Magic Spots - the most important activity in earth education?

This simple activity is part of all earth education programmes. At Sunship Earth participants have many magic spots including early morning and night-time magic spots. Many youngsters report that the magic spot was their favourite activity. It is certainly a very engaging activity which gives close contact with the natural world. Dr Chris Walton has researched the impact of Magic Spots for his PhD and has collected some very moving reports from young people. Maybe he will share some of these with us?

First hand frequent contact with the natural world is crucial in creating an environmental ethic. Frequent and ongoing magic spots are also, I believe, good for mental and emotional welfare and I suspect also for physical well-being.

I frequently walk in the Wyre Forest, keeping up a brisk pace, sometimes pausing to look at birds through my binoculars. However, this week I realised that though I frequently extol the virtues of magic spots I had not treated myself to one of my own for a long time. So I did. I left the path, found a small tree surrounded by bracken and settled down. An hour passed very quickly!

Please share your own thoughts and experiences of magic spots and any observations that you have of their impact on youngsters.

John Rhymer

Where are they now?

Does anyone still  have contact with people who attended earth education programmes when youngsters? We like to think that an earth education programme has a lasting effect on participants. Research has shown that there is a lasting impact on understandings of ecological processes and on attitudes to helping the environment but such studies usually only follow up for 6 months up to two years after participating in a programme. Children move up through the education system and it is difficult to keep track of participants.

We know from running Wyre Forest Sunship Earth that a number of participants come back as young leaders on the programme and we can see that they love Sunship Earth and are keen to help other young people to have these experiences. Many go on to study environmental related subjects at University and/or train to be teachers. I sometimes  hear from friends whose children have attended the programme and they often report that their children have followed similar career pathways.

We also hear that many youngsters on returning home, pester their parents to adopt more environmentally responsible habits in the home. However this is often short lived! , Once they become teenagers they sometimes rebel against their family environmental good habits (parents who send their children to SSE are often pretty committed to living lightly in the first place). I suspect though that once teenage rebellion has passed, many reclaim their environmental commitments.

Do you know anyone who attended an earth education programme in the past? What are they doing now? Are they working in an environmentally related career? Volunteering? Demonstrate environmental good habits in their lives?  Please post your responses.

John Rhymer

Earth Keepers - earning the Y and S keys

 

Some encouraging news from the Institute for Earth education Annual Reportfor 2012 regarding completion by participants of the of Earthkeepers programme.

I have highlighted those sites that are in the UK. As you will see, they are a healthy proportion of the sites world-wide that have achieved these high completion rates.

At each of the following centres, 90% to 100% of their Earthkeepers participants in 2012 earned all four keys to complete the full programme:

Christ Church Grammar School - Kooringal, Dwellingup, Western Australia, Australia

CELP Edgewood Eden Mills, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Hamilton Wentworth District School Board, Outbound, Waterdown, Ontario, Canada

Upper Grand District School Board, Norwell CELP, Palmerston, Ontario, Canada

YMCA of Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo, St. Clements, Ontario

Garrett Hall Primary School, Tyldesley, Manchester, Lancashire, UK

London Youth Hindleap Warren, Forest Row, East Sussex, UK

My Green World at Folly Farm Centre, Pensford, Bristol, UK

Agua Caliente Park, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Lake Forest Open Lands Association, Lake Forest, Illinois, USA

Teaching Responsible Earth Education (T.R.E.E.), New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

And at these centres, at least 80% of the participants completed the full programme:

Meriharjun luontotalo, Helsinki, Finland

High Down Junior School, Congresbury, North Somerset, UK

Earth Learning Adventures, Fort Gratiot, Michigan, USA

Starflower Experiences, Huntington, New York, USA

IEE do not have returns from all the centres offering Earthkeepers so do let me (and IEE) know what your percentage completion rates are. And if you are struggling to get all your learners to complete the programme then I am sure that foks at the centres which are achieving this would be happy to discuss with you how they do it.

Incidentally I spoke to Bruce Johnson at the recent Real World Learning Conference where he was a keynote speaker and he tells me that IEE plan to produce more materials to support teachers back in school to help their learners carry out their tasks and earn their keys. They plan to use some of the classroom materials which Jon Cree and I wrote for Rangers of the Earth many years ago.

John Rhymer

Earth Education UK Annual Meeting 2013

I just wanted to give you all a brief account of the "earth education UK" AGM and meeting in September.

 

A number of us met up at the Wild Peak Housing Cooperative in Derbyshire, base for Wild Things and home to Nick (our outgoing Chair) and his partner Kate.

The AGM itself did not occupy too much time while we went through the usual proceedings, during which I inadvertently allowed myself to be elected Chair!

Many thanks to Helen Moore who has continued to hold things together for earth education UK over the past year and to Kate for kindly taking the minutes for the AGM and agreeing to be Secretary for the next year.

 

After a wonderful shared meal   eaten outdoors in the sunshine we looked at the props which how Wild Things manage to offer earth education programmes in a variety of locations which have public access. There was creative discussion of how The Great Specktackle in particular could be made simpler to set up and run.

 

We then adjourned to a small nearby woodland to light storm kettles to make tea followed by a magic spot. Further discussion of the work that Wild Things does with schools was accompanied by delicious vegan chocolate and banana pudding.

 

It was good to meet up with friends,  share experiences and renew energy and enthusiasm for our work in earth education.  Our focus for the next year will be to improve networking for members of earth education and others interested in earth education. We hope that you will all support us in this.

 

John Rhymer

Earth Education props

I wonder how many people are put off running earth education activities by the time and effort that it takes to make props? For many of us, hunting down the materials and making our own props is one of the pleasures of being an earth educator. Specially when sitting around with a group of friends, all helping. However, for many of us work seems to be occupying a greater and greater time and time to make props gets less and less. One can buy some items ready made though without those special earth education touches they may lack the magic and clear demonstration of commitment that carefully and lovingly crafted props can demonstrate.
we have created some props that can be bought ready made. Cutting out a class set of 30 colour dabs is quite a pleasant task and the reward comes when the children respond to these lovingly made props. When faced with making hundreds or thousands of colour palettes  every year, then earth education UK has the answer. ready cut palettes which just need the application of double sided tape. Are there any other props which you find hard to source or tedious/difficult to make and which you would be prepared to have someone make for you?

Let us hear your ideas or maybe offers to make props for sale.

Welcome!

Welcome to the first ever blog post by earth education UK!! Please feel free to comment on any of the posts here or suggest new things for us to cover.  If you have an article or photos you'd like us to share for you, please email them to eartheducationuk@gmail.com