What Grows On in Rhode Island News

Annual RI Envirothon Competition ~ May 18, 2012

2012 Annual Rhode Island Envirothon Competition at Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI; U.S. Senator Sheldon WhitehouseWill Present at Awards Ceremony

Rhode Island Envirothon, Inc. will hold its annual competition on Friday, May 18, 2012 beginning at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 1:30 p.m. at Goddard Memorial State Park in Warwick, RI. U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse will speak and present the awards at the awards ceremony.

The one-day event marks the culmination of a year of dedicated, hard work for high school students from around the State who will compete in teams of five to address environmental issues in four subject areas which include aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and soils and land use, plus one special environmental issue which changes annually.

For 2012, the environmental issue is the “Low impact development and non-point source pollution”. Schools participating in this year’s event include The Blackstone Academy, Coventry High School, The Greene School, Narragansett High School, Scituate High School, and The Wheeler School. The winning team has the opportunity to represent Rhode Island in the Canon North American Envirothon which will take place in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania July 22-27, 2012.

Envirothon is an environmental education program available to high school students where they take classes and participate in workshops on subjects including aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and soils and land use. The mission of RI Envirothon, Inc. is to cultivate a desire in students to learn more about our natural environment, develop a greater appreciation of our dependence on the environment, and promote a sense of personal stewardship of natural resources to enhance the quality of life for all in Rhode Island.

RI ENVIROTHON ANNUAL COMPETITION
Friday, May 18, 2012 8:30-1:00
Goddard Memorial State Park, Warwick, RI

Schedule of Events

8:30-8:45 Registration - Pavilion
8:45-9:00 Welcome/Orientation - Pavilion
9:00-9:25

• Written Test – Low Impact Development - Pavilion
• Judges Meeting - Carousel
• Advisor Workshop on Rangeland – Boat House

9:30 Advisor Share Out - Pavilion
9:30-9:55 1st Test Station
10:00-10:25 2nd Test Station
10:30-10:55 3rd Test Station
11:00-11:25 4th Test Station
11:30-11:55 5th Test Station
12:00-12:30 Lunch - Pavilion
12:30-1:00 Awards Ceremony – Pavilion, Presented by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

ROTATION: Soils → Aquatics → Wildlife → Forestry → Orals

Moving Forward in Urban Education Policy Reform ~ May 19, 2011

Urban Education Policy (UEP) Program Annual Conference • May 19th, 2011 • 8am - 5pm
Brown University Faculty Club
One Magee Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02912
 
Please mark your calendars to attend this year’s Urban Education Policy (UEP) Annual Conference hosted by the Education Department at Brown University.  The conference theme is “Moving Forward in Urban Education Policy Reform”.   As the current administration looks to usher in education reform and new policy, practitioners are engaging in discussion that informs the improvement of both policy and practice.
 
This year’s UEP conference will also engage and inform invited guest as current urban education policy graduate students give presentations and lead discussion on their internship experiences with education policy agencies, organizations, school districts and schools.  Please plan to attend the conference and engage in rich and thought provoking discourse with our students, as well as, many invited professionals working in a myriad of education environments.


Use the following link to pre-register for the conference by May 10th:
https://sites.google.com/a/brown.edu/uep/
 
This year's conference agenda will be posted in the upcoming days.
 
Please send any questions that you may have about the conference to: [email protected].

2011 Earth Day Greetings from Audubon Society of RI

Happy Earth Day! Discover Rhode Island Wildlife Refuges on our Website and Explore the Outdoors!
 
From all of us at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.

Contact: Jeff Hall

Tisdale Environmental Education Awards Raffle ~ May 2, 2011

Each year Environment Council of RI (ECRI) Education Fund gives small grants to three RI schools for environmental projects, The Loraine Tisdale Environmental Education Awards. This years recipients were Community Prep, the Green School, and St Luke¹s in Barrington. All of the money to pay for these awards is raised by the Tisdale raffle, honoring Loraine¹s commitment to environmental education, and her great ability as a raffle ticket seller. Raffle tickets are now available for $5.00 a piece from the ECRI office, with checks made out to the ECRI Ed Fund. Mail to the address in the footer. If you send in money we shall send you back you stubs. DRAWING is at the May ECRI meeting on May 2.

We have 7 great prizes, topped this year by tickets to the Newport Jazz Festival.

If you want to sell some tickets, call or email me at the office.

Your participation is greatly appreciated. greg gerritt

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Environment Council of Rhode Island
PO Box 9061
Providence RI 02940
(401) 621-8048
http://www.environmentcouncilri.org

Webinar for Teachers: Developing Artistic Approaches to Environmental Education ~ April 7, 2011

We’re pleased to announce new one-hour webinars this Spring for formal and non-formal youth educators. For details of these and the previously-announced webinars, visit the Green Teachers website.

A reminder: these webinars are free of charge. We hope you’ll take advantage of the opportunity to explore these current popular topics in environmental and outdoor learning with us.
 
We’ll be announcing more webinars soon, so please check our website frequently – OR visit http://list.web.net/lists/listinfo/gt-news and join our listserv to receive email notices of upcoming webinars.

REGISTER for these free webinars at http://greenteacher.com/webinars.html

Thursday April 7, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "Shades of Green: Developing Artistic Approaches to Environmental Education"
Presenter:  Hilary Inwood
 
This webinar explores the emerging field of eco-art education, an integration of art education and environmental education, as a means of helping to develop environmental literacy in students and teachers. Hilary will introduce artwork and artists focusing on environmental issues in Canada and beyond, as well as some of the eco-art work that has been created in Toronto schools in recent years. Participants will be invited to share their own ideas and projects for creative approaches to EE.

Age appropriateness:  K-12

UPCOMING WEBINARS:

Tuesday April 12, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "Innovative Curriculum Design for Sustainability"
Presenter:  Jaimie Cloud

Thursday April 28, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "School Grounds for Healthy Play and Learning – Research and Case Studies of Good Design and Teaching Excellence on School Grounds"
Presenter:  Cam Collyer

Monday May 2, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "Using the Environment as a Context for Learning in Standards-Based Education Systems"
Presenter:  Gerry Lieberman

Tuesday May 10, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "FROG SONGS: Poetry and Essays, Field Ecology and Entomology" 
Presenter:  Brian Fox Ellis

Wednesday May 25, 2011, 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. EST
Webinar topic:  "Green Craft-Making" 
Presenter:  Zabe MacEachren

National Audubon Educator's Summer Workshop ~ July 14-19, 2011

The Audubon Camp in Maine, on 330 acre spruce-covered Hog Island, will be the site of Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week, during July14-19, and there are still some openings for teachers, educators, and youth leaders interested in living and learning at a historic and beautiful camp that has been home to Roger Tory Peterson, Rachel Carson, and other great naturalists.

See the Camp website for full information, including photos, videos, cost, staff bios, etc.

A number of participants are receiving partial or full scholarships from National Audubon Society chapters, schools, as well as birding clubs and gardening associations, so if the cost is a challenge, see if you can find a sponsor. This 5 ½ day session will be exciting, fun, and productive. Puffin-viewing, field biology adventures, workshops, art and journaling, music, skits, great food, and great networking.

Staff members include special guest Lynn Cherry, the talented illustrator and author of such books as The River Runs Wild, Flute’s Journey, and The Great Kapok Tree, as well as Jennifer Fee of Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology citizen science programs, famed naturalist Ted Gilman of Audubon Greenwich, Craig Newberger, head of elementary school science at the Germantown Academy, etc. etc. etc.

Join us for an inspiring week, fulfilling, fun, and memorable week on a Maine island! CEU’s available.

Contact Person:

Pete Salmansohn
Education Coordinator
Seabird Restoration Program
National Audubon Society
And Director of Sharing Nature: An Educator’s Week
[email protected]

Kristen Swanberg
Senior Director of Education
Audubon Society of Rhode Island
1401 Hope Street, Bristol, RI 02809
Tel: 401-245-7500 ext. 3111
[email protected]

New Green Course for Teachers and Educators ~ January 25 - May 3, 2011

Registration Deadline is Jan. 21!  The Teaching and Practice of Environmental Sustainability for K-12 Educators Course at RI College will begin on 1/25.

Taught by Dr. Mark DeMoranville, Apeiron's Director of Sustainable Business Training & Education, this course will:

• explore a selection of the classics of environmental literature,
• discuss and debate the concept, in theory and practice, of sustainable living from a range of perspectives,
• examine arguments pro and con for moving towards more sustainable patterns of economy and socio-cultural values,
• demonstrate examples of effective lesson plans and activities on sustainability

The course will be held Tuesdays from 4:00-7:00 pm at RIC starting January 25 and running through May 3.

Teachers will be challenged to draw from their own expertise, using their content knowledge and classroom experience to design innovative units that integrate the lessons of sustain-ability in ways that will inspire students. Further, they will be asked to consider ways they can advocate, in their schools and districts, and among colleagues, students and the larger school community, for moving towards a greater emphasis on sustainability as a teaching and learning priority.

For workshop information please contact Mark DeMoranville at [email protected].

Deborah Gist is Keynote Speaker at RI Environmental Education Assn Annual Meeting ~ January 11, 2011

Join the RI Environmental Education Association for Our

Annual Meeting on January 11, 2011!

We are pleased to welcome Deborah Gist, Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education who will speak to us about the relationships between Environmental Literacy, STEM, and Race to the Top.

Refreshments will be served $5 for 2011 RIEEA Members $25 for everyone else – 2011 RIEEA membership included. Register using the attached form (Organizational Memberships detailed on registration form).

Tuesday, January 11, 2011
5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
LaPerche Elementary School
11 Limerock Road
Smithfield, RI 02917

Featured RI Environmental Website ~ Rhode Island Sea Grant

 
For more than 40 years, Rhode Island Sea Grant has been funding coastal and ocean research and organizing first-rate outreach and education programs in Rhode Island, especially on Sustainable Coastal Communities & Ecosystems and Sustainable Fishereis & Seafood. We're featuring RI Sea Grant as the yearly Coastweeks program winds down.

RI Sea Grant is part of the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, and it is one of 30 Sea Grant programs in the U.S. Headquartered at URI Graduate School of Oceanography in Narragansett, it funds research at other educational insitutions in Rhode Island and has a Sea Grant Legal Program located at Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol.

The website has a wealth of information about our coast. Baird Symposia results for the last few years are available on such topics as Emerging Marine Diseases and Ecology of Marine Windfarms. You'll find descriptions of funding opportunites and research projects; the Special Area Management Plans for Ocean, Aquidneck Island, Metro Bay, and Greenwich Bay; Vibrant Waterfronts Programs for Newport Harbor, the RI Ports & Harbors Inventory, and Coastal Smart Growth; Climate Change & Coastal Hazards; Sea Level Rise Policy; Fisheries Extension Program projects; and much more. There is a bookstore for purchasing paper publications sponsored by RI Sea Grant, but you will also note some have pdfs free to download.

RI Sea Grant publishes the beautifully designed and informative 41^oN Magazine as well as posters and notecards. Kids (and probably adults, too) will enjoy the Shark Identification Placards. Also note A Bicyclist's Guide to Aquidneck Island and a Guide to Rhode Island's Natural Places ~ "a must for anyone wanting to discover Rhode Island, offering descriptions of over 160 sites...."

Factsheets cover bay plants and marine life, as well as rivers such as the Pawcatuck. The river factsheets give history and future of our rivers as well as observations about water quality ~ important reading if you live near one of the state's many rivers.

Check Out the RI Sea Grant Website for Yourself!

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This is the first in a series of posts that highlight important but perhaps lesser-known Rhode Island environmental websites.

Loraine Tisdale Environmental Education Awards ~ Due November 19, 2010

Attention RI Middle School and High School Science Teachers, Science Club Supervisors, and environmental organizations working in schools:

The Environment Council of Rhode Island Education Fund (ECRI Ed Fund) is pleased to announce that we are opening the application process for the Fifth Annual Loraine Tisdale Environmental Education Fund awards.

The Loraine Tisdale Fund honors a woman whose energy for a just and healthy environment are legendary. Mrs. Tisdale held an undergraduate degree in chemistry and a degree in nursing. For many years she led an organization that addressed safety and health issues concerning pesticides.

We are pleased to offer 3 grants of up to $250 to teachers or environmental organizations for support of school based projects that

1. Have student participation
2. Lead to measurable improvement in an environmental condition
3. Involve the community beyond a school in some way