An Important Lesson in Giving

The dining table is an important piece of furniture in a family.  It’s where we all meet to share conversation, enjoy meals, gather for big holidays, celebrate birthdays, etc.  The dining table  is the root of some of our fondest family memories. “Remember when Uncle Frank told that joke during dinner and Uncle Ralph laughed so hard coffee shot out of his nose?” “Remember Marcie’s first birthday party where she tried to eat her birthday candles?”

For a home learning family, the dining table also serves as a daily meeting spot around learning.  Instructional video creations, science projects, paper sculptures, model rockets, and writing projects took shape around the dining table.  So, it was a big deal when our family decided to upgrade the table and give the old table away.  Everyone in the family had an unspoken connection to the table and no one wanted to part with it at first.  However, it wasn’t in great shape  and a newer, bigger, stronger table presented itself for free.

We decided to give our old table away for free so as to benefit someone else.  We cleaned the table, carefully carried it out to the curb, put a nice big “free” sign on it, and looked upon it with great memories.  Our youngster had an especially difficult time with the idea of giving away such a central part of his young life until we turned the giving into a life lesson.

Lessons Learned

Empathy – Giving away something meaningful to benefit another is a powerful lesson in empathy.  The table, instead of tossed in the trash, has a new lease on life with the chance for another family to build memories and photos around it.  Perhaps the new owners couldn’t afford a table before, and this new table will allow them to sit together at dinner for the first time.

Reuse – Reusing used furniture items can reduce the demand for new item purchases.  A greener, more sustainable model for living in harmony with our environment calls for better stewardship of our resources, including trees and garbage dumps.

Perspective – “Stuff”, no matter how symbolic it is in our families, is just stuff.  It cannot replace or measure up to the human connections we have with each other.  It should never be placed on so high a pedestal that it interferes with what is truly important.  Understand the role that stuff plays in our lives, but don’t let it play the starring role.  The starring role in our lives belongs to our family, friends, neighbors, community, country, and global connections.  What better way to strengthen this connection than through giving?

Summer Citizen Science Ideas

Just because school’s out doesn’t mean kids should sit around watching TV or playing video games all day!  There are some really fun citizen science participation opportunities that are not only fun for the participant, but useful for real scientists who analyze the data to further their research.  How cool is that?

Here are a few of the citizen science programs we like.  If you have one you like, please share through our comments section!

Sci.spy

The Science Channel is empowering citizen scientists with camera phone devices to snap pictures of plants, animals, insects, etc. A free Sci.spy app makes it easy to register the location of the photo, and users are encouraged to add descriptive tags to help categorize the photos. So, get off the couch and start contributing to research initiatives that rely on citizen data.

SpaceHack

SpaceHack is a collection of physics, astronomy, and space-related citizen science projects aimed at teens.  SpaceHack has some very interesting projects that help participants learn about data, data access, data formats, and data analysis.

Firefly Watch

The Museum of Science, Boston, is coordinating citizen scientists from around the U.S. to submit firefly counts at a chosen location during the summer. Additionally, they’ve made observation data available for everyone to download and analyze.

Project BudBurst

Help researchers investigate the effects of climate change by documenting changes in plants as seasons change.  Using a standardized data format, scientists gather citizen data from around the U.S. Also, data is available for download so citizen scientists can track changes, too!

Scientific American Citizen Science

Scientific American has dedicated a section of its website to citizen science.  There are some really cool projects and games highlighted on this site.

Fun Sustainability Games, Videos and Learning Resources

Kids love learning online.  There are numerous online resources available for learning about sustainability, but we’ve selected a few that are extra cool.  After all, our philosophy is that learning is fun!

PBSKids

Great  short videos designed for kids, PBSKids Loop Scoops tackles topics like manufacturing of “stuff”, recycling, and the environment.

Rustle the Leaf

Rustle the Leaf is a fun comic strip site geared toward kids.  We like the coloring pages, videos, and lesson plans on the site.

Catchment Detox

Catchment Detox is an online entrepreneurial-style sustainability game where the player makes choices to build a sustainable and prosperous water drainage basin (catchment).

Water Footprint Calculator

National Geographic has a fun interactive water footprint calculator that helps kids learn about how their lifestyle impacts the environment.

Eco Innovator’s sustainability Quiz iPod/iPhone/iPad app

This free app quizzes the user about sustainability principles allowing winners to unlock mini games.

Five TEDTalks Around Innovative Sustainability

Celebrate Earth Day by sharing some inspiring TED videos with children.  There are numerous amazing TED Talks on sustainability and the environment.  Here are a few of our favorites.  Enjoy!

Mitchell Joachim: Don’t build your home, grow it!

Janine Benyus shares nature’s designs

Mushrooms are the new plastic

Natalie Jerejimenko: The art of the eco mindshift

How I built a toaster from scratch

Recycle Old Junk Into Cool Make Projects

We throw away so much stuff!  Before tossing those empty paper towel rolls into the trash, consider giving them an extended life by transforming them into something beautiful, useful, and fun.  We’ve found some great websites that offer simple and more complicated projects for recycling broken, used, and disposable items.

Make-Stuff.com  has some really creative projects, many of which use household materials that would otherwise get thrown away.  Although the site isn’t fancy and there aren’t any photos of the projects, there are tons of projects to choose from and many are easy enough for even the youngest learner.

Ziggity Zoom has some fun cardboard and paint crafts (and more).  These projects appeal to the younger set but look like so much fun!

ReplayGround has some really cool art/craft projects designed from mostly recycled materials.  We really like the mint tin magnetic word play project.

Recycled Tech as Art– Don’t throw out those old floppy disks, CDs and computers.  Check out this site for inspiration on repurposing those tech gadgets into art.

I Make Projectsis a teen/adult electronics projects website.  There’s a wide variety of projects, but the coolest projects hack old electronic devices.

How to Calculate Your Carbon Footprint

Your carbon footprint is simply an estimate of how much carbon dioxide you produce as a result of your daily lifestyle.  Besides the obvious CO2 you produce through breathing, chances are that the products you consume, the energy you use to drive, heat your home, or power your electronic devices all add to your carbon footprint.  When we process fossil fuels to make things (like fertilizer and plastics), CO2 is released into our environment.  Burning gasoline in our cars also produces CO2.  Enormous increases in CO2 in our environment lead to changes in our climate and are disastrous to our health.  The good news is that once we’re aware of our carbon footprint, there are steps we can take to reduce it.  Here are three of our favorite Carbon Footprint calculators:

Yahoo! Green. Our favorite carbon footprint calculator is Yahoo! Green’s tool.  The Yahoo! tool helps families determine their carbon footprint and plan for ways to reduce it.

The Nature Conservancy.  The Nature Conservancy has an easy to use Carbon Footprint calculator that takes a more proactive approach to calculating your carbon footprint.  The Nature Conservancy tool asks for things you are already doing to offset your carbon footprint, and then provides a comparison of your footprint with that of the average in the U.S. and the world.

Ecological Footprint. Ecological Footprint is a more in-depth quiz that provides your footprint information in terms of the number of earths we’d need if everyone had the same carbon footprint as ours.  This is a startling but effective result.  Try it yourself

Twenty Common Sense Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint

According to the Yahoo! Green website, the average American emits 9.44 tons of CO2 per year.  In fact, the U.S. ranks second among all countries for carbon emissions.  Let’s look at twenty common sense changes we can all make to help reduce our family’s Carbon footprint.

1. Eat a meatless meal once per week. If you’re really serious about reducing your meat consumption, watch Graham Hill’s TEDTalk on being a weekday vegetarian.
2. Eat a meatless meal once per day.
3. Buy locally grown food.
4. Buy organic foods (a large percentage of  fossil fuels used on farms goes toward making fertilizers).
5. Use 100% recycled computer printer paper.
6. Recycle all aluminum cans in your garbage.
7. Use a washable mug instead of a styrofoam cup for your coffee or hot cocoa.
8. Bring your own canvas bags to the store instead of using plastic or paper.
9. Use washable plates and utensils instead of disposables whenever possible.
10. Get a reusable water bottle instead of disposables.
11. Buy products with minimal packaging.
12. Run the clothes washer only with full loads.
13. Air dry your clothes in spring and summer instead of using the dryer.
14. Buy vintage clothes instead of new stuff at the mall.
15. Wash your clothes in cold water.
16. Unplug electronics when not using them.
17. Replace your lawn with native plants.
18. Turn your thermostat down two degrees in the winter and up two degrees in the summer.
19. Drive the speed limit.
20. Drive less aggressively, don’t accelerate and brake rapidly.

If you modify your lifestyle to include all of these simple changes, you’ll offset your carbon footprint by 1.23 tons CO2/year.  If you’re really committed to offsetting your carbon footprint even further, check out Yahoo! Green’s nifty CO2 calculator and Green Planner.

The Story of Stuff

The Story of Stuff is an educational video that demonstrates how the process of manufacturing, consumption, and disposal of stuff works, how it started, and how it is damaging not only our environment, but our culture.

Howtoons: Geeky Comics Show Kids How to Make Stuff from Household Items

Howtoons is a comic-based website full of rich comic strips containing ingenious instructions on how to make things using basic science and engineering principles.  Aimed at 8 to 12-year olds, Howtoons uses rich, colorful animation and a fun story to engage children’s natural interest in humor, comic strips, and having fun.

Our youngster gravitated to the marshmallow shooter, the laser-sighted spit ball gun, and the counting in binary comics.  I like the learning to tell time by the sun comic.  There are dozens of great comic strips on the Howtoons site, and a handy keyword search to help you find topics of specific interest.  There are also published Howtoons books, posters, t-shirts, and kits available for purchase on the Howtoons website.

Many of the projects encourage using objects that would be otherwise discarded, cost little or no money, and are simple fairly simple to make.  The science and engineering principles are craftily weaved into the story line, so learning happens through play, not through formalized education. For us, that makes all the difference.

Online Courses and Talks About Globalization and Sustainability

People connect to the world through the internet, and through it, people are changing the face of their governments and the world .   Forty Five percent of the world’s population connects to the internet through a mobile phone, and Google Translate is currently the most downloaded app on Apple’s iTunes store.  Emerging markets are growing around the world, but they’re taxing the world’s natural resources and contributing to vast environmental degradation.

What does this new connectivity and industrialization mean for the future of the world’s people? Global understanding and interdisciplinary studies can help children understand how to look at the big picture and make future decisions about politics, the environment, and technology with a global perspective.

Children who engage with the world through the internet have a responsibility to understand the world’s people, politics, environmental sustainability, population growth, and more.  We’ve found really great free online content provided by some of the best universities in the U.S.   Learn how the world works, why the world looks the way it does, why there’s more conflict in some parts of the world than others, and how to manage the world’s growth for generations to come.

• International Politics – Columbia University
• International Sustainability – Stanford University
• Sustainable Living Lecture Series – UCLA
• Global Population Growth – Yale
• TED Talks about Sustainability
• Globalization Talks from BigThink
• Faith and Globalization – Yale
• Mozilla: Community-Based Organizations – Stanford