Asbergers is a superpower

by | Sep 16, 2019 | Climate Action

At 16, climate activist Greta Thunberg has been called the greatest threat to the world’s fossil fuel industry. The teenager first made headlines last year with her solitary strike against climate change outside Sweden’s parliament – since then, she’s inspired millions of supporters to rally in more than 150 countries. Here is her first interview on CBS News:

Here is the original post…

A brand new way of looking at the Global Goals

A brand new way of looking at the Global Goals

by | Jul 18, 2019 | SDGs, Teaching Resources

Here is an excellent way to represent and organise the UN Sustainable Development Goals that I came across today.

More posts about the SDGs

SDG printouts for you to use

SDG printouts for you to use

by | Jun 23, 2019 | SDGs, Teaching Resources

We now have a beautiful PDF printout for each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for your use. These PDFs are provided by the UN and can be freely used in whatever way you wish to raise awareness to help people explore the SDGs.

They are available in the Resources section. Click the filter to show ‘Downloads’ and chose which one you wish to download. Alternatively, you can download all of them here… (12.4MB)

Download the SDG PDFs here...

The Global Goals Icons - Goal 16

These PDF printouts are two pages long – one with the title and icon of the goal, the second with an image and an example of how you might support it. Please comment on this blog post below to share how you use them! We’d love to showcase your ideas, teaching strategies or ways you use them in your organisation.

The power of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to ensure inquiry and problem based learning truly foster global-mindedness in learners

The power of the UN Sustainable Development Goals to ensure inquiry and problem based learning truly foster global-mindedness in learners

by | May 13, 2019 | SDGs, Showcase

Schools world-wide are utilising inquiry, problem-based, design thinking approaches to learning in order to grow empathetic understanding and international mindedness.

Students are taking action through collaborative initiatives locally or globally focused on issues such as climate change and in the process, are developing a global mindset. That is, developing skill sets in problem-solving, creative thinking, innovation and collaboration to name a few.

The challenge is – are students only developing a shallow topic-based knowledge culminating in collaborative action that has the feel-good factor? Rather, we want students to develop a deep understanding about the global issues threatening humanity and true empathy towards those most affected leading to meaningful action.

The solution is – aligning unit of inquiry or problem based investigation with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. The students not only have the opportunity to unpack all 17 goals, thereby having a full picture of all global issues facing humanity but also, they provide students with a chance to impact a global blueprint for dignity, peace and prosperity for the planet, now and in the future. 

The Sustainable Development Goals, which are sometimes referred to as the SDGs or the ‘Global Goals’ are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. 

Including the SDGs in the design of our curriculum will enable students to become positive and action participants in findings solutions to these problems, while lifting the level of challenge and relevance they experience.

So, how do we align our planning with the Sustainable Development Goals?

What follows is one school’s approach to aligning the goals with a year 8 inquiry-based Passion Project and a year 6 IB PYP Exhibition. The tactic chosen to unpack the SDGs was – what makes your heart break and what makes your heart sing?

What makes your heart break is directly connected to one of the SDGs that deeply resonates with the students. They then consider what makes their heart sing which is linked to their passions and interests. Their inquiry/investigation then becomes a merging of the two leading to sustainable, deep action.

Below is an example of some students ideas and how they were linked to the SDGs and their passions:

 

The culminating actions taken by the students were powerful and deep. For example, a year 8 student wrote haiku poems focused on refugees (SDG #4 Quality Education), screen printed the poems onto tea towels and raised $1500 for UNICEF.

Crammed boat,

Woken seas

Dance in the full moon.

Haiku by Evie

The impact of her haiku poems will be lasting and a constant reminder to many people of the need to:

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Utilising the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is a powerful way to ensure students are developing a deep sense of global-mindedness. If you would like some more tips for teaching using the SDGs, check out this post.

Dr Lyn Bird

Principal

Selwyn House School

Christchurch

New Zealand

l.bird@selhouse.school.nz

www.selwynhouse.school.nz

Teaching using the Sustainable Development Goals

Teaching using the Sustainable Development Goals

by | Apr 24, 2019 | SDGs, Teaching Resources

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, sometimes referred to as the Global Goals, or the SDGs for short, provide many wonderful teaching opportunities. This post is in response to a colleague on the NZ Primary Teachers’ Facebook group who asked:

The 17 SDGs are quite overwhelming. We cannot cover them all. Can you suggest a ranked list for the SDGs by importance, relevance, or engagement for our NZ students? (Ours specifically are high academic year 8 students). Or if we were going to pick out 4, which 4 would you suggest?

Here are some suggestions for how you might approach this problem and involve your students in meaningful ways as you explore the SDGs with them – if you have other ideas, we’d love to hear in the comments.

Start with student passions

To do list for the planetStarting with student passions and local needs is one of the most effective ways to teach with and through the SDGs. This will enable you to easily contextualise the issues and your students will be more likely to see them as relevant and pressing (which they are).

Here are some pointers to help get you started:

  1. Which of the SDGs are your students most passionate about, and
  2. Which of the SDGs are most relevant to your students and their community, or…
  3. What they are most interested in and then link this to an SDG…

…what other ideas do you have?

Get students to justify their reasoning by explaining why/etc. If you involve the students in identifying which SDG(s) they feel are most important – for whatever reason – that will lead you to the ones to focus on.

The SDGs are aimed at addressing really big global issues, which some would term ‘wicked problems‘, so let’s help our learners design local actions and solutions that collectively lead to making the world a better place!

Useful websites to start with

UNwebquests

unwebquestsOur very own project designed to engage students across NZ and their teachers and communities – check out over 100 resources developed for Kiwi students at unwebquests.nz

Students can even submit their own learning outcomes to showcase on this site…

Comic - The Planet And The 17 Goals

The Planet & the 17 GoalsThe Planet and the 17 Goals is an amazing comic book for students to use about the 17 goals created by Margreet de Heer.

It includes an online interactive website, a downloadable PDF and a slideshow which is showcased on our site here…

SDG Tracker

The SDG Tracker presents data across all available indicators from the Our World in Data database, using official statistics from the UN and other international organizations. It is the first publication that tracks global progress towards the SDGs and allows people around the world to hold their governments accountable to achieving the agreed goals.

Podcast - The global goals we've made progress on -- and the ones we haven't

TEDtalk SDG progress“We are living in a world that is tantalizingly close to ensuring that no one need die of hunger or malaria or diarrhea,” says economist Michael Green.

To help spur progress, back in 2015 the United Nations drew up a set of 17 goals around important factors like health, education and equality. In this data-packed talk, Green shares his analysis on the steps each country has (or hasn’t) made toward these Sustainable Development Goals — and offers new ideas on what needs to change so we can achieve them.

More resources

These resources are just a sampling of what is available online. Over time we will curate more and keep them in our searchable database in the Resources section on this website.

We would welcome your ideas and suggestions in the comments on this post below…

Comic – The Planet and the 17 Goals

Comic – The Planet and the 17 Goals

by | Mar 23, 2019 | SDGs, Teaching Resources

To do list for the planetThe Planet and the 17 Goals is an amazing comic book for students to use about the 17 goals created by Margreet de Heer. It includes an online interactive website, a downloadable PDF and this slideshow below.

Background to this resource:

In September 2015, the 193 countries of The United Nations launched The Global Goals of Sustainable Development, a commitment to achieve 3 extraordinary things in the next 15 years: end extreme poverty, fight inequality & injustice and fix climate change. 

In order to get this done, 17 Goals have been set.

In April 2015, I was asked by organization Reading with Pictures to join their initiative Comics Uniting Nations, which aims to spread the word about the 17 Goals in the form of comics.

Schools Strike 4 Climate Action NZ

Schools Strike 4 Climate Action NZ

by | Mar 11, 2019 | Climate Action, Events

Last year, a 15-year-old Swedish girl called Greta Thunberg did a small thing that inspired a big movement.

Greta ThunbergShe made the choice to strike from school and spend her days instead protesting climate change outside the Swedish Parliament. Her reasons for doing it have resonated with hundreds of thousands of children and young people across the world.

“Some say I should be in school. But why should any young person be made to study for a future when no one is doing enough to save that future? What is the point of learning facts when the most important facts given by the finest scientists are ignored by our politicians?”

– Greta Thunberg

Now, this global movement has arrived in New Zealand. On March 15, we will be joining a global youth climate strike that will span dozens of countries around the world, from Africa to Europe, from Australia to North and South America.

Will you support us? Here’s a link to our events…

The events will feature youth speakers, activities, and chanting. It will be a safe and completely inclusive space, with heaps of volunteer officials for support. We invite all kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary students to join us – this movement concerns all of our futures.

We also invite all parents, teachers, whanau and members of the community to stand with us on the day – we need your support and intergenerational solidarity. If you’re a teacher, consider taking your class to a local action as a “class trip”.

We are doing this because we have the right to inherit a liveable planet from our parents and grandparents. For over 50 years, politicians and businesses have known that climate change poses an existential threat to life on Earth. 

They’ve known that we can’t afford to keep burning fossil fuels, or depleting our oceans, rivers, forests, and land. In this knowledge, they have continued to do it anyway, and played political ping-pong with our future.

Learn how to get involved...

We are the ones who will inherit the consequences of this inaction, and we are scared. What will we do if the ecosystems we depend on collapse? Where will all the people who lose their homes go?

We have a vision for a safe climate future. One with plentiful native forests, clean rivers, and thriving ecosystems that allow life to flourish. We refuse to give up on that future, not only for ourselves, but for all future generations.

We’re going on strike from school on March 15 to protect this future, and send a strong, united message to the New Zealand Government that the youth of Aotearoa New Zealand demand urgent action.

We, the youth have started to rise, and we will not stop until we see climate justice.

This was written by Raven Maeder.

Will you join us?

A girl’s view of the 17 sustainable development goals – in pictures

A girl’s view of the 17 sustainable development goals – in pictures

by | Mar 10, 2019 | SDGs, Teaching Resources

A girl standing where her house used to be, which was washed away due to heavy floods in Chawhara, Bangladesh, illustrating goal 13 – climate action. Photograph: Josh Estey/Care International.

If you don’t know where to start with the SDGs, start with women and girls everything else will fall into place,’ said UN Women head Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka recently. These photographs of women and girls all over the world illustrate each of the 17 SDGs. The exhibition was part of last year’s European Week of Action for Girls

Goal 1 – no poverty

Eti is a domestic worker, the most common form of child labour in Bangladesh. She illustrates goal 1 – no poverty. Poverty is multidimensional and goes beyond income poverty. Girls bear the brunt of poverty in many societies: they are often the first in a household to drop out of school, or miss out on food.

Photograph: Ken Hermann/Save the Children

Goal 2 – zero hunger

Eleven-year-old schoolgirl Djeneba peels the corn harvested by her familyEleven-year-old schoolgirl Djeneba peels the corn harvested by her family. She illustrates goal 2 – zero hunger. Women and girls are often excluded from decision making on land and resources critical to their livelihoods and food security. Work on this goal must ensure that women and girls – who are frequently responsible for their family’s smallholdings – benefit equally from all targets, especially from access to land and financial services.

Photograph: World Vision

Goal 3 – good health and wellbeing

A midwife examines a heavily pregnant woman in Myanmar’s Chin State, illustrating goal 3 – good health and wellbeing. A midwife examines a heavily pregnant woman in Myanmar’s Chin StateThis goal has a wide range of areas including: reducing maternal mortality, ending preventable deaths of newborns and children under five, ending and combating diseases such as HIV and malaria, reducing non-communicable diseases, improving treatment of substance abuse, reducing deaths and injuries from traffic accidents, ensuring sexual and reproductive health and rights services and universal health coverage for all.

Photograph: Peter Biro/International Rescue Committee

Goal 4 – quality education

goal 4 – quality educationGirls at school in Bihar state, India, illustrating goal 4 – quality education, which recognises the transformative power of inclusive education. It aims to ensure access to free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education for girls and boys and to technical vocational and tertiary education and relevant skills for sustainable development, including literacy and numeracy, for youth and adults. Photograph: Ehtisham Husain/European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development

Goal 5 – gender equality

Girls take a break from training with their football team in Lusaka, Zambia, illustrating goal 5 – gender equality. It aims to end all forms of discrimination, and eliminate all forms of violence and harmful practices against all women and girls everywhere. Reaching this goal will necessitate recognising and valuing unpaid care and domestic work, ensuring women’s full participation and equal opportunities for leadership in political, economic and public life, and accessing sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Photograph: Plan International

Goal 6 – clean water and sanitation

Villagers in Senegal enjoy a sustainable supply of clean drinking water, illustrating goal 6 – clean water and sanitation. In many societies, girls and women have primary responsibility for the management of household water supply and those who live in the poorest rural areas often have to walk for several kilometres each day to collect water for their families. If achieved, this goal will be particularly transformative for the most marginalised girls and women living in poverty in rural areas as they will have more time for education and income-generating activities.

Photograph: Yasmine Sweetlove/2013 Lux-Development

Goal 7 – affordable and clean energy

A young girl from Niger carries animal dung on her head to sell at a local market, illustrating goal 7 – affordable and clean energy. In the poorest areas of many developing countries most energy currently comes from fuels such as wood, charcoal and agricultural wastes. Collecting these fuels is often the responsibility of women and girls. This is a physically draining task that can take up to 20 hours per week and girls are sometimes kept home from school to help gather fuel. Moreover, women and girls face increased risk of sexual harassment and assault when travelling long distances.

Photograph: Plan International

Goal 8 – decent work and economic growth

 
 
 
Shukri, an 18-year-old seamstress, is now running her own business in Puntland, Somalia after doing vocational training, illustrating goal 8 – decent work and economic growth.
 
It aims to achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training, eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking, and end child labour and the use of child soldiers.

Photograph: Hedinn Halldorsson/Save the Children

Goal 9 – industry, innovation and infrastructure

A woman walks along rail tracks in Kenya illustrating goal 9 – industry, innovation and infrastructure. Infrastructure projects are often gender insensitive because it is assumed that everyone will automatically benefit equally, without recognition of the differences in their respective situations. Gender mainstreaming is critical in ensuring that women and girls do not become worse off.

Photograph: Graeme Robertson/IPPF EN

Goal 10 – reduced inequalities

UN women’s voices against violence training in western India illustrating goal 10 – reduced inequalities. This goal is especially key for girls, and it demonstrates the overlapping inequalities they face on the grounds of their age and gender, race, ethnicity, income poverty, disability, and as a result of discriminatory social norms. Together with an enabling environment for gender equality, this goal will help to reduce the inequalities that hold girls back.

Photograph: Urjasi Rudra/UN Women

Goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities

Young volunteers at the Family Planning Association of Albania gather at their university residence in Tirana illustrating goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities. This goal is key for girls and women as many face the risk of gender-based violence in and around the cities and settlements they live in on a daily basis. This threat is exacerbated by disasters, lack of safe public transport and street lighting.

Photograph: Layla Aerts/IPPF

Goal 12 – responsible consumption and production

A woman in Nairobi stands in front of her fruit and vegetable stall, which was supported by a cooperative group and NGO funding, illustrating goal 12 – responsible consumption and production. This goal affects the future of some of the most marginalised girls in the world. These girls are less likely to have an impact on the environment through their patterns of consumption, but suffer from the negative environmental impacts of global production and consumption patterns.

Photograph: Jonathan Torgovnik/Reportage by Getty Images

Goal 13 – climate action

A girl standing where her house used to be, which was washed away due to heavy floods in Chawhara, Bangladesh, illustrating goal 13 – climate action. Climate change has a disproportionate impact on the lives of women and girls in the poorest communities where gender inequality is firmly entrenched. Girls often face social, political and economic barriers that limit their capacity to cope with disasters linked to climate change. For example, the impact of droughts and floods can end a girl’s education and in the aftermath of disasters, the risk of gender-based violence is known to increase.

Photograph: Josh Estey/Care International

Goal 14 – life below water

 

A woman fishes for tilapia in El Salvador as part of a youth economic empowerment programme, illustrating goal 14 – life below water.

Reductions in pollution and controls on overfishing will help girls and women living in the poorest small-scale fishing communities.

There is often a misconception that women do not fish, yet their livelihoods are often linked to small-scale fishing, through coastal fishing and in fish markets.

Photograph: Luis Tobar/Plan International

Goal 15 – life on land

Young girls in Kabhre district, south-east of Kathmandu, Nepal, illustrating goal 15 – life on land. The sustainable use of ecosystems will benefit girls living in the areas most affected by damaged ecosystems as they are more likely to be affected by droughts and food insecurity caused by the impacts of land degradation. This goal must include girls and women as they are often responsible for collecting firewood for example, which contributes to deforestation.

Photograph: Graeme Robertson/IPPF

Goal 16 – peace, justice and strong institutions

A female officer of the Somali police force after completing training on human rights, and international humanitarian law and policing, illustration goal 16 – peace, justice and strong institutions. This goal is key to ensuring all girls can access and realise their rights. For example, birth registration means girls have access to services such as education and healthcare, and protecting them from child, early and forced marriage. The inclusion of a target on ending violence against children should lead to the development of comprehensive gender-sensitive child protection.

Photograph: Noor Khamis/UNDP Somalia

Goal 17 – partnerships for the goals

Girls from a female football team in Capa, Brazil dance in a circle, illustrating goal 17 – partnerships for the goals.
 
Without strong means of implementation, it will not be possible to achieve any of the other goals. Girls are affected by all the areas of this goal, and all actions within it must be gender-sensitive in order to ensure girls benefit equally.
 
In particular, it is key that all data collected across all goals is broken down by gender and age, so that governments and policymakers can fully understand the impact of the SDGs on girls’ lives.

Photograph: Leo Drumond/Plan International

This excellent slideshow is cross-posted from the Guardian in the UK site. If you have photos to contribute please get in touch with us.

How NZ decking timber choices compound a human rights crisis in West Papua

How NZ decking timber choices compound a human rights crisis in West Papua

by | Mar 2, 2019 | Human Rights

A New Zealand ban on kwila would send a signal that we’re serious about protecting our planet, its ancient forests and the people whose lives depend on them, writes Maire Leadbeater of West Papua Action Auckland

This article is cross-posted from The Spinoff…

Deforestation is said to contribute about 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In Brazil and Indonesia logging and forest conversion are the main source of the carbon emissions that have propelled them both into the list of the world’s top ten carbon polluters. 

Combating deforestation and helping to restore degraded forests could be the key to meeting the global target of no more than 2% rise in global temperature by 2030.

Alarmingly, Brazil’s new development-minded President, Jair Bolsonaro has designs for mines and farms that threaten to escalate the destruction of the Amazon.

In our region West Papua’s paradise forests face multiple threats – escalating illegal logging, gigantic palm oil conversion projects and a highway project that will cut deep into intact forest abutting the World Heritage Lorentz National Park.

Almost all the rainforest kwila (or merbau) that comes to our shores originates in Indonesian ruled West Papua. Kwila used to grow across the Asia Pacific but these days it is close to extinction as a species and is only present in commercial quantities on the island of New Guinea. Merbau takes 75 to 80 years to grow to maturity and it grows sparsely, usually only five to 10 trees per hectare. Kwila isn’t suitable for plantation planting and targeting it for logging cannot be done without the collateral damage caused by building roads.

Kwila is an attractive wood that stands up well to climate extremes, so it has been sought after for decking and outdoor furniture. It is now over a decade since Greenpeace exposed the vast scale of illegal logging of kwila. A ‘Don’t Buy Kwila’ campaign got under way in New Zealand and a number of retailers agreed to cease selling kwila furniture. Unfortunately, in 2008, a Labour-led government decided not to regulate against kwila imports and illegally logged wood, instead opting to encourage importers and consumers to do the right thing. A subsequent National-led government reinforced this approach. The New Zealand Imported Timber Trade Group (NZITTG) developed a voluntary code that commits its members to source their wood from third party certified sustainable/responsible sources. On paper government backs listing kwila with the Convention on the International Trade in endangered species, but it hasn’t actively pushed the issue.

Despite the good intentions of the NZITTG, these half-hearted measures have failed. Kwila decking continues to pour into New Zealand and unsurprisingly there are importers who don’t subscribe to the voluntary code and source “dodgy” kwila at lower prices. TradeMe has a policy that requires sellers of new kwila to provide certification of sustainability but current listings suggest it is not enforcing its pledge. As far as I am concerned, none of it, certified or not, can be viewed as sustainably supplied. We don’t certify ivory, we ban it because we want the elephants to survive and we should follow the same preventative strategy for kwila.

At the end of last year, on-the-ground reports provided damning evidence that West Papua’s extensive forest cover is under renewed attack. A report published by the well-respected Indonesian journal Tempo set out the subterfuges used to get around the Indonesian government’s weak system of policing illegal logging. The report described “timber laundering” that included the manipulation of barcodes and the taking of timber from unpermitted community forests. Investigators compared the satellite imagery showing recent deforestation with the quantities of kwila and other tropical timber being exported and estimated that only about one third was being officially accounted for.

New Zealand is not the main market for West Papua’s kwila – Europe and China cannot get enough of it – but we contribute to the problem.

Linked to the logging scandals are industrial scale palm oil conversion scandals.

 

Plans for the “Tanah Merah” project would see 2,800 square kilometres of forest (larger than the size of Stewart Island and Lake Taupo combined) logged out to make way for palm oil. Tribal people were reportedly pressed for their consent under military and police intimidation, and environment groups are pushing the Indonesian President to revoke the web of permits.

Since Indonesia took control of West Papua in 1963, indigenous rights have taken a distant back seat as Indonesia and multinational companies exploit the territory’s timber and mineral resources. Jakarta touts development as the answer to Papuan discontent, but disrupting traditional subsistence living causes nothing but hunger and misery. This land grab is a significant contributory factor to a human rights crisis which is so bad it is a kind of “slow genocide”.

A New Zealand ban on kwila would not end illegal logging or stop climate change, but it would send a signal that New Zealand is serious about protecting our planet, its ancient forests and the people whose lives depend on them.

This article is cross-posted from The Spinoff…

Take Your Seat on Climate Change

Take Your Seat on Climate Change

by | Feb 16, 2019 | Events

As part of the build up for the United Nation’s critical COP24 Climate Change Conference in Poland on December 3rd, Sir David Attenborough is the voice of a new “People’s Seat” which will be present at the conference.

Take Your Seat

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The UN is inviting people from all over the world to share their thoughts, opinions and experiences with climate change by using the hashtag #TakeYourSeat. These messages will help to shape the People’s Address, which will be delivered by Attenborough to the conference on the day.

What can your school do that day to increase awareness?

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