Climate Change Workshop

On the morning of Monday 30th June the Central Australian Research Network based at CDU in Alice will host the first of two scenario-building workshops on Central Australian Climate Change.

The workshops are part of the CDU's School of Environmental Research's program to develop regional models of climate change.

This month's workshop in Alice will be facilitated by Professor Stephen Garnett and will be used to develop an initial trial set of scenarios to be re-analysed later this year.

We would like the workshop to be attended by people, not just with
an understanding of the way the landscape in central Australia is
lived in and used, but also the imagination to envisage a future
thirty years hence.

For more information, or to register your interest in participating please email
rolf.gerritsen@cdu.edu.au

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.

Re-Thinking Waste in Schools Workshop

The challenge invites all NT schools to encompass a broad range of long term sustainable initiatives for reducing all types of waste. What action can your school take in the areas of waste? This might include reducing water and energy consumption, reducing total waste, increasing recycling or reducing litter in your school.

A list of sustainability action project ideas and resources that participating schools may select from is now available on the Keep Australia Beautiful NT website www.kab.org.au/nt

Is your school ready for the challenge?

Come along to the workshop to get things rolling in your school.

Workshop
If your school would like to be involved you might like to have two facilitators attend a workshop to help with the planning of your action project(s).

When: Friday 30 November, 2007 (week 8) 8.30am – 4.00pm

Where: The Education Room, Alice Springs Desert Park

What: This workshop gives participants the opportunity to

• Find out more about the challenge and the types of action projects that students and teachers could be involved in
• Find out more about a whole school approach by looking at some examples from some of the NT Sustainable Schools who are part of the national AuSSI (Australian Sustainable Schools Initiative)
• Develop an action plan for their school projects
• Develop a funding proposal for the small grants available for the ‘challenge’
• Talk and plan with representatives from key supporting agencies/departments
  
  Ø NT Department of Employment Education and Training – Teaching, Learning & Standards Division,
  Ø NT Department of Natural Resources, Environment and the Arts –Waterwise Schools
  Ø Desert Knowledge CRC Cool MOB
  Ø Arid Lands Environment Centre
  Ø Gardens for Wildlife
  Ø Alice Springs Desert Park
  
  ERT is available for up to 2 participants per school to attend the workshop. Application forms have been sent to all schools.

Contact Emma Bliss Emma.Bliss@nt.gov.au for more information

The Re-Thinking Waste in Schools Challenge is project managed by Keep Australia Beautiful and funded by NT Government and the Packaging Stewardship Forum