Passive Houses are homes so well insulated that they require no heating at all, even in winter. They're super popular in Europe, because it's a magical land where everything is made out of chocolate and any sexual encounter that ends in fewer than three orgasms is immediately reported to the happiness police.

Journalist Charlie Hoxie realized that most people in America have never heard of the Passive House (or Passivhaus in the original, economical German) building movement, so he embarked on a documentary to spread the word. What follows are a series of excerpts from that film. You can also read more about his inspiration in an essay he wrote for Txchnologist.

Click HERE.

I am writing to ask your help locating great photos for use in the Primer of Conservation Biology, 5th edition, a widely used undergraduate textbook. If you have any great color photos of the following subjects, please send them (just the best ones!) one at a time via email to: richardprimack@gmail.com

I am interested in both vertical and horizontal images.

Sinauer Associates and I are on a tight production schedule; so the sooner you can send these photos the better. Or if you have some of these topics on a website, please let me know where to find them.

Please pass this message on to anyone else who you think might have some great photos.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Richard B. Primack
Boston University

Subjects needed:

Many species together; fish, insects, fungi, etc. illustrating the rich diversity of life; either in nature or a collecting situation.
People collecting plants or animals specimens, or working with specimens in a museum; perhaps someone putting plants in a plant press.
Attaching tags or radio transmitter to an animal.
Managing a habitat in some way, such as burning, building trails, reducing poaching, patrolling against illegal fishing, etc.
Traditional people doing something on their land, such as catching fish, practicing shifting cultivation, etc.
Pictures of Kuna people fishing in Panama.
Scientists carrying out a field study, such as censusing fish or coral populations, catching animals for a field study, etc.
An iconic national park, Ramsar site, or World Heritage Site, with recognizable scenery and perhaps some animals and/or people.
Tourists on foot, in a vehicle, or on a boat looking at wildlife, perhaps with binoculars or cameras.
Bushmeat, with a hunter or in a market.
People practicing traditional medicine.
Rainforest logging, perhaps with logging vehicles or people with chain saws.
Wildlife disease; perhaps white-nose syndrome in bats.
People carrying out a restoration project; perhaps a before and after picture.
A public aquarium with people looking at fish or marine mammals.
Ecosystem services; something to illustrate this concept.
Conservation education in practice.

Honeybees aren't the only bees that are used for honey production. In some parts of the world (New and Old) stingless bees are used for this purpose.

Dr. Peter K. Kwapong, Department of Entomology & Wildlife - International Stingless Bee Centre (ISBC), School of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast (Ghana), has made available a PDF of the 82-page Training Manual for Stingless Beekeeping that he and co-authors published recently. Click HERE.

Here's a link to a Web page with information about stingless beekeeping in Central America; see the link to a nice short video about traditional Mayan beekeeping with Melipona. Click HERE.

Click HERE.

Greeting from the Green Knight newsletter, and best wishes for the new year.

New Factsheets from Rutgers Cooperative Extension:

     What's Polluting our Rivers, Lakes, and Estuaries I: Phosphorus
        Salvatore S. Mangiafico, Michele Bakacs, Amy Rowe
        Rutgers Cooperative Extension
        Factsheet FS1170
        http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS1170


     Pond and Lake Management Part VI: Using Barley Straw to Control Algae
        Salvatore S. Mangiafico, Michael Haberland
        Rutgers Cooperative Extension
        Factsheet FS1171
        http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS1171


     Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting For Plant Irrigation I: Design Concepts and Water Quantity
        Salvatore S. Mangiafico, Christopher Obropta, Elaine Rossi-Griffin
        Rutgers Cooperative Extension
        Factsheet FS1162
        http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS1162


     Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting for Plant Irrigation II: Water Quality and Horticultural Considerations
        Salvatore S. Mangiafico, Christopher Obropta
        Rutgers Cooperative Extension
        Factsheet FS1165
        http://njaes.rutgers.edu/pubs/publication.asp?pid=FS1165

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––̵––––

 
Salvatore S. Mangiafico
County Agent III
Environmental and Resource Management Agent
 
Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Salem County
Suite 1
51 Cheney Road
Woodstown, NJ 08098-9982
 
Phone: 856-769-0090
Fax:  856-769- 1439
 
Email:
mangiafico@njaes.rutgers.edu

Website:
http://salem.rutgers.edu/nre

Montana State University has just launched a new online M.S. in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. This is a course-based, non-thesis program with a professional paper requirement. Students are not required to be on the MSU campus for any portion of their program. The M.S. program in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences is designed to provide outstanding graduate opportunities across a substantial breadth of disciplinary interests. Programs are specifically adapted to each graduate student and often address processes at multiple scales through well-integrated, multi-disciplinary efforts. The flexible and interdisciplinary nature of this program allows students to select courses to fit their professional goals and interests.

More information on this program can be found at: http://eu.montana.edu/online/degrees/lres/.

Click HERE.

Click HERE.

Click HERE.

NAAEE Announcements

Materials from the National Press Club Event Now Available

Altogether 360 people participated in our December 1 National Press Club Event, "Developing a Framework for Assessing Environmental Literacy," either in-person or via the Webcast. We have now posted on our Web site a suite of items to enable you to view the December 1 presentations and read project documents. Feel free to share this information.

This project is a first step that will require follow-through efforts by many to reach its full promise. We hope the resources on this Web page will help you and your colleagues continue to pursue some of the exciting options that are now being discussed.

www.naaee.net/framework

Eco-Hero Awards

Deadline: January 15, 2012
The Action For Nature Eco-Hero Awards program is open to applicants of any nationality, age 8 to 16, who are dedicated to environmental research, education, and stewardship. Cash prizes of up to $500 will be awarded.

www.actionfornature.org...

Registration Deadline: December 23, 2011
Disney’s Planet Challenge™ (DPC) is a project-based, environmental competition for U.S. elementary and middle school students inspiring and empowering them to be good stewards of the environment. Teachers are given the resources to create a standards-based curriculum that engages students in researching, managing, and solving a real world environmental issue with their teachers.

http://disney.go.com/planetchallenge/

Go Bananas! Challenge

Contest ends January 27, 2012, and the winning group will be announced February 1, 2012.
Take the Go Bananas Challenge! – a competition that challenges schools and scout groups across the country to answer the call, and create campaigns to collect and recycle cell phones to help save gorillas. Collect the most cell phones and win up to $5,000 for your school/scout group. Coltan, a mineral found in cell phones, is mined in gorilla habitat. By recycling old cell phones, you reduce the demand. Join the challenge online and start thinking about a creative campaign.

www.cincinnatizoo.org/savingspecies

President's Environmental Youth Awards (PEYA)

Deadline: December 31, 2011
The President of the United States along with the EPA presents the annual PEYA award program to promote awareness of our nation's air, water, land, and ecology and encourage positive community involvement by young people. One outstanding project from each region is selected for national recognition. Projects are developed by young individuals, school classes (K-12), summer camps, and youth organizations to promote environmental stewardship.
www.epa.gov/enviroed/peya...

Volvo Adventure

Deadline: January 31, 2012
Organized in collaboration with United Nations Environment Programme, the Volvo Adventure is an environmental action competition giving young people (ages 13-16) the chance to gain international recognition for their efforts. They could win an outstanding achievement commendation or an invite to the final in Goteborg, Sweden, in June 2012. All participants benefit from free education materials that share 10 years experience with everyone who registers.
Watch the video

www.volvoadventure.org...

We Can Change the World Challenge

Deadline: March 15, 2012
The Siemens "We Can Change the World Challenge" involves student teams along with teacher/mentors to solve environmental problems. This collaborative effort of the Siemens Foundation, Discovery Education, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), and the College Board, gives students the use of scientific investigation and Web-based curriculum tools powered by Discovery Education to create a replicable green solution. Teachers and mentors should register their teams and begin formulating their projects online.

www.wecanchange.com

Diversity and Environmental Justice Highlights

2012 Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Scholarship

Application Deadline: February 3, 2012
The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) is soliciting applications for the 2012 Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Scholarship. Persons identified as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Asian-American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or American Indian, or Alaska Native and accepted into an accredited doctoral program in any one of the social and/or behavioral sciences are invited to apply for the $12,000 Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Scholarship. Applicants will be notified of the results by July 16, 2012. All applicants must be a current member and a citizen or permanent resident of the United States when applying. Contact Chair Tyrone Forman with all questions at tyforman@stanford.edu.

www.sssp1.org

EE Research

Multicultural EE Acknowledges the Diversity of Views/Values, Contributes to Solutions of Environment

Based on the literature review, Dr. Marouli argues that worldviews of marginalized people have been underrepresented in EE and that "our understanding of environmental issues and the proposed solutions are culturally limited to and by the perceptions of the dominant group."
Marouli, C. (2002). Multicultural environmental education: theory and practice. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 7(1), 26-42.

www.eelinked.naaee.net/n/eeresearch...

Multicultural School Gardens Facilitate Learning About Language, Culture, and Environment

Dr. Cutter-Mackenzie has explored learning outcomes of a school gardening program in Melbourne, an Australian city, in 2006-2007. The research program involved 70 students – recent immigrants, 6-12-year-old – in designing, construction and implementation of a gardening program along with teachers, parents and community volunteers.
Cutter-Mackenzie, A. (2009). Multicultural school gardens: creating engaging garden spaces in learning about language, culture, and environment. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 122-135.

www.eelinked.naaee.net/n/eeresearch...

North American Events, Training, Announcements

2012 Earth Expeditions Global Field Courses

Applications are being accepted for 2012 summer/fall graduate field courses and the Global Field Program Master’s degree offering international studies in 11 countries throughout Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Offered by Miami University’s Project Dragonfly, the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, and partners worldwide, the GFP Master’s degree brings together graduate students, scientists, educators, and community leaders at critical field sites across the planet. Sites for 2012 include the Amazon, Australia, Baja, Belize, Borneo, Costa Rica, Guyana, Kenya, Mongolia, Namibia, and Thailand. Tuition for seven graduate credits and all basic in-country expenses are covered in the $1,290 course costs. Accepted students are responsible for airfare.

· Earth Expeditions: www.EarthExpeditions.org
· Global Field Program: www.MastersGFP.org

Project Dragonfly reaches millions of people each year through inquiry-driven learning media, public exhibits and graduate programs worldwide. Dragonfly is housed at Miami University, a state university in Oxford, Ohio, established in 1809 and listed as one of the eight original Public Ivies.

Earn Your Master of Environmental Management Degree Online

Create an environmental vision for tomorrow at the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke while maintaining a commitment to your employer and family! The Duke Environmental Leadership Program is an innovative, two-year online Master of Environmental Management degree, with strategically integrated intensive on-campus visits. The program is designed for working, mid-career environmental professionals and features interdisciplinary and global themes, strategic approaches to environmental management, and effective leadership development. Learn more at an information session.

www.nicholas.duke.edu/del/del-mem/delinfo

M.S. in Ecological Teaching & Learning – Lesley University

The Master of Science in Ecological Teaching and Learning (ETL) is designed for educators from private and public schools, museums, nonprofit centers, environmental centers, government organizations, and other alternative teaching settings, who want to deepen their understanding of ecology, sustainability, living systems, and ecological education and to apply their learning to their professional contexts. Teachers from across the disciplines – not just science teachers – complete this program. ETL is an 18-month accelerated program that includes two Summer field experiences and distance learning in the Fall and Spring semesters. The first Summer field experience is in a beautiful wild place, and the second Summer field experience is in a dynamic urban setting.

www.lesley.edu/gsass...

Spring 2012 Online Course: Environmental Education in Urban Communities

Apply: December 15, 2011 – January 22, 2012
Course Dates: February 6, 2012 – April 29, 2012
Cornell University’s Civic Ecology Lab announces an online course offered through EECapacity, the EPA-funded national environmental education program. This 12-week, non-credit professional development course will cover novel practices and conceptual frameworks of urban environmental education. Limited to 20 participants.

www.civicecology.org/course-uee.php

UWSP Spring 2012 Online Courses

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point 2012 online courses include:

Environmental Education Theory & Practice
Gain foundational knowledge of environmental education (EE) and learn how to incorporate quality EE into your instruction. Discuss the history and goals of EE and develop an understanding of the professional roles and instructional methods of environmental educators.

Applied Environmental Education Program Evaluation
Environmental educators, natural resource professionals, and graduate students will design evaluation tools such as questionnaires, observation forms, and inter­view and focus group guides that can be applied in evaluations of environmental education and outreach.

Natural Resources Policy & the Legislative Process
This course examines the legislative process with regard to natural resources, including power, limitations, and balances in the policy making process; natural resources advocacy; and the political behavior of voters and policy makers.

Advanced Oral Interpretation Methods
This course explores the communication process as the foundation of interpretation and discusses why understanding communication theories can improve interpretation effectiveness. Participants will gain skills to help create quality interpretive talks, guided walks and tours, and illustrated talks, beginning with the interpretive planning process and ending with the evaluation of an interpretive program. The goal of this course is to provide participants with a set of tools they can use to communicate an oral interpretive message to an audience effectively.

Scholarships are being offered for several of the courses! Download the flyer >

www.eelinked.naaee.net/n/eelinked...

Resources for Students and Educators

New Book on Evaluating EE Programs

This new National Science Foundation Workshop report is available online for those seeking new ideas for evaluating EE programs. Informal Science Education Evaluation Framework poses thought-provoking questions and ways of looking at various challenges that help program developers plan for evaluation of program outcomes and impacts.

www.caise.insci.org...

Classroom Action Guide asks What’s On Your Fork?

Does what you eat really have impact on our planet? Could mealtime choices actually help promote clean drinking water? What’s On Your Fork? is a new, free downloadable action guide and collection of supplementary educational tools from EarthEcho International designed to help educators and students explore the environmental and community impact of daily food choices. This new resource is part of EarthEcho’s Water Planet Challenge, a Web-based interactive program exploring a myriad of topics that engage and empower middle and high school-aged youth to design, create, and implement service-learning projects in their communities. Rich in academic connections, the What’s On Your Fork? step-by-step action guide includes stimulating content, student organizers for discussions and planning, and examples of youth taking action.

Visit the Web site to learn more about NEA Foundation Water Planet Challenge educator grants and an upcoming What’s On Your Fork? Webinar hosted by Philippe Cousteau, Jr.

www.WaterPlanetChallenge.org

Mobile Game from ARKive

"Survival" is a free, quick-fire mobile game to raise awareness about the world’s most endangered animals. Immersive, interactive, and educational, "Survival" is a great way to encourage children's curiosity for the natural world. At home, in the classroom, or on-the-go, kids and adults alike will have a whale of a time as they race against the clock to tap, pinch, drag, scroll, and swipe their way through a series of mini-games whilst learning about the world’s endangered species.

www.arkive.org/apps/survival

Our Daily Poison

According to the World Health Organization, cancer rates have doubled over the last 30 years, and increasing rates of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, autoimmune disorders, and reproduction dysfunction have also been observed. Our Daily Poison is a new documentary from Icarus Films and is divided into three distinct but interrelated sections, challenging the conventional wisdom on our agriculture and food systems.

www.icarusfilms.com/new2011...

Sustainability Education Resources

Shelburne Farms’ Sustainable Schools Project has released three new resources in celebration of National Education for Sustainability Week.

1. The Guide to Education for Sustainability provides an introduction and exploration of EFS practices and pedagogies.
2. The Education for Sustainability Starter Kit is a professional development tool that prepares educators and schools to start using sustainability as an integrating theme, and to catalyze school change with efficient use of existing resources through a series of self-guided learning opportunities.
3. The Healthy Neighborhoods/Healthy Kids Guide is a civic engagement and service-learning framework that can be used across K-12 grade levels as well as community settings.

All of these resources are available as free downloads from the Sustainable Schools Project Web site.

www.sustainableschoolsproject.org

Virtual Library in Spanish

This Spanish library provides a compilation of documents in Spanish for environmental educators, which include experiences, guidelines, multimedia, educational material, and other helpful information.

www.reambi.org/biblioteca-virtual/

Wetlands Restoration Publication

Wetland Restoration and Construction-A Technical Guide, by Thomas R. Biebighauser, is a new book designed to help individuals build attractive and functioning wetlands. Its contents are based on the authors’ experiences restoring over 1,400 wetlands in 18 states and two Canadian provinces. The reader will find practical, low cost, highly effective techniques for building wetlands that will require no maintenance. Of special interest to educators are the pages showing how wetlands can be built at schools to provide for environmental education, wildlife and fish habitat, cleaning run-off, and replacing groundwater.
Containing more than 650 color photographs and illustrations, the book is published by The Wetland Trust in partnership with the Upper Susquehanna Coalition, Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC), and the Center for Wetlands and Stream Restoration. Visit the Web site to take advantage of the low introductory price of $15.50 per copy, which includes postage.

www.thewetlandtrust.org/wetlandrestoration

RaceBridges for Schools provides a list of simple action-item suggestions to help teachers create a diversity program in their classrooms, in A Diversity Dozen Questions for Teachers.
http://www.racebridgesforschools.com/wp/?p=1989

January 16 - February 24, 2012
The Duke Environmental Leadership (DEL) course provides environmental professionals with a practical introduction to the strategies, methods, and tools of environmental communication that effectively lead to changes in behavior. This six-week course is taught in an entirely synchronous online learning format. http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/del/executiveed/cours...

Click HERE.

Click HERE.

Click HERE.

Click HERE.

EPA's healthy child care web-based resource directory was launched late yesterday afternoon at: http://epa.gov/childcare/.

This website was developed with three target audiences in mind: childcare providers, parents, and state and local agencies; the information it contains is arranged to be easily accessible for these three distinct audiences.

On the web site you will find links to a wealth of information (fact sheets, PPTs, trainings, assessment tools, reports, prevention and intervention guidance, etc.) on asthma, chemical hazards, environmental tobacco smoke, green cleaning, indoor air quality, lead, mercury, mold, pesticides and plastics. We hope you find this website useful and welcome your suggestions on how it can be improved.

Many many thanks to all who helped develop the web site including Katie Stewart, Gwen Hudson, Eric Yang, and Judy Dew.Their help in researching literally hundreds of documents to select the best of the best of what's available for each info category, finding photos, developing quiz questions, arranging the info so it's easy to find, etc. helped to bring this project to fruition in record time!

Kathy Seikel
Environmental Protection Agency
Office of the Administrator
Office of Children's Health Protection (1107A)
1200 Penna. Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20460
202-564-0457 (ph)
202-564-2733 (fax)
visit:www.epa.gov/children

Click HERE.

Geosphere
Lascaux – Virtual Cave Tour - http://www.lascaux.culture.fr/index.php?lng=en
Polish up your French for this virtual tour of a cave system with great cave art, “A virtual cave of the Lascaux -- the site of some of the earliest known cave paintings, the site is beautifully done.”

EarthScope Website - http://www.earthscope.org
Exploring the Structure and Evolution of the North American Continent: The EarthScope scientific community conducts multidisciplinary research across the Earth sciences utilizing freely available data from instruments that measure motions of the Earth's surface, record seismic waves, and recover rock samples from depths at which earthquakes originate.EarthScope provides a unique education and outreach opportunity for students, teachers, and the public to participate in a national experiment going on in their own backyard. Also, folks on Facebook can Like the EarthScope Facebook page to keep abreast of the latest developments in the Earth science community, and can also follow EarthScope on Twitter (#EarthScopeInfo)”

Hydrosphere
A Bizarre Underwater "Icicle Of Death" has Been Filmed - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/15835017
“Here is a short, but really "cool" video from nature that could spark a whole bunch of conversation about dissolution, density, and energy transfer.It's just over a minute long, so worth the watch.”

Weather
NOAA: 2010 Tied For Warmest Year on Record - http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2011/20110112_globalstats.html
“According to NOAA scientists, 2010 tied with 2005 as the warmest year of the global surface temperature record, beginning in 1880. This was the 34th consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th century average. For the contiguous United States alone, the 2010 average annual temperature was above normal, resulting in the 23rd warmest year on record. This site contains many more of these highlights.”

Space
How Far Away is the Moon? – Exposing a Misconception Video - http://www.wimp.com/moonaway/
“Using a basketball and a tennis ball people are asked to represent how far they think the Earth is from the moon. Then the man instructing the video shows the correct distance.”

Discovery’s Last Ride - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpVClvUzhPA&feature=youtube_gdata_player
“With the STS-133 crew in tow, space shuttle Discovery lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on her final ride to the International Space Station.

General
MiddleSchoolPortal/Science Misconceptions at the Middle - http://wiki.nsdl.org/index.php/MSP:MiddleSchoolPortal/Misconceptions_at_the_Middle
“What kinds of misconceptions might middle school teachers encounter in their classrooms? We share some examples from physical, life, and earth and space science. Far from an exhaustive list, this sampling is meant to stimulate your thinking about what ideas your students might hold.”

Undergraduate Internships and Research Opportunities - http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/
“Once again, we are enlisting your help in getting information from the NSF and NASA to your colleagues and/or students you know who may be considering undergrad summer research and/or applying to graduate school. Please announce these opportunities in any classes or at presentations you may be making, and forward or print/ post the flyer on the link below in this email --as you deem appropriate. Over 800 programs – REU and other summer research opportunities for undergrads.

Count Down Timer - http://www.timeme.com/timer-stopwatch.htm
Our Timer Stopwatch can count up or down, with or without an alarm, in a loop or not, and in various colors, sizes and fonts.

The Newspaper Clipping Generator - http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
To download your newspaper, use the link at the bottom of the generated image. You can use the images as you wish i.e. put them on your own website or blog. Please note, that direct linking to the newspaper clippings doesn't work; the images are deleted from the server after a short time span.

Demo
Liquefaction
“I fill 3 plastic beakers with sand.One beaker has dry sand, one has totally saturated sand, and the third has sand with Plaster of Paris added ahead of time (aka rock).I place three pencils upright in each.I have kids predict what will happen in an earthquake, then I shake all three equally (usually while exclaiming “Oh no…an earthquake!!!). The one with saturated sand will fall over first.When you repeat the demo, make sure that you have stirred up the saturated beaker, for too much shaking can cause the sand grains to compact.”
When finished with the demo show students this video of Lake Michigan “Quicksand” - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yMYxwtvIQE