1. Young Voices Heard in Copenhagen

Thanks to those of you who participated in eCards-to-Copenhagen! The Canadian UNICEF youth delegates — Alexandre Gariépy, Maryse Galibois, Jean-Frédéric Montreuil-Moreau, and Sabrina Chaoui from Quebec City — took your students' eCards to the Children's Climate Forum (CCF) in Copenhagen early this month. The Canadian team worked with other delegates from around the world to prepare a declaration about climate change. Together, they presented it to COP 15 President, Connie Hedegaard. She presented the declaration to other world leaders now attending COP 15. Encourage your students to read the CCF declaration!


You may also want to let your students know about the Canadian Youth Delegation (CYD) to the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen. They are keeping Canadians informed and urging them to act. One member of the delegation is Elaine Ho, an alumni of the 2009 Redfish School of Change. See the CYD blog as well as CYD podcasts from COP 15.

2. Look for New eCards Topics in 2010

eCards will soon offer nine distinct research topics for students in grades 7 to 11:

• Wind Power
• Solar Energy
• Nuclear Power
• Oil & Gas
• Arctic Glaciers
• Energy Success Stories
• Air Awareness — coming in January 2010
• Climate Change — post-Copenhagen edition coming early in 2010
• Environmental Citizenship — coming early in 2010

GreenLearning partnered with Clean Air Champions this fall to produce a new eCards unit and other activities about air quality. Air Aware is Clean Air Champions' national curriculum-linked program which aims to educate youth in grades 10 to 12 about the importance of adopting practices to enhance personal and environmental health.

Early in the New Year, also watch for a new topic resource centre on Environmental Citizenship as well as a post-Copenhagen version of the Climate Change topic resource centre.

3. Attend a BC Workshop to Develop EnerAction

Would you like to help shape our new sustainable transportation unit?

Schools in British Columbia are now pilot testing new EnerAction lessons and case studies. In January and February, we will hold workshops in Vancouver, Victoria and Richmond so that other teachers can contribute at this stage in the development process. EnerAction is designed for grades 4 through 7. All interested teachers are welcome to participate.

• Vancouver, BC, 55 Water Street (near Waterfront station),
  January 20, 4:00–5:30 pm. Light refreshments and door prizes available. Registration is required: contact Johan Stroman by January 15.
• Victoria, BC, at Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary,
  January 27, 3:00–5:00 pm. Light refreshments and door prizes available. Contact Kelly Nordin to register.
• Vancouver, BC, at the Vancouver School Board Office, February 15, 9:00–11:00 am. Contact Johan Stroman to register.
• Richmond, BC, location TBA, February 15, 12:30–2:00 pm. Contact Rosalind Poon to register.

4. Register for the Solar Oven Challenge

It is not too late to register your class for our annual Solar Oven Challenge. The Challenge is open to all Canadian students and must be completed by
May 28, 2010. To participate:

1. Register by sending an email with your name, school, grade, address and phone number to Kathy Worobec at GreenLearning. She will send you the Teacher's Guide with solar oven construction plans.
2. Build, test and bake with solar ovens!
3. Email us photos and descriptions of your creations to be eligible to win prizes.
4. See your recipes and photos showcased at re-energy.ca — GreenLearning's renewable energy website.

Last year, the Challenge involved participants from grade 3 through to grade 10. Many of the older students built solar ovens as part of the heat unit in their Science courses; other students learned about solar energy as a project in an eco-class or recycling club. Click here to see last year's projects and winning entries.

5. GreenLearning Partners With EECOM

GreenLearning has partnered with the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication — EECOM — for its 2010 conference to be held at Simon Fraser University, May 19 to 22, 2010. We encourage you to register for this national conference and join us for workshops and presentations that are sure to be re-energizing and inspiring.

Entitled Diversity, sustainability and environment: Exploring cultural and practical diversity for environmental learning, this year's conference will focus on environmental education in K to 12 classrooms as well as youth leadership initiatives, environmental education research, and interpretation. The workshop submission deadline is December 20th. We hope to see you there!

6. Explore Our Many Resources

This time last year, we took a break from telling you what's new to provide you with a snapshot of all of our programs. For that summary of our resources, click here.

You can also always learn more about us by visiting www.greenlearning.ca or by contacting one of our regional directors.

7. Our Thanks

As always, we are very grateful to our sponsors who make the work we do possible. Our thanks to TransCanada for its invaluable support of GreenLearning Canada; to Hydro One for its recent donation to support our work in Ontario; and to Shell Canada for supporting the Redfish School of Change throughout its exciting pilot year.