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

National Youth Roundtable 2008

Applications for the National Youth Roundtable (Roundtable) 2008 are now open!

Follow the link http://www.thesource.gov.au/involve/NYR/ to the Roundtable 2008 application form and supporting documents. Applications for the Roundtable closing Thursday 18 October 2007.

The contact officers in the Youth Bureau - Debbie O’Donoghue (6212 9440) and Sharon Kent (6212 9559).

Whales website for kids

The Australian Government launched a new whales website for kids recently. See www.saveourwhales.gov.au A video on YouTube about the ongoing global fight to stop whaling was also released. It is presented by the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Malcolm Turnbull. The video is available at:YouTube global site: http://www.youtube.com/DeptEnvironmentYouTube Japanese site: http://jp.youtube.com/DeptEnvironment The video expresses the strongly held anti-whaling views of Australians. 'Teens Against Whaling's' Skye and Ayesha Bortoli are also in the video, along with a class of year seven students from Sydney.

ActNow

A website to educate and inspire young adults to take informed action on contemporary issues, a great place to start your research on a huge variety of topics and issues...

What is ActNow?

‘ActNow is an awesome website for young people. It gives us information on important issues and makes them easier to understand. It’s also a great place for people to get inspired on taking action.’
Melissa 20, ActNow volunteer

How do you use ActNow?

ActNow knows that the more you understand about an issue the more you’ll feel empowered to do something about it. Use ActNow to find information on social, political, environmental, lifestyle and topical issues for a non-judgemental and factual snapshot of the bigger picture. All the content you find on ActNow is written by ActNow members who are young people just like you.

You can take action on issues any way you like. The important thing is to have a go and let the ActNow community know what you did, how you did it and what you think the impact was. Sign up as a member and you’ll be able to add your own content to the site such as a ‘thing to do’, a story, an interview, a video, a blog entry or a comment. Get published online!

ActNow is also a volunteering hub. Use the site to get in touch with over 200 organisations that are really keen to work with young people.

Who’s behind ActNow?

ActNow is run by The Inspire Foundation, an Australian not-for-profit organisation that creates opportunities for young people to change their world. Inspire also runs the Reach Out! and Beanbag programs nationally.

National Science Week Grants for 2008

The 2008 National Science Week Grants Round opened September 17 and will close on Friday, October 19, 2007 at 17:00 AEST. Individuals or organisations can apply for between $2,000 and $40,000 to run a science-themed activity during National Science Week 2008 (16 - 24 August 2008).
For more information about the grants round and the online application process visit www.dest.gov.au/scienceweek.
The Science Awareness Section, who administer these grants, can be contacted via scope@dest.gov.au or by phone (02) 6240 5078 (this voicemail service is checked regularly).
The National Science Week Grants are funded through the Science Connections Programme.
www.dest.gov.au

Re-Thinking Waste in Schools Launch with Yamba

The Alice Springs Launch of this program will take place

on TUESDAY 23rd OCTOBER
at 10 am
at the Tip Shop

Yamba and Wurgle the water droplet will be there.

Please come along with your class (teachers are reminded that they are responsible for the behaviour of their students at all times, please bring other supervising adults with you to support you in this role)

RSVP:Could all teachers bringing classes please contact Michelle WalkerWaterwise.NRETA@nt.gov.au by Friday 19th October for catering purposes.

Re-Thinking Waste in Schools

This project, which includes support from Keep Australia Beautiful, Alice Springs Desert Park, Arid Lands Environment Centre, Gardens for Wildlife, DKACoolMOB and WaterWise Schools will be launched early next term. Look out for an information pack arriving in your school in week 1.

What is the Re-thinking Waste-in Schools Challenge?

The Keep Australia Beautiful (KAB)NT Rethinking Waste – in Schools Challenge invites all NT schools to encompass a broad range of long term sustainableinitiatives for reducing all types of waste. The challenge is based on actions your school takes in the areas of litter reduction, recycling, energy and waste reduction. A list of sustainability action projects and resources that participating schools can select from will be made available on the Keep Australia BeautifulNT website www.kab.org.au/nt

An application form will be available very soon on the KAB website. Please contact KAB ph 89815535 now if you would like a hard copy of the information pack and application form sent to your school.

The Green Directory - Promoting Sustainable Living

The Green Directory is Australia's number one online green business directory. We promote a comprehensive range of Australian and international products and services, which are eco friendly and promote sustainable living.

CLIC Fundraiser

CLIC - Childrens Literature in the Centre

Help raise funds the first Children's literature in the Centre festival in Alice Springs.

The Children's Book Council's CLIC Festival will be held in May2008.

A fundraising Afternoon Tea will be held in the Plaza outside Dymocks Alice Springs on Sunday 7th October 2007 2.00pm - 4.30pm

Dymocks will be donating a percentage of all sales made during this afternoon tea. Wear a spring hat, meet your friends, buy a book, try your luck in the raffle and relax in the Alice Springs Plaza

Learning for Sustainability website

Learning for Sustainability - supporting dialogue, collective action and reflection:

The Learning for Sustainability website focuses on sustainability issues such as natural resource management, and provides an online guide for government agency staff, NGOs and other community leaders working to support multi-stakeholder learning processes.

It may also be of use for professional development purposes by teachers delivering the Sustainable Futures SSABSA courses.

The site provides links to key information sources on topics including networking, dialogue, adaptive management, knowledge management and evaluation. A new section highlights resources on social research methods, systems thinking, and action research.

ENO-Environment Online

Have you been wondering how to use ICT in your teaching and find interactive ways in learning? Are you interested in environmental issues and global education? Would you like to improve your teaching, and network with colleagues from all over the world? This is your chance.

ENO-Environment Online © is a global virtual school for sustainable development and global education. Four environmental themes are studied within a school year on a weekly basis. About 400 schools from 104 countries take part. The ENO programme has been running since 2000. It is coordinated by Pataluoto School and administered by the Department of Education in the city of Joensuu, Finland.

Although the term dates don't line up too well for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere this project provides some great opportunities for education around environment, ICT and twin relationships with students in other parts of the world.

If you use this, we'd love to hear your stories - share them using the comments below.

Carbon Calculator

A new Australian Carbon Calculator is now available online

http://cc.greenhouse.gov.au/neutral/index.html

It is part of the Australian Government's Carbon Clever promotion

http://cc.greenhouse.gov.au/

Human Rights Art Award and Exhibition 2007

Darwin Community Legal Service is once again hosting the Human Rights Art Award and Exhibition to celebrate International Human Rights Day, December 10. The Exhibition gives artists an opportunity to exhibit work, which deals with human rights themes. Artists from across the Territory, from preschool to professional, are invited to enter work in this exciting and challenging exhibition.

The United Nations has declared 2007 to be the International year for the prevention of violence. Artwork can address this theme, OR any other human rights issue of interest to the artist.

Work may be in any medium, and artist may submit individual work, or may like to work collaboratively with other artists or community members. The work can be celebratory and focus on local or international achievements in human rights, or focus on areas of human rights that are in need of urgent attention.

The exhibition will be held in the beautiful Supreme Court Foyer, with the opening, and presentation of prizes (in a number of categories), to be held on Tuesday 11 December 2007. The exhibition will be open until Friday 21 December 2007.

If you wish to participate in this years Award/Exhibition, or would like more information please contact Felicity Wardle, Darwin Community Legal Service, on
8982 1111 or Felicity_Wardle@clc.net.au
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Violence Prevention

‘Everyone deserves the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.’ For more information go to: http://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/global_campaign/en/

Walk for Water

Did you know that the second biggest killer of children in the world is unsafe water and poor sanitation?

The Walk for Water will raise money to provide water, sanitation and hygiene education to children across the world. Join Water Aid Australia in the Schools Walk for Water during National Water Week October 21-27 2007.

Just $30 is enough to provide one person in Africa, Asia or the Pacific with a lasting supply of clean water. sanitation and hygiene education and your students can learn about the value of this precious resource at the same time.

Share your ideas for National Water Week by using the comments here

Short film and animation competition

Are your students interested in creating short films and animations? Primary and secondary students (15 years or younger) may use this year's theme Green to enter the internationally known TROP FEST film competition. The festival is a fun, accessible and positive platform for kids to show off their talent in film making. The work of 8 Trop Jr finalists will be shown on the big screens in Sydney's Domain on 17 February 2008. Entries close 10 January 2008. See the website for more information.