TIGed

kagawa

Katherine Walraven's TIGblog
Katherine Walraven's profile

Engineers Without Borders and Mountain Equipment Coop are holding a contest to engage young Canadians and provide a channel for them to share their vision of a better world. Youth in grades 6-12 and CEGEP are invited to write an essay, create a photo collage, or shoot a short video answering the question “what kind of world do you want to live in and what will it take to get there?” Prizes include a $1500 scholarship and a class visit by an EWB overseas volunteer. The contest closes April 30th, 2009. For more information, please visit www.youth.ewb.ca/contest.

kagawa

Katherine Walraven's TIGblog
Katherine Walraven's profile

Unfortunately, I let World Water Day, held annually on March 22nd, slip by without blogging here about what resources are available to support teaching about water issues. Even though WWD 2009 has passed, it is not too late to support your students in learning more about water related issues or to prepare for WWD 2010.

Many organizations offer resources to support teachers in exploring water related issues with their students. Among these is the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, a charitable organization that focuses on water related education and research in order to provide potable water for human consumption in rural areas of the world.

The Safe Drinking Water Foundation currently offers five school programs that cover curricula from kindergarten to grade 12 for schools across Canada and the United States. These five programs are:

• Operation Water Drop (OWD) wherein students test the quality of their local water and are able to compare their results to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.

• Operation Water Pollution (OWP) in which students learn about water pollution and what can be done to lessen the problem.

Green Street and some chapters of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation have sponsored all OWD and OWP kits so that schools are not required to pay the cost recovery fee for the kits. The following programs are all available free of charge from SDWF website.

• Operation Water Flow (OWF) wherein students learn the social studies and math aspects of drinking water.

• Operation Water Spirit (OWS) which teaches students about drinking water from a First Nations’ perspective.

• Operation Water Health (OWH) which enables students to learn what diseases can be caused by drinking water and what can be done to prevent these diseases.

Many of the programs are now available in French and Cree as well as English. The Safe Drinking Water Foundation will be introducing a new program for September 2009, Operation Water Biology, which will give students hands-on experiments to show how biology can replace chemicals in the water treatment process, thereby offering sustainable solutions that produce the highest possible quality of drinking water while leaving the smallest possible environmental footprint.

Teaching about Water with the Safe Drinking Water Foundation
Translated into French by: Katherine Walraven
Unfortunately, I let World Water Day, held annually on March 22nd, slip by without blogging here about what resources are available to support teaching about water issues. Even though WWD 2009 has passed, it is not too late to support your students in learning more about water related issues or to prepare for WWD 2010.

Many organizations offer resources to support teachers in exploring water related issues with their students. Among these is the Safe Drinking Water Foundation, a charitable organization that focuses on water related education and research in order to provide potable water for human consumption in rural areas of the world.

The Safe Drinking Water Foundation currently offers five school programs that cover curricula from kindergarten to grade 12 for schools across Canada and the United States. These five programs are:

• Operation Water Drop (OWD) wherein students test the quality of their local water and are able to compare their results to the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality.

• Operation Water Pollution (OWP) in which students learn about water pollution and what can be done to lessen the problem.

Green Street and some chapters of the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation have sponsored all OWD and OWP kits so that schools are not required to pay the cost recovery fee for the kits. The following programs are all available free of charge from SDWF website.

• Operation Water Flow (OWF) wherein students learn the social studies and math aspects of drinking water.

• Operation Water Spirit (OWS) which teaches students about drinking water from a First Nations’ perspective.

• Operation Water Health (OWH) which enables students to learn what diseases can be caused by drinking water and what can be done to prevent these diseases.

Many of the programs are now available in French and Cree as well as English. The Safe Drinking Water Foundation will be introducing a new program for September 2009, Operation Water Biology, which will give students hands-on experiments to show how biology can replace chemicals in the water treatment process, thereby offering sustainable solutions that produce the highest possible quality of drinking water while leaving the smallest possible environmental footprint.

kagawa

Katherine Walraven's TIGblog
Katherine Walraven's profile

Based on an idea first implemented in Thailand in 2005, Earth Hour was born in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour to make a statement about resource consumption and climate change. In 2008, Earth Hour went global, with 50 million people on all seven continents switching off their lights. Landmarks that turned off their non-essential lighting for the 2008 event included the Empire State Building (New York City, USA), Sears Tower (Chicago, USA), Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, USA), Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta, USA), Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia), Wat Arun Buddhist Temple (Bangkok, Thailand), the Colosseum (Rome, Italy), Royal Castle (Stockholm, Sweden), London's City Hall (England), Space Needle (Seattle, USA), the CN Tower (Toronto, Canada) and SM Mall of Asia & The Giant Globe (Manila, Philippines).

Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support for Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing every day. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has set a target of 1 billion people switching off their lights during Earth Hour 2009, the results of which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Earth Hour will next take place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, local time, wherever you are. Vote Earth simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.

Earth Hour is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to environmental education and stewardship. Click here to sign up your school or organization, or to pledge your support as an individual. There are also many resources available to help teachers bring Earth Hour and exploration of climate change into their classrooms. For example, the WWF has made available a list of suggestions for celebrating Earth Hour in your school, and classroom activities for grades 3 to 8 can be downloaded from the WWF’s Schools for a Living Planet. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, outlining what some Australian schools are doing to support Earth Hour, may also provide some ideas about how your classroom or school can get involved.

To learn more about Earth Hour, please visit http://www.earthhour.org/home/. There is also website specific to children and teens, http://www.earthhourkids.org/, to help them learn more about the event and the issue of climate change. I’ve also included some great videos in this post. Check them out!

Earth Hour 2009
Translated into French by: Katherine Walraven
Based on an idea first implemented in Thailand in 2005, Earth Hour was born in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour to make a statement about resource consumption and climate change. In 2008, Earth Hour went global, with 50 million people on all seven continents switching off their lights. Landmarks that turned off their non-essential lighting for the 2008 event included the Empire State Building (New York City, USA), Sears Tower (Chicago, USA), Golden Gate Bridge (San Francisco, USA), Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta, USA), Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia), Wat Arun Buddhist Temple (Bangkok, Thailand), the Colosseum (Rome, Italy), Royal Castle (Stockholm, Sweden), London's City Hall (England), Space Needle (Seattle, USA), the CN Tower (Toronto, Canada) and SM Mall of Asia & The Giant Globe (Manila, Philippines).
Over 74 countries and territories have pledged their support for Earth Hour 2009, and this number is growing every day. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has set a target of 1 billion people switching off their lights during Earth Hour 2009, the results of which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009. This meeting will determine official government policies to take action against global warming, which will replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Earth Hour will next take place on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm, local time, wherever you are. Vote Earth simply switching off your lights for one hour, and join the world for Earth Hour.
Earth Hour is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to environmental education and stewardship. Click here to sign up your school or organization, or to pledge your support as an individual. There are also many resources available to help teachers bring Earth Hour and exploration of climate change into their classrooms. For example, the WWF has made available a list of suggestions for celebrating Earth Hour in your school, and classroom activities for grades 3 to 8 can be downloaded from the WWF’s Schools for a Living Planet. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald, outlining what some Australian schools are doing to support Earth Hour, may also provide some ideas about how your classroom or school can get involved.

To learn more about Earth Hour, please visit http://www.earthhour.org/home/. There is also website specific to children and teens, http://www.earthhourkids.org/, to help them learn more about the event and the issue of climate change. I’ve also included some great videos in this post. Check them out!


Vote Earth Kids:

Vote Earth Hour 2009:

Earth Hour 2009:

kagawa

Katherine Walraven's TIGblog
Katherine Walraven's profile

TIGed will be holding the following virtual office hours over the next three weeks:

Tuesday March 24th, from 4:30-5:30 pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.C3CE4B1CC924DDA96F3E89CF7DEB12.)

Monday March 30th, from 5-6pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.51F1598AAD6303ACEB408526E4ECDD.)

Tuesday April 7th, from 12-1pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.64607CC75A20F1FB7D4DEF8688A2E9.)

We aim to hold virtual office hours about once a week so that educators can ask questions and seek support for using TIGed. Participants do not need to be members of the TIGed community or have TIGed virtual classroom licenses to take part.

If you plan on taking part in one of these sessions, please be sure to join at least 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start time in order to configure your audio settings and ensure that you have a compatible version (1.5 or higher) of Java (free download) installed on your computer. (You may join up to 30 minutes in advance of the scheduled start time.) Please note that you will need a working headset in order to participate.

For more information about the Elluminate platform, please visit: http://www.elluminate.com/support.

Thanks!

Upcoming Virtual Office Hours
Translated into French by: Katherine Walraven
TIGed will be holding the following virtual office hours over the next three weeks:

Tuesday March 24th, from 4:30-5:30 pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.C3CE4B1CC924DDA96F3E89CF7DEB12.)

Monday March 30th, from 5-6pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.51F1598AAD6303ACEB408526E4ECDD.)

Tuesday April 7th, from 12-1pm EST (To join, please visit https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.64607CC75A20F1FB7D4DEF8688A2E9.)

We aim to hold virtual office hours about once a week so that educators can ask questions and seek support for using TIGed. Participants do not need to be members of the TIGed community or have TIGed virtual classroom licenses to take part.

If you plan on taking part in one of these sessions, please be sure to join at least 5-10 minutes before the scheduled start time in order to configure your audio settings and ensure that you have a compatible version (1.5 or higher) of Java (free download) installed on your computer. (You may join up to 30 minutes in advance of the scheduled start time.) Please note that you will need a working headset in order to participate.

For more information about the Elluminate platform, please visit: http://www.elluminate.com/support.

Thanks!

kagawa

Katherine Walraven's TIGblog
Katherine Walraven's profile

CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G) and Discovery Education have announced the seventh annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes. The program gives K–12 schools in the United States the opportunity to win a 21st-century classroom, complete with tablet or notebook computers, wireless cart, interactive whiteboard, student response system, projector, printer and document camera. CDW-G and Discovery Education also provide on-site training to all Win a Wireless Lab grand-prize winners. The 2009 program will award five grand prizes. In addition to the technology hardware included in the 21st-century classroom, Discovery Education will award a
$5,000 digital media grant to the five grand-prize winning schools to help them more fully utilize the technology and engage students in learning.

Public and private school teachers, administrators, and school and district technology specialists may enter the sweepstakes by filling out an online form. For each prize drawing, winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received.

Deadline: Sweepstakes entries accepted until May 1, 2009
To learn more: http://cdwg.discoveryeducation.com/1208/

"Win a Wireless Lab" Sweepstakes
Translated into French by: Katherine Walraven
CDW Government, Inc. (CDW-G) and Discovery Education have announced the seventh annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes. The program gives K–12 schools in the United States the opportunity to win a 21st-century classroom, complete with tablet or notebook computers, wireless cart, interactive whiteboard, student response system, projector, printer and document camera. CDW-G and Discovery Education also provide on-site training to all Win a Wireless Lab grand-prize winners. The 2009 program will award five grand prizes. In addition to the technology hardware included in the 21st-century classroom, Discovery Education will award a
$5,000 digital media grant to the five grand-prize winning schools to help them more fully utilize the technology and engage students in learning.

Public and private school teachers, administrators, and school and district technology specialists may enter the sweepstakes by filling out an online form. For each prize drawing, winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received.

Deadline: Sweepstake entries accepted until May 1, 2009
To learn more: http://cdwg.discoveryeducation.com/1208/