How to get people to change

Reading and listening to Severn Suzuki's speech and thinking about the questions in our new English Persuasive Language resource got me thinking about how we persuade people to change their behaviour. 

Severns speech is very emotive and impressive from a 12 year old but it left me just feeling a bit guilty and inadequate.  Yes I know about all these problems (yes in 1992 not everyone did and also it was at the Rio Earth Summit so aimed at big decision makers) but HEr speech didn't really give me a sense of what I should do the change things.  It gave me the impression that the whole system is against me and that as an individual I wouldn't make much difference.  The problems come across as overwhelming (as indeed they are but feeling this doesn't help action).

I think that emphasising what people can do, the sum of small steps by everyone is a more powerful message.  Yes people must be aware of the problems to want to act but once they are then we need a more empowering message.

I hope that this is what we are doing with our School sustainability programs, giving teachers and students the knowledge of what they can do as well as the hands on experience of how easy and enjoyable it can be too.    If students and the wider community feel the personal benefits of their work (friendships, support, health etc) in their organic gardens, collaborative learning in the classroom, recycling and energy saving campaigns etc. and understand the cumulative positive environmental effect of doing this then hopefully that knowledge and action will spread out. 

We'll see.  What do you think?

Persuasive Language for English 2A

We have a fantastic new English resource on our website written by new resource developer Georgia.  ITs been designed for use in English 2A but the ideas could easily be adapted to lower school as the speech by Severn Suzuki would appeal to all ages (she was just 12 when she made it).  Here's the link to this Persuasive Language Resource on our website.

You can use this resource with your students to examine and analyse how environmental activists use persuasive language to appeal to audiences about environmental issues and encourage social action and change. It includes a glossary of terms for persuasive language techniques, a speech by Severn Suzuki (daughter of David Suzuki) at the 1992 Earth Summit and an accompanying worksheet in which students identify and analyse the persuasive techniques she used to such effect. Students will also analyse the concepts of context, purpose, audience, values, and attitudes, and consider how powerful language can be used to encourage action and change.

Students then consolidate and demonstrate their knowledge by researching an environmental issue of their choice and writing a speech to inform and persuade audiences to change their habits. They choose a context, purpose & audience for their speech and demonstrate their understanding of how language can be shaped for particular purposes. The final part of the assessment involves students presenting their speeches to demonstrate their comprehension of how verbal and non verbal language is used to enhance persuasive speaking techniques. The accompanying task sheet includes a rubric for assessment.

You could also play the speech students.  Here is a link to it on Youtube  Severn Suzuki Speech

This one has some graphics added in but there are other versions on there too.

All this got me thinking about the best way to persuade people to change their behaviour, as that afterall is the whole point of what we are doing.  Severn's speech is very emotional but is it really the best way to get people to change how they live?  See my next post for what I think.

Show us your Ocean!

Get your class involved in photo elecitation.

Beautiful shells at Eagle Bay

 I took this photo during a pilot study for Steve's photo elicitation module.  We were each given an underwater camera to go off and take photos with whilst snorkelling.  It was a great experinence, it really made me look at the sea and shore in a different way.  I really noticed the different fish, the effects of the light and water and movement of the plants.  It was even more interesting to look at everyone else's photos and see what they had deccided to capture, discover new creatures that i didn't even know existed(!) and to share our experiences with each other.  It definitely changed my relationship with the ocean here.

Steve's doctoral research is into the effectiveness photoelicitation as an education technique and your class can have the opportunity to take part in a similar exercise to the one I did and be a part of this Curtin University reseearch.  Steve has develped a series of 4 lessons to support the snorkelling field trip.  You can download them on our website here.
He's also got his own website with more details about the program  http://showusyourocean.wordpress.com/

Please get in touch with any of us here at Hotrock or with Steve (at steven.andrews@postgrad.curtin.edu.au) directly if you'd like more details about the program and/or would like to be involved.

I'll leave you with a couple of my other photos.  Lucy (resources@thehotrock.org.au)

Leeming Garden Build

Leeming Senior High School and HotRock are busy constructing their new garden this week.  Yey.  Students and teachers are hard at work, and hopefully Ingrid and Richard too.  I'll put up some photos when they're back. 

HotRock presentations on Slideshare

I've been uploading some of our presentations onto slideshare.  I hope that it might make it easier for many of you to find and you can use them through this or download them.  They are of course still available to download on our website www.thehotrock.org.au.  Here's one of them.  We use it to start of our Climate change module - Global Warming, Global Warning.   1. what is climate change quiz

View more presentations from HotRock.

Climate Change Information for 3BGEO & Science

I've come across a great resource which would be perfect for use within unit 3B Geography.  It's a booklet called The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers.  Its written by the Australian Academy of Science, which also means that lots of the statistics and impacts are focussed on Australia too.

Its very readable, whilst also being informative and discusses the answers to 7 key climate change questions:

1. What is Climate Change?
2. How has the Earth's climate changed in the distant past?
3. How has the Earth's climate changed in the recent past?
4. Are human activities causing climate change?
5. How do we expect climate to evolve in the future?
6. What are the consequences of Climate Change?
7. How do we deal with the uncertainty in the science?

Its really perfect for the 1st few lessons of 3b Gegraphy on climate change and would be useful in science too.  Lucy

Last Chance to See

Have you been watching 'Last Chance to See' on ABC.  A great program to complement any lessons you are doing on biodivesity and the treats to it.  Its with Stephen Fry, travelling the world to find engangered species and explore their habitats and the threats to them.  LAst week he was in South East Asia and saw amongst other things - komodo dragons, mangroves, spiny coated ant eaters and proboscis monkeys.  Monocultural palm oil plantations were a big threat to the natural environments that support these animals and plants.  

Source http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/image/226

Scaly Anteater by Bjorn Olesen

http://animals-in-the-news.blogspot.com/2009/07/dierenrechtenorganisaties-luiden.html

 

Next week they are off to New Zealand.  Its on Sunday at 7.30 pm.  You can also catch past episodes on iview. 

National Recycling Week 8 -14th November

In 3 weeks time its National Recycling Week.

If your school needs a kick start to get its recyling program off the ground then this could be the opportunity that it needs.  Its organised by Planet Ark and they have got a few ideas to get you going.  Why not organise a Swap Party for your class, year group or even whole school.  Everyone brings in good quality clothes they don't wear and get to exchange them for ones they want.  Everyone pays a fee to enter so you could raise money for a good cause or for a school recycling program.

 This page on our website gives you a step by step guide on how to set up a recycling program in your school.

We've also got lots of resources on our website can help get it into lessons too.   In  'i change' students look at all the materials in their phones or MP3 players, how quickly they're running out and the issues around recycling them.  They then organise a schoolwide phone recycle.  If you taught this next week a collection could happen in National Recycling Week. 

That's a Society and Environment lesson (although it could easily be a science one too).  In Home Economics the Food Waste Module examines packaging.  In the 'Smart Cookie' lesson students sort packaging into recyclable or not and look at alternatives, which don't need recycling.  The whole module addresses the issue of food and resource waste (as you probably guessed from the title) and would be applicable to the week.

Or usse our recycling powerpoint to launch a poster competition at a school assembly.

So Reduce - Reuse - Recycle - and enjoy it.  I'm a bit of an opshop fiend, I am just so pleased when I find some new clothes - they're reused, but still lovely, not expensive and the money goes to a good cause and its fun finding things.  Find your way to enjoy it and get your studetns enjoying it too.

Water

We're going to develop some resources about the topic of water.  In the meantime here's a link to the Australian Water Education site which has a great search engine allowing you to search for Water teaching resources by concept, activity type etc.

Just a short one.  We'll be searching through these to find the best ones and show you ways to use them with your classes. 

Climate Change Graffiti

We've got another new module up on the website.  YEY!  Climate Change Graffiti is an upper school art module developed by Anna Henshall who has developed a couple of other great art modules for us already...... Design for the Future & Painting Australia's Natural Habitat.

This one, as the title suggests, gets studetns to create a graffiti artwork that gets across the message about climate change and encourages people to change and act to stop climate change.  I think I would have really enjoyed doing this one at school.  I always like editing the Art ones as I learn loads of things myslef and get really inspired.  I hope that some schools take this on and allow their studetns to brighten up some boring school walls with an important message.

The module also gets them to look at the work of local Perth Graffiti artist Stormie Mills and I felt particularly cultured when I came across these in a car park in Subiaco last time I was up in Perth as I knew they were by Stormie.  They're pretty affecting too I'm sure you'll agree.  He looks at beauty in decay and people's resilience even when things don't seem to be going well.

In the module students analyse how he gets his message across and then think about how they will communicate theirs and develop their own style.

Grab your spray cans now!  (but of course make sure its legal to paint where you plan!!)

Lucy

DIET FOR DE-STRESSING

If you're feeling anything like I am then you're grasping at any mineral supplement on the shelf to try to find the miracle cure for fatigue / bunged up head cold / stress.
Maybe it is time to learn a little more about the best ways to treat the mineral-deficiencies that can cause stress - and all those other ailments too.
This information is put out by NutriTech - it is good, but it points towards their products to solve the problem.  There are often cheaper alternatives.  For example, my friend Corynne uses a epsom salt and clay poultice applied on her lower back as a way to ingest magnesium.
Nevertheless - this is an interesting read (thanks Peter Blackburn for the link).

De-Stress or Die Young

The Top Ten Stress-Busting Strategies 

Getting (more) organised.

Sorry we've been a bit quiet.  We've been busy organising ourselves and our systems.  We had a big team meeting on Friday out in the garden at Samudra.

As you can see quite an inspiring place to meet.

Well we've got ourselves organised and hope this means that we can help you all even more efficiently than before.  OF course as ever let us know what you want or need to help get your sustainability education flying.

We are continually developing our curriculum framework and I'm preparing a document that should help you see at a glance which of the resources on our website can help you teach about different sustainability concepts.

Enjoy the sunshine.  Lucy

SW Biodiversity - the nice things you can see on the way to work.

Beautiful Orchids

Kangaroo Paws

I left my bike in the office and so I walked into work.  Its a lovely sunny day and I found these beautiful examples of our biodiversity along the way, just at the edge of the road.  Nice...

Know your Place - Great new Biodiversity Science module

We've got a new science module up on our website 'Know your Place'.  Yey.  It was developed with Trish Gardener, who's got a huge knowledge of local flora and fauna and conservation issues around WA. 

2010 is the year of Biodiversity and thats what this module is all about.  That and getting out of the classroom and looking after your locality.   Its centred around fieldwork to measure the biodiversity of a bushland or wetland area near your school.  These areas are likely to have experienced many different impacts form people just walking over the area, possible littering to fire, invasive species and clearing.  Students assess these and work out ways to help improve the biodiversity of the site and manage it better.  We are hoping that classes/schools will find and adopt sites near them and be able to take on atleast some of mananagement activities.  This could involve producing information boards, setting up volunteer groups or just clearing litter. 

We've produced all the materials you need to teach it along with a fieldwork booklet and other worksheets for the students.

The module also examines why biodiversity is important, allows them to play the ABC's excellent Catchment Detox game putting their ideas into practice on a large scale, uses the a dilemma (see my post about them here) and ends by looking at the importance of biodiversity in agriculture using the 'Seed Hunter' video.

Let us know how you go with teaching it, remember we're giving away $50 every month in our feedback draw.  Go to this site to answer questions and be automatically entered.  (see this post for more details)

Beaches & bags

Just watch this fantastic video about the life of a plastic bag.  I know it doesn't sound good but it really is one of the best short films I've seen.

It would be a fanastic resource to use to explore issues of sustainability and waste in many areas.  I think it provides a great way in to English, very obviously media studies as the filming, imagery and story are very striking. It could also fit into religious education or philosophy as well as Society and Environment.



Here's the synopsis:

This short film by American director Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) traces the epic, existential journey of a plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) searching for its lost maker, the woman who took it home from the store and eventually discarded it. Along the way, it encounters strange creatures, experiences love in the sky, grieves the loss of its beloved maker, and tries to grasp its purpose in the world.

In the end, the wayward plastic bag wafts its way to the ocean, into the tides, and out into the Pacific Ocean trash vortex — a promised nirvana where it will settle among its own kind and gradually let the memories of its maker slip away.

This video could be combined with a clean up.  I've just found out about the organisation Tangaroa Blue at www.oceancare.org.au.  They are focussed on cleaning up coasts, getting rid of all the plastic waste that endangers wildlife and generally makes the coast look rubbish.  They help organise clean ups across australia.  Students can take part, record what they collect and send their data Tangaroa to be included in their research projects.  Tongara Blue have also produced some teaching resoruces to go with this for schools in WA.  Contact them for the CD.  Its called Ocean Full of Plastic: marine debris education resource for WA schools.  There's a beach clean up for the SW organised for the 8th & 9th October if you want to get involved.

I've also found a podcast from Costing the Earth about this too.  Dr. Alice Roberts investigates the discovery of the World's largest plastic waste patch in the South Atlantic and asks what we can do to solve the problem of aqatic plastic.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v1qtn

Lots of links to other great resources about this issue on this page too. 

The grass is always greener

Not just greener, there actually is some grass. Richard took this picture near Donnybrook.

Which cows would you rather be????

Not that difficult to answer. Which cows would you rather eat?

Crowded, no grass, eating grain and lying down (maybe the heat from the earth or because of the grain they eat instead of grass?) or walking around unstressed, grazing? Hmmmm

Sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words

Fun and Inspiration at the Weekend

David and Skye in Action. Skye liked the dancing book.

Ingrid spreads the word. Giving away packets of coriander seeds hleped too.

We had a fantastic weekend at the Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta. Ingrid and I shared duties on our stand over the weekend, David and Skye helped me out ;) and Tundi (?), Ingrid's daughter had organised a fashion remodelling/recycling area futher up the street and had made herself a great outfit. Maybe Ingrid can post a photo?

I really enjoyed hearing how enthusiastic people were about what we are doing with Schools. You would hope they would be at a Sustainability fiesta but nonetheless people were eager to talk to us and very encouraging.  Our coriander seeds ran out and the leaflet stock was depleted. We got quite a few names on our living library list too. This is a new idea which I hope we will develop over the next few months so thank you to those that signed up, I'll be writing more to you soon.

So many people there doing great work. Shani and Tim of course for organising it all, opening their house and accomodation at the Painted Fish and generally getting people in their community on board.

Its down that way, no up that way! So many things going on it was hard to keep track.

I had some good conversations with Helen and Tim at Sustainable Energy Now. I'm impressed by their campaigning. Some good stats in their brochure....did you know that if just a quarter of homes currently supplied by synergy got a 1.5kw solar system this creates as much energy as the current coal fired power genration in WA. The friendly people at Fern community gardens opposite also signed up to our living library.

I loved the 'recycled' bikes. I've got a groovy rusty blue retro one myslef and was pretty inspired to try turning it into one that I could carry Skye in. Here's a just one of the many creations.

Guerrilla gardening was in evidence. Not sure if the chickens stay out on the verge all the time but the vegetables in the verge looked (and hopefully taste) great. So sculptural.
















I and many other people I noticed brought a rug from carpetsforcommunities.org.  Great little rugs made from recyled t shirt off cuts by women in Cambodia and all profits go directly to them. The stand was run by volunteers. I even got a photo of my rug being made. Its now cheering up our bathroom. If you're going to buy things then I can't think of a better type of enterprise to buy them from.

Loads of stuff for kids, the HotRockers to be; fairy gardens, exercise bikes to generate electricity with, music, costumes. I was really impressed by the model sustainable houses built by Year 6s. We've got a similar model building exercise as the finale to our Global Warming:Global Warning module (see the lesson 'What's the plan?). Its for slightly older students and I have to say I think its a great learning activity at any age. Really creative, allows them to express their ideas and its hands on and practical, makes a change from writing it all up in an essay.

Students from some of our schools were picking out their friends in our photos and other people were happy to find out what their old school was doing for sustainability.

I could go on and on. Can't wait till next year. I'll leave you with my favourite costume.

Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta

We are off to the Hulbert Street Sustainability Fiesta in Fremantle this weekend. We've got a stand, I've been making posters, Shae's been making up cute packets of HotRock coriander seeds to give away and we're hoping to meet loads of great people who want to help us make sustainability real in Schools and just generally to be inspired by whats going on.

Looks like the whole Hotrock team might get to be there all together too!!! 1st ime in our History. We've got our Tshirts, just got to go there.

The sun should be shining, think it will be an inspiring weekend. See you there..... Lucy

Want to win $50?

Feedback Competition

We want to make your life easier and provide you with great resources that save you time, that you enjoy teaching, that engage your classes and get your pupils thinking and acting for sustainability. We hope we are doing this but need your feedback so that we can improve what we offer and reach more teachers. We know that this takes time and effort on your part so we’ve come up with a plan to reward your generosity.

Win a $50 voucher from ecostore www.todae.com

How to enter.

1. Download and teach one of the lessons from our website.
2. Answer our feedback questions – online or email.
3. Put your name and email address on it to be entered into our monthly draw.

How to improve your chances of winning.

1. Teach more than one lesson and fill out a form for each.

2. Enter every month, we will draw on the last day of the month.

We welcome all feedback; positive, negative, new ideas or adaptations. We want to improve what we are doing and produce lessons that you really want to teach and that are easy and practical for you to access and implement.

Save time and answer online.

Or email hotrock@thehotrock.org.au and answer the following questions

• Which module and or lessons did you use?

• Which year and type of class did you use it with?
• Please write any comments about; how you used it, adapted it, any problems you had with it, what you & students enjoyed (or not) etc.
• Was it easy to find the lessons, topics etc that you wanted? Any suggestions to improve the usability of our website?
• Are there any other topics, types of resources, services that you think we can provide to help you educate for sustainability?
• Thanks for your help. If you’d like to be entered into a monthly draw to win a $50 voucher to shop at www.todae.com please give you name and email address here:

Name: Email:

We're giving you a head start for the 1st draw which will take place on 31st October.

That's 6 weeks to get teaching and feeding back to us (well 2 weeks hols but you could do the feedback then).