Drawdown Learn Educates Rhinebeck School Leaders
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Rhinebeck School Superintendent Joe Phelan knew what he had to do after attending the Drawdown Learn Conference—share what he learned with Dutchess County's other school superintendents.
Winter Newsletter | EfS Professional Learning Opportunities
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We are committed to the roles that teaching, learning, and thinking play in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. Our work with school systems and higher education institutions revolves around the curriculum, instruction, and assessment aspects of Education for Sustainability, as well as the strategic planning and leadership development that is required for lasting change.
Read MoreStorigins: Jaimie Cloud, Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education
/How do we educate for the kind of future we want?
When I first heard about "sustainability" in 1987 it changed my entire framework as an educator... here's my Storigin:
The Three E's of Sustainability | Webinar
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The Three E's as a Design and Decision Making Tool - Two-Part Webinar on Feb. 4 & 11, 2020
This two-part, interactive and dynamic webinar is presented by Dr. Koh Ming Wei. Participants will make use of several senses to explore and engage with the multi-layered concepts of equity, economics and environment. Outcomes include confidence to apply the Three Es as a design and decision-making tool in personal, professional, and cultural settings.
Read MoreEfS Momentum in The Hudson Valley
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The Cloud Institute is working with partners to build momentum for Education for Sustainability and Youth Leadership in the Hudson Valley!
Here’s a brief timeline of activities:
Read More2019 Fall Newsletter | Playing The Fish Game
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The Cloud Institute uses The Fish Game to start the conversation about education for sustainability. The transformative learning experience encourages thinking and new ideas about system dynamics and interdependence. Through their experience, the 'players' realize how much their thinking drives their behavior and how much, in the context of interdependence, their behavior makes a difference.
Read MoreBlue Planet Foundation | Empowering Youth
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Blue Planet Foundation is clearing the path for 100% clean energy.
On April 20, 2017, over 600 students from across Oahu rallied at the State Capitol in support of their 100% clean transportation future. Inspiring!
MORE VIDEOS
For Our Future - Overview of Blue Planet Foundation's programs and the climate challenge, through the eyes of a 7-year-old.
Student Energy Summit 2018 - Recap of our annual signature event bringing students together for a two-day energy and climate-focused summit
REFERENCE: BLUE PLANET FOUNDATION VIMEO
2019 Summer Newsletter
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THE CLOUD INSTITUTE FOR SUSTAINABILITY EDUCATION
We are committed to the roles that teaching, learning, and thinking play in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. We often partner with schools and organizations with similar goals and interests to deliver educational experiences that transform thinking and inspire collaborative learning and action.
We hope you will join us for one or all of these exciting events!
Read MoreHow Project Based Learning is the Key to Sustainability TEDxYouth@AvonRiver
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16-year-old E Wen Wong is the founder of plastic pollution organisation, P.S. Our Beaches and she has an important message for all of us: sustainability starts with sustainable education. E Wen Wong is a passionate environmental advocate, innovator, and founder of plastic pollution organisation, P.S. Our Beaches. E Wen was a recipient of one of this year’s New Zealand Youth Awards for her commitment to the environment and, in the past two years, has initiated litter audits, awareness posts on sustainability initiatives and interviews with the Department of Conservation and UNESCO to raise the profile of the beach pollution issue.
Read More2019 Spring Newsletter
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The Cloud Institute is dedicated to the vital role of education in creating awareness, fostering commitment, and guiding actions toward a healthy, secure and sustainable future for ourselves and for future generations.
The unique challenges that define our time require fundamentally new ways of thinking. If we intend to transition to a sustainable way of life, educators and young people have a critical role to play. Join us as we explore what’s possible when we educate for sustainability.
Read MoreThe Fish Game In Play - In Germany | A Case Story
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The workshop was part of our "Land Use and Resources" day (other parts of the program that day included workshops, discussions and presentations on food, farming methods, waste management, and circular economy). We started the workshop by playing the Fish Game simulation in eight groups with 5-9 members, each recording their results in a table. We followed up on this in reflective group discussions, talking about why groups failed, what the different scenarios represent, and how this relates to real life/ in what ways this is not a 100% accurate representation of international (over)fishing. Afterwards, we provided some more theoretical context on overfishing by going through our own presentation on causes of overfishing, consequences for the ecosystem and the human population, and proposed solutions and strategies to prevent overfishing / fix the damage already done. Additionally, we went over some specific cases of overfishing e.g. in Canada and on the West African coast.
Read MorePHRED Team 847 | Philomath High School
/Inspiring Kids: Operation Gyre & Project Pure Water
These video animations were designed and produced by high school students in the Philomath High Robotics Engineering Division (PHRED) at Philomath HS in Philomath, Oregon. These two 30 second animations are from PHRED Team 847. PHRED Team 847 is sponsored by local foundations, corporations and the Lions Club.
Operation Gyre is an elegant 30 second demonstration of several EfS attributes including authentic curriculum and assessment, the entrepreneurial mindset, an understanding of the materials cycle principle and three of our enduring understandings: “A Healthy and Sustainable Future is Possible”; “Live by the Natural Laws” and “Read the Feedback”.
Pure Water 847 is another elegant 30 second demonstration of authentic curriculum and assessment, the entrepreneurial mindset, Biomimicry and “A Sustainable Future is Possible.” In addition, the animations illustrate a robust use of technology in the classroom (Autodesk 3ds Max).
Recap of Webinar- Staying Hopeful: Gathering Strength for the Work Ahead
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How can we remain creative and hopeful in these crazy times? Jaimie has been thinking deeply about this question for the past few months. Her recent blog posts, Game on or Game over? (with video) and Easier Done than Said: Move from Fear to Action by Educating for a Sustainable Future address this topic and encourage us to get to work. In her recent webinar, Staying Hopeful: Gathering strength for the work ahead, Jaimie asks the question, “Why should we be hopeful?” She offers up three big ideas that have been a source of inspiration during this time of negativity and chaos. These concepts are useful, natural occurrences that can serve, both as metaphor, and as examples of how life organizes towards life on our spaceship called Earth.
Read MoreExciting Update on our Partnership with NYC DOE CTE
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Our work with the NYC Department of Education’s High School Career Technical Education continues and has now been merged into the CTE Academic Integration Blueprint. This document aims to bridge the gap between graduation rate and low college readiness by facilitating the integration of CTE and academic coursework, training teachers to develop integrated curriculum and promoting high quality project-based learning (PBL) practices in academic classes. One of the plan’s five objectives is to “Infuse sustainability principles throughout CTE and academic content curricula”.
Read MoreEasier Done than Said: Move from Fear to Action by Educating for a Sustainable Future
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In my experience, it is harder for people to think about what it will take to educate for sustainability, than it is to actually educate for sustainability. This makes sense, given that change of any kind is threatening to our reptilian brains. We have a biological fear of change. Add to this the fact that most educators think of “sustainablizing” as an add on to an already packed life, curriculum and to do list. Given the flavor of the month way that schools often operate, it seems like just one more thing to do. It isn’t. It can’t be. It is the thing we all must do if we want to thrive over time.
Read MoreTeachable Moments | Game Over or Game On?
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For the past three years, I’ve taught a required graduate course on the Ethics of Sustainability in the Design for Social Innovation Program at the School of Visual Arts in NYC. During this time, I’ve witnessed the unintended results of educating about unsustainability. Although my students come from all over the world, they have at least a few things in common at the beginning of the year. These young people report feeling depressed, hopeless and guilty. Many of these students, believing they hold degrees in sustainability, have become experts in its opposite--unsustainability. They are nervous at first at the thought of discussing the ethics of sustainability. They tell me that their professors were very effective at pointing out that it’s too late, that we’ve already exceeded too many critical thresholds and that there is no way back. Game over?
My response to them is always the same, “I think what your professors have actually been saying is that they cannot imagine and they don’t know how we are going to pull off the mid-course correction that is required if we want human and other life to flourish on Earth indefinitely. I think this has more to do with their imaginations, mental maps and knowledge base than it does our fate.” Game on.
Read MoreHow to Sustain Sustainability Education
/I have been working with Kapalama Middle School at the Oahu campus of Kamehameha Schools for the past seven years. We would like to continue our work together, but for now, the contract has been completed. How can we know if the work we have done together to educate students for a sustainable future will last and will be improved over time? We can’t. What we can do is create favorable conditions for it to flourish over time—just like everything else we want to sustain. As I always say, there is no such thing as “sustain-guaranteed” but there is such a thing as “sustain-able”.
Read MoreNew Education for Sustainability Benchmarks Developed to Guide Adoption, Implementation
/Originally posted by Green Schools National Network on June 15, 2017.
Why, What, and Where are the Education for Sustainability Benchmarks?
Education for a Sustainable Future Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning was published by The Journal of Sustainability Education on Earth Day 2017. This 70-page account is authored by and represents the current and best thinking of forty-two of the major scholars and practitioners in the EfS field. The Benchmarks include the Big Ideas, Thinking Skills, Applied Knowledge, Dispositions, Actions, and Community Connections that define EfS. Following the Benchmarks are Supporting Instructional Practices and Perspectives, Organizational Policies and Practices, and an Afterword. Several Appendices provide information about the topics often associated with EfS: contributing disciplines, aligned innovations, preliminary research findings on the impact of EfS, and a bibliography.
Read MoreNew Support for "Sustainablizing" your Curriculum: EfS K-12 Scope and Sequence
/There are many options when it comes to designing curriculum that educates for sustainability. Some educators prefer to "sustainablize" their curriculum by working with the commencement edition of The Cloud Institute’s EfS Standards and Performance Indicators and cross walking and embedding them where and when appropriate. This also involves determining which ones are developmentally appropriate at each grade level. Others prefer we do that for them. If you would like to see how we would "sustainablize" our K-12 curriculum from the first quarter of Kindergarten to the last quarter of 12th grade, check out our new EfS Scope and Sequence.
Long Awaited Education for Sustainability Benchmarks Released on Earth Day
/Educating for a Sustainable Future: Benchmarks for Individual and Social Learning will be released by The Journal of Sustainability Education on Earth Day, April 22, 2017. This 70-page account is authored by, and represents the current and best thinking of forty-two of the major scholars and practitioners of the field of Education for Sustainability (EfS). The Benchmarks include the Big Ideas, Thinking Skills, Applied Knowledge, Dispositions, Actions, and Community Connections that define Education for Sustainability. They embody the essential elements that administrators, curriculum professionals, faculty, board and community members need to adopt Education for Sustainability; to align with it; to self-assess their own performance, and to intentionally and effectively educate for the future we want by design. In addition, The Benchmarks embody the consensus that the field needs to demonstrate the impact of EfS and to catalyze wide spread implementation.
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