State-level budget crunches are taking their toll on local school systems, with many resorting to layoffs and service cutbacks to stretch funds. The Los Angeles Unified School District is no different: a quick scan of their news releases shows the board approving layoffs, and the district’s superintendent proposing a shorter school year and even taking furlough days.
LAUSD is also considering some more unusual, and more sustainable, approaches to making ends meet: cutting energy and water use through the implementation of green building and transportation.
Green jobs training programs are popping up all over the country. Often funded by grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (i.e., the stimulus bill), these programs generally aim to retrain displaced workers in skills such as building efficiency and renewable energy installation and maintenance. Recent numbers tend to bear out the potential for job growth in green industries: wind power, for instance, grew by 39% in 2009.
A very cool proof of concept by Jürgen Graef & Jonas Heuer that would’ve been useful to me when I was trying unsuccessfuly to learn basic and fundamental music theory in elementary school.
“Notput” is an interactive music table with tangible notes, that combines all three senses of hearing, sight and touch to make learning the classical notation of music for children and pupils more easy and interesting.
Cleanup crews and 27 skimmer boats are working to contain and remove oil from a massive spill that happened when a crude oil tanker and a barge collided Saturday in the Port Arthur Ship Channel.
Can schoolkids do what world leaders in Copenhagen failed to do last month: lower greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change? You may have already seen how some students challenged leaders in Denmark with patches from the climate quilt; now, the Green Schools Alliance (a sponsor of the quilt) has persuaded 128 schools in 22 states to take direct action against global warming by participating in the Green Cup Challenge.
Even though the Bruce High Quality Foundation has exhibited at places both high and low, from the W Hotel to P.S.1 MoMA and the upcoming Whitney Biennial, they still, quite often, have to explain themselves. One such example is the BHQFU, the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, a series of classes open to the public in subjects such as Philosophy of Motion Pictures, What’s a Metaphor and Occult Shenanigans in 20th/21st Century Art. More explanation defying courses are listed here, the most stupefying being the BHQFU Detective Agency (just try making sense of the website). But if you’re really interested and you want to know more, BHQFU, like a proper institution of higher learning, is having another open house this evening.
Solar systems at elementary and secondary schools create opportunities for reduced energy bills and student education… but they’re also expensive. Even when a school system recognizes the long-term potential for savings, the money just may not be there for the up-front investment.
As world leaders gather in Copenhagen this week to negotiate continued international action on climate change, they’ll have one good example of the kinds of pledges they’ll need to make: the Climate Quilt. A project of Habitat Heroes and The Green Schools Alliance, the Climate Quilt Campaign asks school kids from around the world to make “pledge patches” (from recycled materials, of course) that display individual promises “to preserve the future of the planet.” While the finished quilt won’t be available until Earth Day, 2010, panels from kids in New Jersey and Australia have made their way to COP15.
Ice plugged an inactive pipeline, causing it to burst, officials said Tuesday in an attempt to explain how 46,000 gallons of crude oil spewed onto the tundra near a BP Exploration processing center at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope
When you were a high school student, how did you prefer to learn your science: formulas on the board and text books, or hands-on experiments involving building things (or maybe even blowing things up, or dropping items from high distances)? Yeah, I thought so… Southern California’s Metropolitan Water District has provided a hands-on opportunity for kids throughout the area to learn about engineering principles, solar power and electrical systems, and even water pollution and other broad environmental issues through its annual Solar Cup boat races.
If you’ve read Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, or looked into the detail of “No Child Left Inside” legislation and initiatives,you know that broad health issues (obesity, diabetes, ADHD, and even depression), and concern over environmental awareness, tend to drive the idea of getting kids outdoors more. For a number of programs around the country, though, the stakes are even higher: environmental education is becoming an integral part of working with kids at risk of falling into lives of crime, addiction, and poverty (which make the above-mentioned health issues a bigger likelihood).
