Subscribe now to EECOM 2021

Early registration is now open for EECOM2021.  This year, for the first time the largest National Environmental Education conference in Canada will take place online from 21-24 April 2021.

Teachers, students, classes, community organizations and parents will be welcomed. The Conference will begin on April 21 with a research symposium with some of the most eminent researchers and teachers in Canada and around the world. The following 3 days there will be dynamic sessions and workshops focused on four themes: the city as a classroom, indigenous education, eco-justice education and education relating to water.

There will be 3 opening presentations: Larissa Crawford on Earth Day, indigenous artists Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch and Julian Agyeman on climate justice and more than 100 presenters over more than 70 sessions. Participants will have the opportunity to socialize with other members of EECOM community during the “Green Night”.

To find more about the program and to register, click here and for the english form here

Research Grants Program for academic projects

The Spencer Foundation launches the Small Research Grants Program. It supports education research projects that will contribute to the improvement of education, broadly conceived, with budgets up to $50,000 for projects ranging from one to five years.

This program is “field-initiated” in that proposal submissions are not in response to a specific request for a particular research topic, discipline, design, method, or location. The goal is to support rigorous, intellectually ambitious and technically sound research that is relevant to the most pressing questions and compelling opportunities in education. The proposals will span a wide range of topics and disciplines that innovatively investigate questions central to education, including for example education, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, sociology, law, economics, history, or neuroscience, amongst others.

Projects that utilize a wide array of research methods including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, ethnographies, design-based research, participatory methods, and historical research are welcome.

Proposals to the Research Grants on Education program must be for academic research projects that aim to study education. Proposals for activities other than research are not eligible.

Applications are accepted three times per year. The first deadline is March 1, 2021.

Read more information here

Program contact: Jasmine Janicki, smallgrants@spencer.org

Call for ideas. African Youth Platform for Climate

As part of African Youth Platform for Climate initiative, a call was launched to choose the best ideas and projects of young start-ups in environment and climate fields.

Selected candidates will benefit from a 6 months incubation program to support their project and bring them to maturity.

Here you can find the Incubation Program

The African Youth Climate Hub is an initiative to respond to and amplify the voices and action of Youth, starting with African Youth. It aims to be a positive space for exchange and concrete support for young Africans both in terms of skills and knowledge and in terms of entrepreneurship and job opportunities. To learn more about them, visit their website.

Here you can submit your project 

This initiative is a formal partnership between the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, the YOUNGO (Children and Youth Constituency to United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), OCP Group and University Mohammed VI Polytechnic . Additional partners are welcome, in particular African based partners for the initial African phase of this initiative.

 

Call for applications: 3rd Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards

The French Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), in partnership with the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and Plan Bleu, launches the 3rd edition of the Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards.

The Mediterranean basin is the second-most impacted area by climate change after the Arctic as shown in the recent MedECC (Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change) report.

Adapting to climate change is a priority for this particularly vulnerable area.

Cities and rural communities across the Mediterranean must therefore work to create stable social, economic and environmental conditions so that the region is better able to deal with the impact of extreme weather and events linked to climate change.

The 3rd edition of the Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards is an opportunity to raise awareness of the urgent need to take action and the importance of working together to create inspiring and innovative solutions that can be used throughout the region.

A competition to encourage territories to adapt to climate change

The Mediterranean Climate Change Adaptation Awards identify and mobilise the key players involved in implementing projects to adapt to climate change from coastal, urban and rural territories across the Mediterranean. The aim is to reward exemplary and replicable practices in order to encourage other parts of the region to take action to adapt to the challenges presented by climate change.

Previous editions of the Awards have celebrated more than 50 projects from across 15 Mediterranean countries, such as the coastal management plan designed by the County of Šibenik-Knin in Croatia, the work of the Union of Municipalities of the District of Bint Jbeil in Lebanon and many more.

Here are key competition dates:

  • 20th January 2021 Competition start date
  • 15th April 2021 Competition end date
  • June 2021 Award Ceremony

The Award Ceremony will take place during the European Climate Change Adaptation Conference (ECCA) in Brussels.

For further information: www.medadapt-awards.com

Let’s talk about education

Wednesday 20th January at 5 PM – 5.45 PM (Montreal local time)

During this webinar Parlons d’éducation (Let’s talk about education), Lucie Sauvé, WEEC Advisory Board member and associated professor at UQAM didactic Department, will answer Martin Duquette questions, deputy general director of CSSPI (Centre de services scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Ille) about environmental education.

You can follow the event live at this page facebook.com/uqamdiplomes/

To participate you just have to register at event on Facebook or LinkedIn

This activity is organized by the Bureau des diplômés of Quebec University in Montreal in collaboration with the Conseil de diplômés of Environmental Science Faculty.

For further information: https://diplomes.uqam.ca/55-a-l-agenda/1093-parlons-d-education

Today, with the impact of the pandemic, sustainable solutions are a pressing and urgent need. If you have an innovative sustainability solution in the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water or Global High Schools, apply to the #ZayedSustainabilityPrize.

The Zayed Sustainability Prize, an evolution of the Zayed Future Energy Prize, is the UAE’s pioneering global award in sustainability and a tribute to the legacy of the late founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Established in 2008, this annual award recognises and rewards the achievements of those who are driving impactful, innovative and inspiring sustainability solutions across five distinct categories: Health, Food, Energy, Water and Global High Schools.

Submissions are open until 6th May 2021. Here you can see the Zayed Sustainability Prize submissions portal

What challenges do research face today? Webinar with Lucie Sauvé

Lucie Sauvé, professor in the Department of Didactics at the University of Quebec at Montreal, emeritus researcher and co-founder of Centr’ERE, initiates the 2020-2021 series of conferences of Centr-ERE (research center in education and training on environmental education and citizenship).

Has this interminable episode of the pandemic allowed us to sufficiently feel the need for links between ourselves and with the living world, to encourage us to finally transform the way we live here, together? How does the current context invite us to rethink the deployment of research in environmental education?

The presentation will be followed by a discussion period.

Online event: Zoom link here

Facebook event

 

 

Ocean Literacy: a toolkit by Unesco

“The ocean is a source of food, energy, minerals, increasingly of medications; it regulates the Earth’s climate and hosts the greatest diversity of life and ecosystems, and is a provider of economic, social and aesthetic services to humankind – write Vladimir RyabininES/IOC-UNESCO and QianTangADG/ED in the foreward – Knowing and understanding the ocean’s influence on us, and our influence on the ocean is crucial to living and acting sustainably”.

It is made of two parts. The first part presents the history of ocean literacy, and describes its framework made of 7 essential principles, and connects them to international ocean science programs that contributes to enhancing ocean knowledge and observations. Moreover, marine scientists and educators were interviewed to share their professional experiences on ocean literacy as well as their views on its future. The last chapter of part 1 describes the existing challenges to marine education, as well as the path for the development of successful ocean literacy activities in the context of the 2030 Agenda. One of the most important factors identified is related to the creation of multi-sector partnerships among the education, government, and private sector that have jointly built ocean literacy programs for all formal educational levels from the primary school to the university level as well as for non-formal learners. Worldwide examples of such programs are presented.

The second part, after introducing the methodological approach based on the multi-perspective framework for ESD developed by UNESCO, presents 14 activities that could provide tested examples and support for the implementation of marine education initiatives. The aim is not to provide a one size-fits-all ready to use collection, but rather to offer support and examples of what could be then adapted for different geographical and cultural contexts. The resources are designed to be relevant for all learners of all ages worldwide and to find their application in many learning settings, while in their concrete implementation they will, naturally, have to be adapted to the national or local context

«We hope that this publication will inspire the readers – scientists, educators and learners – to take greater personal responsibility for the ocean, as well as to enable them to act as citizens, working through partnerships and networks, sharing ideas and experiences and developing new approaches and initiatives in support of ocean literacy. The ocean is the great unifier and it is our shared responsibility to preserve it for the current and future generations»

Read more

AMWAJ Forum 2020. Energy and water: challanges of the Mediterranean

AMWAJ (A Mediterranean Water And Journalism) is a platform that is focused on tackling water scarcity and energy challenges while identifying young talent that help provide innovative game-changing solutions. AMWAJ is also a regional incubator and facilitator for sustainable development that encourages an exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Through partnerships with leading organizations across the Mediterranean region, it is positioned to act as a network of networks in the water and energy sector. It creates links between researchers, media experts, industry and institutions, believing in interdisciplinary collaboration, institutional cooperation and intercultural communication. These are the bases of a future Euro-Mediterranean community.

AMWAJ provides enabling conditions for media and researchers to connect, empowering a new generation of reporters, experts and decision-makers with the knowledge and skills to communicate accurately and effectively the value of water and energy in society and to constructively policy-making through articles, photo essays, videos, exhibitions, reports, events, training, and other multimedia material. It bridges the gap between science, policy-making and society and contributes to the development of new discourses in the domain of the environment to accelerate sustainable development around the Mediterranean region.

It organizes a bi-annual conference bringing together research, media and policy that brings together a movement of hundreds of young professional journalists, researchers and entrepreneurs from the shared geographic space of the 43 countries that comprise the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM).

AMWAJ forum started under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Hassan of Jordan and PepsiCo MENA in 2016 and travsersed the Mediterranean in 2018 to Barcelona with the Government of Catalonia, the European Investment Bank and other partners.

The next edition of AMWAJ Forum ( co-organized by the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation LCEC in partnering with the World Energy Week) will be in Sin el-Fil, Beirut, from 7 – 9 October 2020.

The 2020 edition will catalyse knowledge exchange, promote technical discussions and strengthen partnerships and networks amongst the Mediterranean water, energy and sustainability communities. It will serve as a platform for media, researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and civil society from around the Mediterranean to collaborate and exchange around these key regional topics. The forum’s ultimate objective is to communicate the value of water and energy in society accurately and effectively, while constructively influencing policy-making in these fields. All sessions will be moderated by Mediterranean journalists or representatives from communication offices.

 

Speaking 4 the Planet, join the competition

Speaking for the Planet is an international Arts-based competition for high school students. These events have World Environment Day themes and the Sustainability Development Goals as their focus. The competition categories are speaking, drama,art, video-making and writing.

Kids 4 the Planet is the primary school equivalent.

This competition is by invitation and it is unfunded. Until now it involved schools from England, Slovenia, Hungary, Brazil, Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, US, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Kenya, Laos, Palau, Netherlands, Sweden.

Speaking 4 the Planet encourages participants to think differently. If we are to achieve sustainable communities, we will need people to be able to think creatively – often away from the mainstream – and express and support novel ideas in public arenas. We will need people who can persuade decision-makers and community members to choose sustainability options and directions. Speaking 4 the Planet provides opportunities for students to offer quirky solutions and build skills in communication, advocacy and change.

Let’s participate in the competition 2020 by Friday 25 September! The focus is the World Environment Day theme and the Sustainability Development Goals. Events are registered on the UN’s website. Events take much of a school day. They are normally held in schools or council chambers. The program includes welcome addresses from the hosts and sponsors, a video with information on the specific topic of the event.

A student and teacher Resource Pack is provided to help students prepare for the competition. The package includes the judging criteria, which are linked to curriculum requirements for speaking and drama.

Categories

Speech 3-4 minute speech. Participants send a video of themselves delivering the speech. A written copy of the speech will also need to be sent (in Word). In English.
Art Participants send 3 photos of the artwork they produce.
Meme In English.
Writing Participants are asked to write a (only!) 30 word piece on the topic. In English.

Topic

Bridging the needs of People and Planet: If we don’t get the human stuff right, we can’t get the environmental stuff right. This topic is deliberately linked to the theme of the 2021 World Environmental Education Congress, Building Bridges.

If you are interested in these initiatives, please write to the director, Phil Smith, to have more information (phil@speaking4theplanet.org.au).

 

See the 2019 edition