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Despite the obvious learning opportunities it offers, sometimes it’s difficult to justify buying a digital video camera for everybody.  There are limitations to using a DV camera; usually you need to connect the camera to the computer to get the video from it, and it’s unlikely that there will be enough for the whole class to use anyway.  What’s needed is a quick and easy-to-use portable device with removable storage, so while one pupil is editing their video, another can be using the camera.

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At the digital video course the other day, one of the participants was telling us how she had used digital blue cameras to record her children presenting their own weather forecasts, which they had researched and created. All agreed that this was a really great idea, so when I read about the Met Office’s Interactive Weather Presenting kit on the fantastic Ictopus site, I felt I had to pass it on.
The kit consists of a CD ROM with PowerPoint slides, sets of weather symbols, links to current weather data and an image bank, to which students can add. It is aimed at key stages 2-4. It looks to be a really useful resource - and, of course, you could film it!
The website warns that stocks are currently running low, but new stock is expected and will be delivered when available. All you need to do is complete the online form and the CD will be delivered (to UK addresses) free.

Colleagues

You may be interested in bringing this site to your colleagues and schools attention. It is about World Environment Day, which this year is taking the theme of climate change.  World Environment Day is promoted in the UK by the Environment Agency.

www.mendoftheworld.org

The site includes resources, such as web banners and posters and incorporates a mass survey to find out what people are doing, what else they could do and what is stopping them.

The approach they have taken, especially the animated introduction, may give schools ideas they could incorporate into their own websites and activities to raise awareness of climate change.

Regards

Margaret

Project Manager
WMnet Young People’s Climate Change Messages Project
climatechange.wmnet.org.uk

Dear all, As you maybe aware today Defra and the Department for Educations and Skills have sent out to all secondary schools in England a resource pack to help teachers and pupils explore and understand the issues surrounding climate change. ( www.defra.gov.uk/news/2007/070502a.htm ).

This pack contains the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth as well as our new multimedia disk which includes:

• Tomorrow’s Climate, Today’s Challenge (our first film)
• My CO2 (our new film) Diaries of the Climate Change Champions
• The Carbon Cycle animation by Climate Change Champion Sofia Selska.

It also contains a leaflet on the Sustainable Schools Year of Action and links to comprehensive online guidance on how teachers can use these resources in the classroom.Our new pack with this multimedia disk and our revised booklet which is intended to have a community level audience will be available to projects very soon.

In the meantime, if your project is specifically focused on children or schools we have a very limited number of Schools packs we can give out.

If you would like to book ahead for copies of our new pack please email Sheikh ( sheikh.miah@defra.gsi.gov.uk ) and he will add you to our spreadsheet.

If you would like a schools pack please also email Sheikh. We will try to send packs out to all those who ask but we do have a very limited number.

Young People’s Climate Change Messages project - new video trailer available. The events at Millennium point (Jan 18th) and Bishops Wood (23rd) are now full but there are plenty of spaces at the Telford, Stafford and Coventry venues.

If you have the latest version of Google Earth installed, you can now access a collection of historical map overlays, such as a 1790 world globe. In the layers section, select All Layers, then look for Featured Content > Rumsey Historical Maps. Then get ready to be wowed!

Lickhill Lodge First School on the northern edge of Stourport has just publised its weather station data online - it updates every ten minutes.

More weather stations in London can be viewed here.

After reading Wesley Fryer’s post on ‘Classroom Blog World Tour‘ and reading through the Google Earth Tutorial, I decided to have a go.  You can download my ‘Shropshire Secondary Schools‘ file and let me know what you think.

What tours do you think we could use in schools?  Maybe we could plot the route the Olympic Torch will take when it comes to England in 2012….

Science Across the World is offering workshops based on the new activities it has developed in partnership with WMnet. The activities enable students around the world to undertake research into climate change in their own country and to exchange their findings and opinions with other students around the world. The workshops are of interest to teachers of KS3/4 science, geography, ICT and languages, as well as those looking to add an international dimension to their teaching.

These workshops are subsidised by WMnet and are offered free of charge to participating teachers. The courses will be run at schools within the West Midlands area (subject to local demand) or a science centre in the region during the week 15th – 19th October 2006.

Further details can be found on the WMnet website or downloaded from here.

I am sure you can remember the times when you have been digging and someone says if you carry on like that you will arrive in Australia. This Google maps mashup (If I dig a very deep hole, where I go to stop?) allows you to find out exactly where you would end up if you carried on digging through the planet.

There is an article about this application at Stanford University.