Will Steger’s school visits will begin next week with visits to Friends School of Minnesota and Salem Hills Elementary. Later this month, he will be visiting Roseville Middle School and MetroTech Career Academy. We are looking forward to these visits and will be posting about them on this Climate Lessons blog.

There have been 3 grant applications submitted from our Parks Climate Challenge Cohort, which have been great to see. We are excited to read the others!

There have been a couple recent articles examining effective climate change communication and teaching. One very interesting paper examines the personality types of Ph.D. climate researchers as well as the general public. It finds that the personality types of climate researchers differ from those of the general public, which has interesting implications for effective climate change communication strategies. Another recent article describes the importance of hands-on activities in teaching about climate change. Hands-on activities allow students to discover the impacts of climate change for themselves rather than just reading about them, which leads to a deeper understanding.

Featured Event

A Sense of Where You Are: Science and Knowing on the Mississippi River, Pat Nunnally, River Life Program Coordinator

Pat Nunnally will explore the Mississippi River, what we know about it and what it means on Wednesday November 9, 2011 at Aster Café in Minneapolis.

Funding Resources

CERTs Seed Grants

The 2012 CERTs Seed Grants have been released, which support community-based clean energy projects.  They are looking for projects that inspire other community groups to take action and provide models that can be replicated. Past funding has gone to projects in schools. For more information: http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/rfp  
Application deadline: November  15, 2011

Youth Garden Grants

The National Gardening Association is continuing its Youth Garden Grants program, which provides Home Depot gift cards to schools and community organizations who plan to garden with young people. For more information: http://www.kidsgardening.org/grants/2012-youth-garden-grants-1
Application Deadline: November 28, 2011

Great American Can Roundup

Join the Great American Can Roundup and win prizes for being one of the schools that collects and recycles the most aluminum cans. For more information: http://www.cancentral.com/roundup/

Project Saving Species

Collect cell phones for recycling to help save gorilla habitat. If your school collects the most phones, you can win up to $5,000. For more information: http://cincinnatizoo.org/savingspecies/

More Funding Suggestions

The Children & Nature Network provides suggestions about how to get funding for taking your students outside: http://www.seek.state.mn.us/article.cfm?id=5779

Future Opportunity

April 2012 is the Children & Nature Newtork’s Let’s Get Outside month. Start planning an outdoor April event with your students to join the movement. This would also be a great opportunity for an action project with your students.

Keep up the good work!

Kristen Poppleton

Ann Benson