Environmental education
The Weather Makers
www.theweathermakers.org
The Purves Environmental Fund supported Tim Flannery to write a ground breaking book on climate change - The Weather Makers. Subsequently, the Fund funded WWF Australia to manage a marketing campaign for the book. The success of The Weather Makers has been outstanding. As well as achieving critical acclaim from numerous renowned authors and experts, the book has been a popular success. The Weather Makers made front page headlines in Australia shortly after release and has been successful internationally.
We Are the Weather Makers, Tim Flannery's follow-up book to The Weather Makers, was launched in August 2006 at an event for school children at the State Library of Victoria. It is an updated and condensed version of the original book. We Are the Weather Makers was written to appeal to young adults and to readers wanting to quickly get an understanding of key climate change issues.
The Purves Environmental Fund supported WWF to manage a direct mail-out of a copy of We Are the Weather Makers to all secondary schools in Australia. The Fund also supported production of teachers' notes based on the book, which are freely available on the Weather Makers website (http://www.theweathermakers.com/). The Fund supported publicity for the book through radio, print and digital advertising and through teachers' conferences, to ensure that the important educational and awareness-raising messages of the book reach as many people as possible.
In 2007/08, the Fund again worked in partnership with Tim Flannery and Text Publishing to produce Thinking About Climate Change, an educational resource that makes teaching and learning about climate change easy and accessible. Thinking About Climate Change is adapted from We Are the Weather Makers.
Thinking About Climate Change meets the pressing need for such a resource - one that will equip students with the knowledge and skills that will help them respond effectively to climate change. It offers lesson plans, research aids and discussion suggestions to allow teachers and students to explore the implications and complexities of climate change and to learn and practice relevant skills. Thinking About Climate Change is constructed for students between years 7 and 10 across the curriculum disciplines of Maths, Science, the Humanities and Information Technology. It focuses on developing 'Thinking Skills' to ensure its relevance to contemporary classroom practices.
With the Fund's support, in November 2007 multiple hard copies of Thinking About Climate Change were distributed to all secondary schools in Australia, Public and Private -a total of 2,947 schools. Schools were also offered a discount on classroom copies of We Are the Weather Makers and for each additional book sold, a small donation is made to the Fund. Early feedback from schools indicates that schools are highly appreciative of the initiative and identify Thinking About Climate Change as an essential classroom resource. It has been shortlisted for the Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing. Thinking About Climate Change can be downloaded free from the Weather Makers website.
Australian Youth Climate Coalition
www.youthclimatecoalition.org
The Purves Environmental Fund is supporting the AYCC and its schools climate messenger program. Through a carefully targeted schools strategy AYCC has helped to communicate the facts on climate change, along with a sense of hope that solutions are available. The project reaches out to high school students specifically. The AYCC has created, collated and disseminated peer-educational materials that inform and inspire high school students about climate issues. The project has strengthened and helped to co-ordinate AYCC's member groups' existing schools talks programs. AYCC and its member groups recruited, trained and supported interested high school students to become ‘youth climate messengers'. These students are educating their peers at their own schools and surrounding local schools. During 2009 AYCC is expanding its programs to reach an even wider youth audience.
On Borrowed Time
www.publish.csiro.au/onborrowedtime
With funding from the Purves Environmental Fund, CSIRO Publishing produced teaching materials - website, teachers' booklet and CD-ROM - based on David Lindenmayer's book On Borrowed Time, which explains the crisis of global biodiversity loss. The teaching materials will encourage young Australian students to reflect on, consider and make decisions about Australia's biodiversity. The focus of the teaching units will draw on the issues raised by David Lindenmayer and encourage students to contextualise their understandings in the context of their local environment and the broader context of global sustainability. The resources extend the learning experience through two interactive games in which students learn to manage a variety of environments. The resources were distributed to all Australian secondary schools in 2008.
Weather or not it's a Climate for Change
The Purves Environmental Fund supported the children's book author, Caren Trafford, to send a copy of her book Weather or not it's a Climate for Change to every primary school in NSW and Queensland. In addition, schools who ordered extra copies of the book after receiving the free copy, were able to do so for a specially discounted price. For each book sold, the author made a donation of $0.50 to the Fund.
The book is an engaging, colourful explanation of climate change science, impacts and solutions for primary school students. Mike Bailey, ABC TV News' Weather Presenter and Producer said "This book simplifies the complex science of weather in a way that makes readers of all ages appreciate what's happening to our climate, and what we can all do to help save our planet".
Wakakirri
www.wakakirri.com
The Purves Environmental Fund supported the 2008 Wakakirri National Story Festival. Wakakirri is Australia's largest performing and visual arts festival for High School and Primary School students. Wakakirri assists in educating school communities about the far-reaching benefits of sustainable practices for young Australians through performing and visual arts storytelling activities, designed to encourage students to learn about their world, who they are, what surrounds them and how their actions impact the future. The stories are shared via public performance, the Wakakirri website, television and print media.