capturing carbon emissions through tree planting and using a ‘whole-school’ approach and with the help of community partnerships, Freemantle SCS, cut their carbon emissions by over 15% in the first three years of the Carbon Neutral Project.

Watch their video: Champion, audit, partner, action, repeat

With the aim of making their school carbon neutral

Melbourne Girls’ College is an award winning sustainable school, proudly partnering with the City of Yarra with the ambition to be Carbon Neutral by 2020. MGC is the 2015 recipient of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, receiving funding to put plans into action and now boasts an interactive PV solar array, pedal and ergo generators, a microhydroturbine and solar powered seal fountain with a strategy to reduce energy use to achieve their goal.

I had the pleasure of visiting Melbourne Girls’ College during a student led sustainability conference late last year. The passion, co-learning and collaborative culture among students from a number of schools involved in the conference was inspiring.

The MGC students also held an action to celebrate their school’s pledge and send a message to decision makers to follow their lead and power all schools and Australia with 100% renewable energy !

Huge congratulations to the MGC environment team, students, staff and parents for leading the way and adopting the pledge !

Victorian schools are encouraged to adopt renewable energy practices with the help of Sustainability Victoria, but so far none have achieved carbon neutral status.

The Victorian Department of Education and Training said two-thirds of schools’ total energy use was consumed outside of school hours. It also estimated that as much as 40 per cent of all energy use in schools is not essential.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is most impressive is that both schools have leadership teams that enable student led deep learning. The students experience the CNP at South Fremantle SHS in all learning areas. It is embedded deeply in the school curriculum, for example in sustainability themes in Science, Marine and Ocean, and Earth and Environment studies. It is embedded in qualifications such as our students’ achievements and hands on experience in conservation through endorsed community programs such as the Rio Tinto Earth Assist Program. It is equally embedded in community service; since 2008 South FreemantleSCS students have propagated and planted over 29,000 trees in the school grounds, in the Wheatbelt and in bush-fire affected Toodyay via our ‘Seed to Tree’ project.

Tree planting in the wheatbelt

By involving students in deep learning they become active in caring for our planet’s future, applying their learning in meaningful ways inside the school and outside in the community. South Fremantle SHS is one of only two schools in WA nominated to participate in STELR, a national initiative that encourages students’ participation in Maths and Sciences with a particular focus on renewable energy. Twenty one students attended the 2013 Australian Youth Climate Coalition Event – ‘Start the Switch’ workshops, mentoring and training in sustainability leadership.

It makes me so proud to know that young people are doing great things to make positive change in their schools and communities. These are the global citizens of tomorrow, TODAY.

You have five seconds to eat that chip that fell to the floor, right?

March 27, 2017April 24, 2017Marilyn Leave a comment

I’ve long believed the five second rule was some phrase made up to overcome the guilt in eating things that dropped to the floor, especially coveted morsels.

Now check out this Newsela article by Gavin Haynes, The Guardian, adapted by Newsela staff with some scientific research into this seemingly light weight assertion that it’s OK to eat off the floor.

———————————————————————————————————————————

For as long as anyone can remember, humankind has believed that any food item dropped on the floor can still be eaten, as long as it was on the floor for less than five seconds. It is almost as if Moses came down from Sinai with a stone tablet bearing the five-second rule.

Of course, there are still rebels who say that floors are consistently unclean. They think that if food spends any time on the floor it becomes unsafe. Then there are those who are just happy to take their chances. But lately, scientists have been trying to get in on the act.

Copernicus flipped long-standing beliefs in the 1500s by pointing out that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. Like him, these scientists are flipping over an ancient belief system. This is the belief system surrounding buttered toast.

Different Food, Different Dirt, Same 5 Seconds

Anthony Hilton, a professor at Aston University, will speak at The Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, England. He is a professor of microbiology, or tiny organisms, including germs. The fair is Britain’s largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and math for young people. Hilton says that different foods can pick up different amounts of dirt from the floor in just a few seconds. He says that sandwiches, potato chips, dry toast and cookies can all chill out on the floor for half an hour. When picked up, they will do no harm to the eater. But candy, cooked pasta and doughnuts are different. They can get contaminated, or pick up harmful dirt or germs, in just about five seconds. Hilton also found that tiled surfaces are dirtier than carpets.

These findings might be astonishing to humans trying to understand the effects of pasta spillage. However, there is a more amazing fact in the story. It is that looking into the five-second rule has become something of an industry for modern researchers.

Maybe Science Is Oversimplifying Things

In 2003, Jillian Clarke established the power of the five-second rule to attract media attention. Clark dropped gummy bears on the floor. The ones dropped on rough tiles and left for five seconds, would pick up more bacteria than those left on smooth tiles for the same amount of time.

Rutgers University concluded in 2006 that the five-second rule was a “significant oversimplification.” In 2007, Paul Dawson of Clemson University concluded in the Journal of Applied Microbiology that the dirtiness of the floor is much more important than how long the food rests on it. Dawson also agreed that dropping food on carpet left it much cleaner than dropping it on tiles. There was only with 1 percent contamination with carpet compared with 70 percent on tiles.

In 2014, Aston University announced that when food hit the floor, it instantly picked up at least some bacteria. However, the amount of dirt stuck to the food increased tremendously in the period from three to 30 seconds after landing.

The Germs Below

All of this is may be fascinating to people who worry about germs, or who tend to drop their food on the floor frequently. But for the rest of us, it just looks like a smart form of cooperation between researchers and journalists. The researchers are trying to get their somewhat dry findings to a wider audience. The headline writers want to make the researchers’ dull-sounding facts more exciting for their readers.

The biggest story never told in five-second rule headlines is that it does not matter either way. It is true that contamination of food from dirty cooking tools is a leading cause of food poisoning. Using unwashed knives that have cut raw chicken to cut raw vegetables can make people sick. However, good food landing on a fairly clean floor has seldom harmed anyone.

Hilton’s study covered typical floor types in bacteria. However, he found that dropped food picked up no more than 0.0004 percent of it.

Is the five-second rule dead, then? As the great religions have already found, it takes more than a few scientific facts to kill off our deep desire to believe.

_____________________________________________________________________________

FOR TEACHERS:

Ask your learners what they think about the five second rule before reading or showing them this article.

There is a quiz and modifications of the article to suit readers from various levels throughout the primary and secondary levels.

Working out loud

February 8, 2017March 8, 2017Marilyn Leave a comment

You’ve got to love what digital connection and social tools can do.

I recently reached out on LinkedIn to broaden my professional learning network and connected with Ciarra Greene at Portland University, Oregon. I asked Ciarra about global education and her reply set me thinking. I had an ‘aha’ moment. She gave me the missing dots to connect so many ideas rushing about in my head. Ciarra mentioned place-based learning and whilst I understood the concept I had not heard that name.

Place-based learning immerses students in local heritage, cultures, landscapes, opportunities and experiences, using these as a foundation for the study of other learning areas across the curriculum.

I immediately thought of My Place by Nadine Wheatley and the wonderful offerings for learners relating to PLACE. I’ve wandered from my original pathway!

Ciarra is connected to the Nez Perce tribe, who are an Indigenous people of the plateau, living in the Pacific northwest region of the United States.

Indigenous tribes in the USA are in the news right now, battling Trump’s directive to the Army to continue laying the Dakota Access pipeline across sacred sites with the threat of contaminating drinking water.

What if learners in the United States exchanged their understandings of the traditional cultures of indigenous tribes with learners in Australia and their understandings of the traditional cultures of our First People, the Aborigines? What if the identity and indeed existence of these indigenous tribes was being threatened? What if environmental issues are being exploited?

I think Ciarra and I are learning just in the same way we want our young learners to learn-through collaboration, communication and deep thinking. Through technology, our learning has shot past the four walls of the classroom and entered the biggest ‘classroom’ that is our world.

How amazing!

It’s Real

January 14, 2017Marilyn Leave a comment

More people are on the same page and acknowledge climate change is real. Climate change is not some mythical creature flying over rainbows.

It’s real.

Education is going to be part of climate action so that every person on the planet is aware of what climate change is and what needs to be done to achieve quality air, water and land across the planet.

The A in STEAM and climate change.

January 12, 2017January 13, 2017Marilyn Leave a comment

We are hearing much about STEM but I’m advocating for the rightful inclusion of the Arts and a place for STEAM.

I am wanting to hear from schools where leadership and educators have supported their learners to respond artistically to the issues surrounding climate change. This may be in the form of the visual arts, music, theatre, dance, literature and or cinema.

Hoping to be proven wrong, it is my feeling that educators do not highlight climate change in the curriculum. It’s not a hot topic (pardon the pun). Traditionally slotted into the curriculum under Science and Geography, many educators are insufficiently informed, too fearful of tackling what they see as a controversial topic or both. The links to many issues of global significance can be traced to the warming of the planet.

In the sphere beyond the classroom I’ve come across a group called CLIMARTE and a theatre troupe called ClimActs.

CLIMARTE’S mission is to harness the creative power of the arts to inform, engage and inspire action on climate change. Climarte will present their ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 festival which will run from 19 April to 14 May 2017.

ClimActs is an Australian theatre troupe playing a role of peaceful protest to support demands for social justice and human rights. Using striking spectacle as well as satire to communicate and educate on the urgency of climate change, each act has been carefully created to address an aspect of the climate debate. For instance, the Climate Guardians represent selfless and fearless care and guardianship, the Coal Diggers epitomise the recklessness and insatiable greed of vested interests.

The Climate Guardian Angels in peaceful protest at the COP21 talks in Paris 2015

School leaders and educators, don’t forget the A in STEAM and broaden the opportunities for young people to find their voice and respond to the concerns of their generation.

Don’t forget to contact me if your school is already taking this approach.

Marilyn Snider is an Australian global education activist who promotes a dynamic, self-directed approach where learners explore real world issues and challenges whilst delving into deeper and more satisfying conceptual understandings. Creativity, critical analysis and action are hallmarks of her work. www.bethinkglobal.com.au

Authentic writing-a pleasure

November 23, 2016December 14, 2016Marilyn Leave a comment

In an article, Do Students Enjoy Writing? the latest UK data shows that while children and young people’s enjoyment of reading has been increasing in recent years, enjoyment of writing is heading in the opposite direction. So much so that the National Literacy Trust is now calling for a focus on writing for enjoyment in schools. Results of its sixth annual literacy survey of more than 32 000 eight- to 18-year-olds, released this month, show 44.8 per cent said they enjoy writing very much or quite a lot in 2015 – down from 49.3 per cent the previous year and 10 per cent lower than the 2015 figure for enjoyment of reading.

I pose the question, “How would I respond to this disappointing trend in attitudes to writing?”

What seems lacking is student motivation and engagement. The enjoyment of writing is greater enhanced by the learner choosing the topic.

Writing in the 21^st century has changed and has expanded beyond the genres commonly taught and the development of traditional pieces. We now need to learning to write in a digital space- to think about using social tools for writing, coding, to write with precision and brevity, sometimes within 140 characters, to write using hyperlinks, to use the skills of curating, archiving and sharing.

How can you create the context to connect your students to a real audience beyond the classroom? By stimulating curiosity and encouraging learners to envisage a purpose for writing, inspiring learning can be fashioned.

First, you should become familiar with common tools such Twitter, Facebook, Seesaw, Blackboard Collaborate, Edmodo groups, Google docs, Sway, blogposts, WhatsApp, Skype groups, Padlet and Global Projects including Flat Connections. As educators, we cannot expect to be confident facilitators unless we have some working knowledge of digital tools.

Now for a purpose? What would learners like to find out? What do learners wish to say? Learners easily adapt to online communication to seek answers to their own questions. Martha Payne, a young school girl from Scotland, started her blog, NeverSeconds as a writing project. Her blog went viral and involved school children across the globe to write. With a reason to write, learners found their voice and expressed themselves in their unique style. A global audience is waiting-an audience of varying cultures, ages, faiths, gender, beliefs and experience.

Writing becomes authentic. This has been measured to increase motivation and engagement. Success can be shared with the school community as well as with wider audiences.

How can you enrich your learners’ experience of writing with a real audience beyond the classroom?

Cop that!

October 7, 2016November 23, 2016Marilyn Leave a comment

The Budgie nine are free to think about their behaviour whilst in Malaysia.

The men issued an apology when they appeared in a Malaysian court, saying they had “no idea” their conduct would be considered inappropriate.

Upon return a spokesperson, one of the nine urged Australians to be sensitive to the cultures of other countries and then asked for privacy. I see the funny side-men who want to strip down to their underwear in public now wanting privacy.

It’s hard to believe that nine, not two or three grown men, some at least with tertiary education and including a staffer of Australian Defence Industry Minister, Christopher Pyne, should agree to such behaviour in a country with a majority of people of Muslim faith. Or didn’t they know that fact.

Lesson here? How do we avoid the diplomatic time, money and embarrassment when Aussies still commit ‘I didn’t know that we would be offending them” behaviour?

I agree with and stand committed to the inclusion of intercultural understanding as a capability in the Australian curriculum. However, it begs the question, “How many of our educators are culturally aware and know how to impart intercultural understanding in their programs? Has the provision of face to face support been made available to schools to facilitate this?

Sadly, the answer leaves us pondering when will the Australian Government next have to apologise for or bail out Aussies arraigned with indecency charges through lack of cultural education, lack of judgment or both?

Bethink Global

Global learning solutions

education

You have five seconds to eat that chip that fell to the floor, right?

It’s Real

Cop that!