Friday, November 30, 2007

Re-Thinking Waste in Schools Workshop


Eight teachers from 5 Central Australian schools and 7 environmental experts from Alice Springs all met at the Desert Park today for the Re-Thinking Waste in Schools workshop.

The workshop was run through a wikispace which the teachers will continue to use to collaborate, share and plan both their units of work and the Big Waste Day Out celebration in August 2008. At the same time a group of Top End schools met in Darwin and were using the same wikispace to plan their own units of work and the Darwin Big Waste Day Out. To find out more and to see what the teachers are planning visit their re-thinking waste challenge wikispace


Teachers are planning all sorts of programs to create fun learning opportunities for their students that are purposeful and contextualised in the areas of reducing water, energy, litter and resource use, and increasing recycling and creative ways to deal with our waste.

If you want to join in with the Re-Thinking Waste Challenge, please contact emma.bliss@nt.gov.au (or louise.fogg@nt.gov.au if you are in the Top End)

The Re-Thinking Waste in Schools Central Australia Project is a collaborative initiative of Keep Australia Beautiful, DEET (Teaching Learning and Standard Division), NRETA (Waterwise and Alice Springs Desert Park) Gardens for Wildlife, DKA COOLmob, The Bowerbird Tip Shop and the Arid Lands Environment Centre.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Film Fundraiser for Children's Literacy Festival

The Children's Book Council of Australia are presenting

Elizabeth - The Golden Age,
a historcal thriller starring Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and Clive Owen

at The Alice Springs Cinema on Thursday 15th November at 6.30 pm.

Contact Ruth Jones 8955 0811 or 0427 524 399 for more information.

Tickets $15 available at Dymocks and Alice Springs Cinema

The Children's Literacy in the Centre (CLIC) Festival will take place in Alice Springs in May 2008

Friday, November 9, 2007

Solar Oven Bake-off


The solar oven bake-off will take place on Sunday November 18th in the Todd Mall.

The challenge is to cook a dish entirely on the day using only solar power as your heating source.

Baking begins at 11am and a panel of 3 esteemed judges will choose the winners at 4pm.

To create the winning masterpiece bring along your own solar oven, ingredients and imaginative recipies.

Entry is free for DKACOOLmob members and $5 for all other entrants.

Get your entry froms from the COOLmob website or contact Kat Taylor on 08 8952 0299

If you don't have your own solar oven yet The solar cooking archive may give you some tips on how to make your own.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools


Seed to Seed Food Gardens in Schools by Jude Fanton and Jo Immig is for teachers and parents on how to establish gardens that are biodiverse, organic and water-wise with low inputs and the full plant cycle from seed to seed. Chapters include the reasons for gardens in schools,planning, planting and maintaining, how to harvest and eat the garden and how to save seeds.

Using Google Reader to inform you of new blog posts

Are you one of those people that would like to have an email so that you know when there is new information, rather than having to check websites for updates?

If so using feed reader like Google Reader is the answer.

Google Reader is like an "inbox" for all the new content on the blogs you are interested in.

If you have the Google Toolbar you can just add an icon to the toolbar that shows immediately when there are new posts... and you can view them all from one page

It's easy to set up, just watch this video from YouTube.



If you can't view the YouTube Video, or are still not sure what to do or how this will work for you, this second video from TeacherTube gives you a bit more information.



You should now be able to set up your own Google Reader account without any trouble - but if you need assistance, ask a student!

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Friday, November 2, 2007

Too young to vote but have stuff to say?

You may know some students that are too young to vote but still want to have a say about climate change and other issues relating to environment and sustainability.

Turning the Tides is a music project by Australian artists calling for action to address the grave threats posed by climate change in a manner that respects all those who share our planet. The voices of traditional Aboriginal elders are interspersed amongst songs from leading Australian artists including Missy Higgins, John Butler, Ghostwriters, Lior and more. The album features fresh material, some produced especially for the album from a range of Australia artists including Wolf and Cub, After The Fall, Good Buddha, Ben Fink, Watussi, Declan Kelly, Gelbison and more.

On the website you can learn great skills such as how to write a letter to politicians, find out information on various issues such as nuclear power aswell as the opportunity to upload your images and creative response to issues you feel passionate about onto the website.

Let the politicians know what you think real leadership means this election and what they should do about climate change.

A Youth delegation will take all Too Young To Vote messages to politicians in Canberra a week before the election.

For more info contact: TTTclimateaction@gmail.com and check out the turning the tide website at http://www.turningthetide.com.au/