Global skills essential for a global economy
¾ of businesses think we are in danger of being left behind by emerging countries unless young people learn to think more globally
That was one of the main findings of The Global Skills Gap, a report by the British Council and Think global in December last year. The report also found that 93% of businesses think it is important for schools to help young people develop the ability to think globally.
Practical Action’s education work supports that need for students to be more globally aware and able to identify with global issues. Our activities promote awareness and understanding of issues such as climate change , the importance of energy access, and technology justice (Where technology is used for the benefit of all, ensuring poor people have simple, affordable and sustainable technology to improve their lives)
Students whose education has included a good global perspective have already been shown to go onto lead more sustainable lifestyles and are more likely to be supportive of the work we and likeminded organisations do. The fact that this report shows they are also potentially more employable adds weight to the value of our work to the students themselves and to society as a whole.
‘’what global companies look for are people who we think can take a global perspective. Students are well placed to do this if they have opportunities to widen their cultural perspective’’
Sonja Stockton, Director, PricewaterhouseCoopers
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Putting the global into science
We are attending two great science conferences early next year
The ASE conference is an annual must for all science teachers interested in finding out what the latest science resources available are for keeping up to date on current policy and practice. On 5-7th January we will be there to show teachers the great resources we produce and how they can enhance their science teaching. If you are attending do please come and see us, we’d love to find out what you like about our work and what else you’d like us to produce, go to http://www.ase.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/
Then on 25th February if’s off to the ‘What is science for? ’ conference in Widnes , which will focus on the importance of global issues in science teaching. Sessions will include:
- Andrew Hunt – Making sense of our global interdependence through science
- Prof Malcolm Dando – Bioethics and biological weapons
- Eric Fewster – Science and engineering for relief and development
- Prof Justin Dillon – “Doing” science versus “Being” a scientist: Making sense of young people’s aspirations and attitudes to science
- Prof Justin Dillon (Workshop) – Climate change education within the new National Curriculum: threats and opportunities for teachers and students.
To book for this conference please go to www.whatissciencefor.eventbrite.com
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World Food Day – tinned or fresh?
As we marked World Food Day yesterday – there was a certain ironic discussion going on in our house – what to send our9 year old son into school with for the harvest assembly this week?
My dilemma – to reach to the back of the food cupboard to find a tin (as requested by the school!) or something fresh from the garden….squash, beetroot or plums?
Well I’ll leave that dilemma for you to speculate…but if you’re looking this week to do something in your school assembly around harvest, then do look at our new Food and Sustainability part of our Schools website.
It’s packed with activities for teachers and has links to examples of inspirational food producers stories around the world.
Good luck and any suggestions of what to send welcome…
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Loop the loop with Ellen Macarthur
The Ellen Macarthur foundation has been set up with one goal in mind – to inspire a generation to re-think, re-design and build a positive future.
They propose the idea of a circular economy where products and processes are designed to work in a way that mimics natural biological processes. Nothing is wasted. A system where products we no longer need such as old washing machines are collected and components recycled. And they haven’t’ forgotten about energy consumption, far from it, they advocate the use of renewable energy systems.
Please watch their latest video and see what you think. Go to our design and technology page on the schools website for a range of activities to help you integrate sustainability into your teaching.
No Comments » | Add your commentFrom energy generating shoes…
to water saving showers, we’ve had lots of fabulous designs submitted from students who’ve entered our Small Is…Challenge. The final winning designs, along with others that were shortlisted from primary and secondary schools throughout the UK can be seen on our site.
Sensor shower - saving water and energy
The design challenge was launched to celebrate the centenary year of Practical Action’s founder Fritz Schumacher.
No Comments » | Add your commentShould climate change remain in the school curriculum?
Absolutely. Like many other educators I was quite shocked to read that Tim Oates, a government advisor reviewing the national curriculum, is suggesting climate change is dropped in the new curriculum.
Climate change will affect all of us, including those in the developing world. Students should be made aware that people in developing countries are currently hardest hit by climate change and of it impacts on global poverty, by making floods in Bangladesh even worse for example. In addition they also need to be aware of how it could affect them directly if we do not act soon. Practical Action recently produced a tube map to show which areas would be underwater by 2100. Images like this help students understand the effect climate change could have on their future lives, and the lives of their children as well as those in their global community.
It is vital that our future scientists and engineers have an understanding of how climate change will affect all of our lives. Chris Hume, the energy secretary recently stated the need for green skills in our future economy, and understanding the link between sustainability and climate change is vital for this. Teaching children about climate change shows them how science relates to the real world and about connections between subjects. Linking scientific concepts to topical, global issues also makes science more interesting for students. In our response to the national curriculum we stated how important it was that students learn about the nature of science, how scientific knowledge is constantly evolving and the importance of discourse. The ‘story’ of climate change is a really interesting demonstration of that, which helps get students engaged and interested in science.
In addition to nuturing new scientists and engineers is is also important that our science education develops a scientifically literate population. An understanding of climate change is going to be vital to this. The next generation need to understand what climate change is and what we can do to meet the challenges it poses.
If you feel as strongly as I do that climate change should stay in the curriculum please go to http://peopleandplanet.org/navid12439 and sign the email petition.
2 Comments » | Add your comment100 Small things to make a difference
Our founder Fritz Schumacher believed that even small things could make a big difference to people’s lives. We think so too, so to celebrate his centenary year we have designed a poster to get school students thinking about what small things they could do to make a difference, to their community, their environment and to people in the developing world.
Ideas include
- taking toys to a charity shop so they can be loved all over again
- growing your own vegetables and buying locally sourced food
- refusing to use products that use lots of packaging
- volunteering to help in your local community
- repairing your bike when it brakes; and
- join Practical Action’s energy campaign
There are 90 ‘things’ on the poster and space left for students to add 10 of their own. Divided into the 6Rs of Reduce, Refuse, Recycle, Rethink, Repair, Reuse this FREE large A1 poster is sure to be popular with teachers and students.
Please do take a closer look at the poster and if you would like to request your own copy just email use at schools@practicalaction.org.uk
Why not try some of our small ideas yourself ?
No Comments » | Add your commentMaking aerial ropeways at INTECH science centre
Today was a real treat for me. I got to see lots of groups of 12 to 13 year old students taking part in the Squashed Tomato Challenge, a challenge inspired by my visit to Nepal a year ago. The students were doing the challenge as part of a day organised by the education team at INTECH in Winchester. They had been told about the problem faced by farmers in Nepal, that of transporting tomatoes down a mountainside and were designing model systems that could help solve the problem.
As Robin Barclay, one of their teachers said to me ‘the students are really getting involved, it’s great to see them working together and coming up with solutions. It brings in the sustainability angle as well which is so important now in everything we teach.’
Their designs were measured on how many tomatoes they could transport in two minutes, reliability of the system and ease of operation. Points were deducted for dropped and squashed tomatoes and any human ‘intervention’ that took place to make the system work.
Mrs Webb, the students’ science teacher thought the activity was ‘fantastic’ because it showed them how they could relate what they learnt to a real life situation. She told me how they had completed a unit on forces recently but until now didn’t see how that could be applied.
As for the students when I asked an excited Vienna Dale how her team got on she said ‘We did amazing, we moved about 20 tomatoes and only squashed two. It was hard though having to think of a design that would work and get the tomatoes down in quite a short time’
Students working hard but enjoying themselves and finding out about technology used by Practical Action ….that has to be a good thing if you ask me!!
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Education White Paper – good news for global learning?
I fear not. One of the elements of the The Schools White Paper out today focuses on the streamlining of the national curriculum. The paper states that ‘The curriculum should… outline a core of knowledge in the traditional subject disciplines’. On the face of it that sounds like a good idea. BUT when it comes to defining what those traditional subjects are citizenship and global learning are not in the Government’s list. Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) is, as is a foreign language up to the age of 16. It appears that incorporating global learning content and practice into the curriculum however will be left up to individual teachers.
Along with a number of organisation who signed up to the Global Learning Charter Practical Action’s Education Unit believes that given that we now live in a globally interdependent world knowledge of global issues should be a a mandatory part of the curriculum.
We want students to understand what life is like in developing countries and be able to learn from some of the great work that goes on there. Work that Practical Action is involved for example that demonstrates how simple technology can improve people’s live. Projects such as introducing renewable energy to remote villages in countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe and gravity ropeways that support farmers in Nepal. We also want them to understand how climate change is already having a devastating impact on the people who contribute the least to it. Engaging students in this way we feel will encourage them to feel part of the ‘Big Global Society’ , making them more likely to live more sustainable lives and both support and engage with organsiations such as ours.
The Cambridge Primary Review backs this up too. It’s curriculum aims include ’promoting interdependence and sustainability, encouraging respect and reciprocity; empowering local, national and global citizenship’.
A recent report by the DEA showed that learning about global issues increases public support for overseas aid, so if the Government wishes to retain this kind of support surely it needs to ensure that global learning is part of the core curriculum for all students, starting at primary school and going right up to leaving school? Leaving it up to individual teachers is in my opinion simply not good enough.
And as for the idea that having been in the army automatically makes someone so ideally suited to becoming a teacher that they will be exempt from paying tuition fees, don’t get me started!
No Comments » | Add your commentSmall Is…Challenge
Students love challenges – big and small.
To celebrate Fritz Schumacher’s centenary year we are giving students the chance to take part in our very own Small Is… Challenge. Students aged 9-14 are being challenged to look at technologies from the last 100 years and invent a product that could help us all lead a more sustainable future.
The starting point is a full colour two meter long technology timeline illustrating technology over the past 100 years. It includes a range of technologies introduced by Practical Action to help poor people improve their lives. We have 1,000 of these to give away to schools. Launched at the DEA conference last week the challenge is already getting a great response from teachers
‘We get sent lots of details about competitions and I ignore most of them. What really stood out about this one was how well structured it is with everything a teacher needs; PowerPoint, student worksheets and of course the fantastic timeline. I’m going to tell all my colleagues about it’
Roshin Kidd
St Mary’s High School
Northern Ireland
Go to http://www.practicalaction.org.uk/education/smallischallenge to find out more and spread the word!
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Practical Action uses technology to challenge poverty, working with poor women and men around the world.
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