Earth School - great resources from TEDEd and United Nations Environment Program

[Boyd Roberts]

Earth School - “30 Quests for students around the world to celebrate, explore and connect with nature.”

https://ed.ted.com/earth-school

 

Earth School is a series of short videos and associated activities (“quests”) devised for students to undertake individually during lockdown.  It is concerned with the relationship between man and the natural world, as a species and at the individual level. Earth School comes from the United Nations Environment Programme and TEDEd, with partners including BBC, WWF, Conservation International and UNESCO.  

 

Although lockdown may have finished, a number of the quests would be excellent activities for IGCA participants – most suited to those aged 13-18. They are activities that can be undertaken by individuals without supervision, although some mentoring or support may be beneficial.

 

Each quest starts with a short high quality animated video, and there are associated quizzes, extension activities and opportunities for discussion and reflection. The extension activities allow students to explore more fully, and link to excellent resources from organisations such as National Geographic, BBC, Jane Goodall Institute and World Resources Institute.

 

Among the quests directly relevant to IGCA are:

The Nature of Stuff (Personal Global Footprint)

            Should we eat bugs?

            The life cycle of a T-shirt

            What’s in your smartphone?

            The energy we need.

The Nature of Change

            Plastic pollution (Personal Global Footprint)

The Nature of Individual Action (Personal Global Footprint)

            The nature of recycling

            The nature of composting

            The nature of tree planting

            The nature of urban gardens

            The nature of renewable energy

The Nature of Collective Action (Working with Others)

            The nature of sustainable consumption and the circular economy