Green Options

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Move over evolution:  Now you can add climate change to the list of controversial science topics taught in public schools.  That’s right, the governor that sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t want to mandate California’s children are educated on climate change.  Why the apparent contradiction?

SB 908:  Global Warming Education in Schools, sponsored by Senator Simitian (D-Palo Alto), would have revised the existing state framework to include climate change as part of children’s environmental education, but unfortunately it was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Not only did the bill include climate change in public school science curriculum, but also added to the science framework, and thus science textbooks, seven other topics:

1. Integrated waste management
2. Energy conservation
3. Water conservation and pollution prevention
4. Air resources
5. Integrated pest management
6. Toxic materials
7. Wildlife conservation and forestry

Educating kids about how they can make a difference with the environment is important. Letting them actually make a difference with the environment is even more important. Involving kids, hands on, in environmental and sustainability projects will give them a sense of power over the environmental problems they hear about. They need to learn that they can DO something to help at their age. It’s not just a problem for the grown ups to fix.

The Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge is a program that is designed to do just that. According to their website

the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge will provide students and teachers with the tools and resources to inspire innovative thinking about sustainability issues, and engage them in developing actionable solutions for a greener world.

The first step of this challenge will begin this September with a national middle school competition where 6-8th graders will identify an environmental problem in their community, create a program to improve that problem, and explain how their program can be used in other communities, too.

Several days ago my family visited one of Lima, Peru’s zoos. On the day before our visit, I wrote about some of my general thoughts and feelings about zoos, in an article titled “Why Zoos Stimulate Our Minds.”

Writing out my thoughts was a sort of preparative exercise, mostly to try to articulate the main dilemma I have with zoos: do the potential education benefits of zoos outweigh the cruelty of caging animals in small spaces that I personally believe typically don’t provide them with fulfilling lives? I still am not sure of the answer, but my trip to the Huachipa Zoo did answer another intriguing question for me. When zoos are bad, would I personally prefer that a bad zoo exist rather than have no zoo at all?

Before I reveal the answer to the aforementioned question, I should explain that my wife and I came up with some criteria for rating zoos. For the purpose of reviewing more zoos in the future, I wanted to have some reasonable means to compare them.

Tomorrow my family is planning to make a trip to the zoo. I like zoos, but there are some things about them that always get my mind racing through ethical questions about animals and the nature of people.

I find that zoos tend to reliably provoke more thoughts in my mind than other places that can also stimulate me to think, like aquariums, museums, shopping malls, movie theaters, and parks. Before I started writing this article, in my nerdy social scientist way I dug through numerous scientific papers about topics such as whether or not people learn anything when they visit zoos, what attitudes people tend to have about zoos in general, and studies about how animals living in zoos might be negatively affected by us going to see them (especially those of us with more interest in animals). After reading and seeking more knowledge, I was only left with more questions.

CSR Wire has announced IBM’s launch of “PowerUp,” a video game in which players simulate the saving of Planet Helios. The game is targeted to teenagers, or the teenager in all of us:

“The game is part of IBM’s TryScience initiative and [was] launched at Engineer’s Week 2008 opening on February 16 in Washington, D.C. The game, which can be played alone or together, features a planet in near ecological ruin where three

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Earlier this week, Kelli wrote a post called “Teaching Kids About Trash“, in which she asked her high school sustainability class, “When you throw something away, where does it go?” “Away” is the topic of Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Motion by Loree Griffin Burns. Based on the research program of oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, Tracking Trash chronicles the journey of trash in our oceans (Be sure to read to the end of this post in order to learn how to win your own copy of Tracking Trash).

What do ocean currents have to do with preserving our marine environment? Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer became inspired to study this topic when his mother saw an article about hundreds of sneakers washing up on the beaches near Seattle. Dr. Ebbesmeyer wanted to discover the origin of the shoes. He stated,

Tracking toys and sneakers gives us a chance to see what the ocean does with our trash. We can see the movement of trash by the great ocean currents and we can see the disintegration of the trash over time…and we can learn from it.

Where is “away”? That’s the question I asked my Environmental Sustainability students today. When you throw something away, where does it go? Here were some of the answers they wrote down:

“Away is throwing your stuff across town to a junkyard.”

“Your trash gets burned.”

“Away is a big hole that is dug in the ground.”

“Out of St Louis, somewhere.”

“Away is the landfill.”

With the influx of environmental information permeating the web, it’s no surprise that sites targeting kids are popping up all over. Plenty of organizations are creating niche websites that get kids involved with the environment and sustainability, using bright colors, games, links, and activities geared. Here are three of the better ones, that are well worth clicking around (even big kids!)

The EPA’s Environmental Kids Club website is strong on science, and there are plenty of activities for kids if you poke around. There’s a downloadable activity book, an online coloring book and a cool game exploring recycling. Their Climate Change website is a great resource for explaining global warming to kids, although their tips for how kids can fight global warming are kind of unrealistic (what kid has the resources to get solar panels for their home?). There’s also a link to info for teenagers. This site is well worth a look if you need activities for your children.

Editor’s note: This is the second of a weekly guest spot by children’s media consultant Ashley. Ashley is a television and online producer and Executive Editor of Children’s Media Consultant.com. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a M.A. concentrating in children’s educational media and preschool ecology from New York University. She resides with her family in downtown New York City. You can visit her blog at childrensmediaconsultant.com.

Depending on who you ask, children’s television may or may not have come a long way.

New entries like “Yo Gabba Gabba” feel retro in a classic “Sesame Street” or “The Electric Company” style, but offer a more modern take on design and music. Kid’s TV beat broadcast to the punch and has already issued user-generated content in a mixed media format. Networks have caught on to the lack of diversity in children’s programming, and have debuted “Go, Diego, Go,” “Handy Manny,” and “Ni Hao Kai-Lan” featuring Hispanic and Asian-American characters and culture. And although shows have focused on literacy before (after all, that’s what “Sesame Street” has taught multiple generations since its debut in 1969), there’s a new found effort with programs like “Super Why”, “Word World”, and “Wordgirl” to teach your kids more than just the alphabet song.

Editor’s note: This is the first of a weekly guest spot by children’s media consultant Ashley. Ashley is a television and online producer and Executive Editor of Children’s Media Consultant.com. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University and a M.A. concentrating in children’s educational media and preschool ecology from New York University. She resides with her family in downtown New York City. You can visit her blog at childrensmediaconsultant.com.

The Green Series: Eco Kids Books

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on how families and children can “go green” without spending a fortune. Let’s face it: bamboo cribs, cork floors and reusable diapers aren’t for everyone. Additionally, there’s an issue about how to teach kids about the environment. Parents and caregivers are in a position to either foster an appreciation for the natural world, or, unfortunately, terrify their kids into submission (no more polar bears!).

The truth of the matter is, media can sometimes play a hindering role in eco-education, challenging families to stay indoors and watch TV rather than go outside and jump in the leaves. But not all the time. Children’s media has its role on the green bandwagon, too. So with that idea comes the first in what will hopefully be more of Children’s Media Consultant’s The Green Series.

How green is your child’s school? Chances are, if your child attends a public school like my daughter, it is not a very green place, especially if it is an older facility. Kelli has already written about ways to make your individual child a greener student in "Think Green For Back to School" and Chris Baskind offered Green Options readers "Five Ways to Green Your Child’s Classroom." But do

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