1. Let Us Know How We're Doing

Help us evaluate and improve our programs by completing the 2010 GreenLearning survey. We hope you will take a few minutes to answer our questions about your classroom experience with GreenLearning. Your feedback is invaluable to us as we work to improve and expand our programming.

The survey takes about 10 or 15 minutes. All teachers who complete the survey will be entered into a draw for prizes.

2. eCards Teachers: Enter to Win!

Nominate your students' eCards to the new eCard Showcase, and you and a student may win $100 in gift cards to Chapters. The eCard Showcase makes exemplary eCards visible to eCards students and teachers across Canada. GreenLearning will review all eCards nominated on or before June 4, and identify three that best capture the spirit of eCards: informed young Canadians making their voices heard on current energy issues. 

The winning teachers will receive $75 gift cards, and the winning students $25 gift cards. Winners will be contacted by email and announced in the June issue of GL News. All eCards nominated on or before June 4 will be considered, including those nominated prior to this announcement. 

More about the eCard Showcase:

• Teachers can nominate as many as three eCards per class to the Showcase. For copyright reasons, nominated eCards must have original student artwork or photos.
• Teachers can enable or disable their students' access to the Showcase using Edit Classroom under the Classroom Accounts menu.
• When enabled, eCards students can view and send any eCard in the Showcase.
• Deciding which eCards to nominate can make a great wrap-up activity for your class. For more information, see the Teacher's Guide to eCards at the eCards website.

Help us populate this new feature of eCards and win!

3. Take the Solar Oven Challenge

Looking for a fun and engaging activity on solar energy?

GreenLearning's Solar Oven Challenge is open to all Canadian students. Last year's Challenge included 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. Some students learned about solar energy as a project in an eco-class or recycling club.

How do you 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 by May 28, 2010 to participate.

4.  See your recipes and photos showcased at re-energy.ca, GreenLearning's renewable energy website. Winners will be listed there and in this newsletter.

Last year, five deserving submissions received Honours With Distinction: 

• Banded Peak, grade 7, Bragg Creek, Alberta taught by Craig Churchill
• Don Valley, grade 7, Toronto taught by Jonathan Smith
• St. Mark, grades 3 to 6, Mississauga taught by Anne Paquin
• Royal Canadian Montessori, Whitby, Ontario taught by Dawn Deane
• Crestwood, five students in grades 4 to 6, Medicine Hat, taught by Audrey Pavelich.

Click here to see last year's projects and winning entries.

4. March 9 and 10: Climate Change Exchange

The Ontario Science Centre and the British Council are co-hosting a live video conference on climate change on March 9 and 10, 2010. 

Youth from four Olympic host countries — Canada, the UK, Russia and Brazil — will talk about climate change challenges and solutions in their respective parts of the world.

The event takes place in Toronto at the Ontario Science Centre from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm EST each day. Click here for live streaming of the event. 

For more information, contact Anna Relyea at the Ontario Science Centre or Margret Brady Nankivell at the British Council. 

5. Join Us at the EECOM 2010 Conference

GreenLearning is one of a number of non-profit groups that is working with the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication — EECOM — on its 2010 National Conference to be held at Simon Fraser University, May 19 to 22. 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.

Invited keynote speakers include:

• Chet A. Bowers, respected educator, social critic, and published author on environmental issues;
• Gregory A. Cajete, Native American educator and Tewa Indian from New Mexico whose work is dedicated to honoring the foundations of indigenous knowledge in education;
• Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) which is promoting 2010 as the UN International Year on Biodiversity;
• Richard Littlemore, journalist and co-author of Climate Cover-up: Exposing the Public Relations Crusade to Deny Global Warming;
• Lucie Sauvé, Professor and Canadian Research Chair at the Faculty of Education of the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and a prominent voice on environmental education both nationally and internationally.

Groups supporting this year's conference include GreenLearning, Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Education, Interpretation Canada, BC Environmental Educators Provincial Specialist Association, and AQPERE.  We encourage you to register for the conference, and we hope to see you there!

6. Upcoming Workshops

Stay tuned to www.greenlearning.ca for GreenLearning workshops coming to BC in late March, and to Ontario and BC in mid April. To check for workshops in your area, see our Latest News.

You can also request a workshop for your school district. To do so, contact the GreenLearning Director in your region.