Fall News | The Shift Towards a Sustainable Future
/EfS Curriculum Design with The National Park Service
We are proud to announce our collaboration with the National Park Service to assist educators in their efforts to educate for sustainability through formal and informal education programs.
National Park Service Educators are participating from all over the country in our EfS Curriculum Design Studios. We are excited about the depth and breadth of the work we are doing and are grateful for the opportunity to work with such an amazing array of national park sites spanning the country, including Alaska, and scheduled to also support island groups in both the Pacific and Atlantic.
The Future Sustainability of Education and Research
In the opening paragraph of the promotional materials for the Oxford Forum I participated in last spring was a quote I pulled, “…discuss issues central to all our work and discuss practical steps towards the future sustainability of education and research. So in preparation for my talk, I asked the following question:
“Is it the sustainability of education and research that is the focus of the conversations or is it how education can contribute to sustaining human and other life on planet Earth? Maybe both?”
If we successfully educate for a sustainable future, then we will create favorable conditions to make the shift toward a sustainable future, because EfS will have contributed to our individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives-and all life-depend. If we don’t educate for a sustainable future in the way the Benchmarks describe, then we won’t need to worry about education because we won’t be here. We do not have the luxury to spend any time on the latter scenario.
The EfS Reservoir of Curriculum Exemplars
The EfS Reservoir is a multi-media repository of exemplars aligned to the EfS Benchmarks. The exemplars include quality curriculum units, courses, assessments, performance criteria, student work samples and eventually stories, interviews, discussions, images, narration and film that will illustrate the contexts and the impact of this work in schools and communities.
Do you have exemplary curricula or lesson plans that showcase the attributes of Education for Sustainability? We invite you to share your lesson plans and learning experiences for professional review. Help us grow the collection for quality curricula that educates for sustainability.
The Waggle from Regeneration.org
We track and share stories and case studies of people around the world who are contributing to sustainability and regeneration. Regeneration is a book by Paul Hawken, a project with a newsletter, and a website. Their mission is to reverse global warming in one generation. Below is a newsletter preview and you can read the full issue here: The Waggle - Issue 57
Courtney White: Collaboration and ecological restoration are critical to solving the freshwater crisis – A diverse partnership in northern England, including a utility company, the National Trust, Natural England, and a local rewilding group, are working together to restore degraded watersheds and improve freshwater quality and quantity in the face of climate change. Activities include peat bog restoration, the establishment of tree corridors along streams, re-meandering channelized rivers, and coordination between public and private landowners.
Your Support Is Appreciated
The Cloud Institute exists to ensure the viability of sustainable communities by leveraging changes in PreK-12 school systems so that we may prepare young people for the shift toward a sustainable future. Friends like you make it possible.
Your donation gives us the flexibility to create new opportunities for the teachers, students and the communities we serve.