Eco Ambassador Program @ Center for Sustainable Development (CSD)

Check out the Sustainable Fashion’s October 2022 Newsletter by Lilian Brennan and Tabitha Webster!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16d6HX3HJh7lAIdUI9UrqCbFQgy6z3c-k/view?usp=sharing

The website: https://sites.google.com/hvrsd.org/sustainablefashionnewsletter/home

Instagram:

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Updated: Aug 23, 2022

by Eco Ambassador Vidya Bindal, Rising Freshman, Millburn Public School

At long last, there is a sign of hope and there are new wings to fly far and wide, literally. For me, as my middle school years come to an end, and I eagerly look forward to high-school there are a wide variety of electives to choose from and varsity sports, and then there is also a great news to share from the world of Nature. The World Wildlife Fund recently reported that there were 35% more monarch butterflies in Mexico’s forests this year than the previous year!

The monarch butterfly is a beautiful insect, and a legend in its own right. It travels upward of 3000 miles to and from the Northeastern United States to Mexico. It is not just one of nature’s most eye-catching creations, with the bright orange wings, but as is typical of nature, it is also highly helpful in pollination and preservation of local eco-systems.

The monarch butterfly population had been on the decline since 1995 when such a drop was first reported. Since then, this legendary insect was losing its tribe, largely for three main reasons:

• Overlogging of forests in the areas of Mexico where the butterflies migrate to tide over winter in the north.
• Climate crisis. As our planet warms, each new year recording higher temperatures, the butterflies’ migratory route between Canada, the US, and Mexico becomes less hospitable.
• And last but not the least loss of Milkweed plants. Milkweed is a critically important plant because the choosy Monarch only lays eggs on these plants, and this plant then becomes the only food source for monarch caterpillars.

The loss of these butterflies was thus indicative of not just a loss of a natural process but also a distressing reminder of how we the humans are causing irrecoverable damage to our planet. However, as we can see from the latest WWF report, perhaps some people somewhere made note and started to undo the damage done on this innocent creature. I want to think that I know some, if not all, of those people. I know that my township of Millburn has been actively promoting the creation of monarch waystations in private yards, and a community native plants gardens with ample milkweeds, was especially created for this purpose. I am equally proud to mention that not only did we attempt such a garden in our backyard too, but that as eighth graders in our science class we dived fully into the nuances of the life-cycle of the Monarch butterfly culminating the year-long project with germinating milkweed seeds and growing them in our classrooms, to finally be able to take them to our homes and plant them. I was told by my school that while monarchs as a topic are not formally a part of the curriculum yet, teachers are encouraged to introduce ‘extra’ elements in the class to help students learn about different content and skills in science. In that context, I was filled with more hope for Nature when even my younger sister reported doing a similar native plants project in her school’s newly formed environmental club.

To have our in-class school experience be so meaningfully aligned to a real problem in Nature was already gratifying, and then to learn that our efforts, combined with those of many other smaller entities like us, are having an impact, is the icing on the cake. I look forward to a greater immersion in real-world problems of our world, in high school now.

 

Source: https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/eastern-monarch-butterfly-population-shows-signs-of-recovery

 

Photo by Vidya Bindal. Lake Placid, NY.

Updated: Feb 3, 2022

Let us come together to discuss sustainability and justice as key components of New Jersey’s Climate Education policy. The Center for Sustainable Development at the Earth Institute, Columbia University will be hosting this event. This will be the 2nd annual Climate Change Education Summit to discuss policy and practice to further Climate Change Education in New Jersey.

Partners to the event include:

New Jersey Audubon

Biotrail New Yorks

UN Sustainable Solutions Network SDGs Today

UN Sustainable Solutions Network USA

The Summit will include free workshops led by youth activists, educators, education and sustainability policy experts to further participants’ skills on climate storytelling, community organizing and thinking about ways to integrate learning and action toward sustainability and justice in schools and communities.

2-4th February 3:30 to 6:30pm.

2nd Feb 2022

3:30pm -3:45pm

Keynote: First Lady of New Jersey Tammy Murphy

Introduction: Radhika Iyengar

3:45 – 4:30pm

Topic: Status of Climate Education in NJ: A Policy Dialogue

Marc Rogoff, Lead Environmental Education Specialist at the New Jersey department for Environmental Protection

John Henry, Senior Manager, STEAM & Sustainable Schools

Audience: Teachers and School Administrators

4:30pm-5:30pm

Topic: Understanding NJ’s Climate Resilience and Local Action

Moderation: Jazmin Mora

4:30 to 5:00pm-Localization of SDGs in education and local community action

Alainna Lynch on NJ SDG Index and discussion of local action, SDGs, USA a part of SDSN

5:00-5:30pm

Randall Solomon on The role of municipalities and schools in making Jersey Sustainable

The New Jersey Sustainable State of the State that tracks our progress toward a sustainable future.

Audience: Teachers and School Administrators

5:30pm-6:30pm

Global Stories and Local Action

Maryam Rabiee, UNSDSN SDGS Today On the Power of Storymaps

William Bertolloti and his students from Plainedge High School, New York.

Panel Moderation: Radhika Iyengar

Audience: Teachers and Students

3rd Feb 2022

3:30pm-4:30pm

Introduction: By Allison Mulch

Schools and Climate Action:

ANJEE- Mike Chodroff, Past President of ANJEE and Founder of the The Ripple Center

Frida Ruiz & Bianca Palomina – The Green Cause

Navyaa Jain – New Jersey Student Sustainability Coalition

Ben Rich – Science Educator at MKA & OASIS North Coordinato

Audience: Teachers and Students

4:30pm-5:30pm

Introduction: Jazmin Mora

Student Research on Climate Education

4:30 to 5pm: Carolyn McGrath and her students from Hopewell Valley Central High School.

Nadia Chasalow and Akhansha Arvind, seniors at Hopewell Valley Central High School and leaders of the HVCHS Youth Environmental Society, will present about biomimicry and ways to incorporate it in classroom and extracurricular activities. They will also discuss their experiences participating in the 2020 Biomimicry

Youth Design Challenge and running virtual workshops for participants around the world.

Tabitha and Lilian are two high school students and authors of the Sustainable Fashion newsletter. Starting as just a simple Girl Scout project, Lilian and Tabitha decided to create a newsletter that spreads information on the importance of sustainability in clothing. Through their newsletter, their hope is to inspire others to be more thoughtful before purchasing and live a more sustainable lifestyle.

Audience: Teachers and Students

5:00 – 5:30 Betsy Freeman and her students

Introduction: Jazmin Mora

Collaborative Action to Curb Climate Change and Food Waste across Schools

And Insight into “Greenwashing”

Student Action Researchers will discuss their collective action in collaborating schools for UN SDG 13.3 Climate Action, 12.3 Responsible Consumption and Production, and 4.7 Quality Education. Their shared goal: to support international, national, and state goals to halve food waste and mitigate climate change – starting in their spheres of influence and control – the school cafeteria. The students are collaborating members of the Columbia University Center for Sustainable Development Eco Ambassador network, as well as leaders in developing intersectional alliances and action for the UN SDGs in their own schools and communities. Hailing from three states, these GIS storytellers will share their work from research to advocacy to mobilization to student-driven teaching, learning, action, and best practices.

The team is represented by:

Dr. Jonathan Hart | Superintendent of Schools for the Readington Township School District. Prior to coming to Readington, Dr. Hart served as the Director of Human Resources for the Marlboro Township School District. His previous experience also includes appointments as Acting Assistant Superintendent and Assistant Director of Special Services for the Flemington-Raritan School District. Dr. Hart is an Adjunct Instructor at The College of New Jersey. Dr. Hart and his wife, Kara, are the proud parents of two sons Luke and Logan.

Betsy Freeman | Readington Schools, Student EcoAmbassador Advisor, Teacher, Gift and Development and Enrichment, Student Action Research Coach, and District Coordinator of Green Initiatives and Sustainability. Betsy has a Masters from Columbia University Teachers College, and EdD work in Educational Leadership and Management from Drexel University. Her focus is on student-driven inquiry and innovation, action research, and education for sustainability.

Readington Middle School Students:

• Callum Suggitt | EcoA Strategy Lead, Grade 7
• Marcos Hernandez | EcoA Operations Lead, Grade 7
• Noah Bielen | EcoA Field Research Lead, Grade 7
• Philip Kazantsev | EcoA Scientific Research Lead, Grade 8

School Partners:

• Sophia Berman | EcoA Youth Advisor, GIS StoryTeller, and Senior at Lower Moreland High School, Huntingdon Valley, PA
• Chris Serrao | EcoA Youth Advisor, GIS StoryTeller, and Sophomore at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, NH
• Ashley Jun | Community EcoAmbassador, GIS Storyteller, and 8th grader at Millburn Middle School, Millburn, NJ

5:30-6:30pm

Introduction: Radhika Iyengar

Action Civics and Climate Education: Organizing for Community Change as Learning

Anjuli Ramos-Busot, Sierra Club, NJ

Emily Fano, National Wildlife Federation in New York City

Tara Stafford Ocansey, Executive Director, Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation

Vicky Garufi, Director of Education, Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation

Audience: Teachers and Community-based Organizations

4th Feb 2022

3:30pm-4:30pm

Connecting the New Jersey Climate Education Summit to the National Picture of Climate Education Policy

Frank Niepold

Climate Education Coordinator, Senior Climate Education Program Manager, Climate.gov Teaching Climate section lead Action for Climate Empowerment National Focal Point for the United States

Moderation by Aalok Bhatt and Radhika Iyengar

Audience: Teachers and School Administrators

4:00 to 4:30:

Radhika Iyengar, Curriculum and Resources for Integrating Climate Change Education & Global Citizenship Eco-ambassadors Program (3:30 to 4pm)

Audience: Teachers and School Administrators

4:30pm-5:30pm

Panel Moderation: Radhika

Moving forward with Justice and Sustainability

Panel discussion

Christina Kwauk, Education Consultant and Research Director at Unbounded Associates

Felisa Tibbits, UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Higher Education and Chair in Human Rights Education at the Human Rights Centre of Utrecht University (Netherlands).

Audience: Teachers & Students

5:30 – 6:00

Introduction: Allison Mulch

Sustainability and Health Care

Elizabeth Cerceo, MD, Chair, Cooper Green Team: received approval to engage sustainability consultant to assess and plan Cooper’s sustainable future

Audience: Teachers & Students

6:00 to 6:30pm

Moving Ahead

Jeffrey Sachs, Professor Columbia University

Workshop: Moving forward jotting points from week

Audience: Students and teachers

 

Register here for the event

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-jersey-climate-change-education-summit-tickets-19832932

Aalok Bhatt,

Millburn High School, New Jersey

Recently, I took the course Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7, Across Curriculum Spaces on Udemy (a free online learning platform), which I found to be very interesting. This free online course encourages schools all over the world to integrate sustainability into their curriculum. The speakers in the course were activists and specialists in a wide variety of educational fields. They spoke about why it is necessary to fulfill the United Nations’ sustainable development goal, and some methods for doing so. The course also discussed methods of integrating sustainability across different disciplines.

One argument I found notable was proposed by Marc Rogoff, the Lead Educator for the New Jersey Department of Education, and Joy Rifkin, a Sustainability Specialist for the New York City Department of Education, stating that it is important to localize the curriculum. Mr. Rogoff explains, “if you are talking halfway around the world to a bunch of fourth graders, they don’t make the connections. But if you are talking about halfway down the block, it makes a lot more sense and they can relate and it gets them physically and emotionally connected to the issue.” According to Joy Rifkin, change has to be motivated by members of the community and schools are large community centers. Therefore it is key to motivate students to create a chain reaction: teachers encourage students, students encourage parents, etc. Rifkin also argued that sustainability should be taught in every class in school, not just science.

Another point that I found interesting was the connection between social issues with climate change. Educator Julia Sommer asked,, “What are the effects on different communities? Who are the different stakeholders? What motivates different stakeholders to play various roles within this entire issue?” She further explains, “And it is important for educational institutions to teach the civic aspect of this alongside the climate issues.” Understanding the civic aspect exposes how systemic racism affects some marginalized groups more than others in climate change . An example of where social justice and climate change intersect is the seizure of Native American lands for the purpose of mining. After taking the course, I was inspired to do further research and found an interesting article from the New York Times (Tabuchi, Furber, and Davenport) about the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota. The possibility of an oil spill from this pipeline disproportionately impacts Native Americans. For those of us in the New Jersey/New York region, the drinking water crisis in Newark is an issue of social justice that local teachers could address in their curriculum. For example, a chemistry teacher could talk about the lead crisis in Newark during their toxicology lesson.

I personally think that this course is interesting and useful. Students can use this course, but I would say that it is even more important for teachers, especially science teachers. It is essential that we fulfill SDG 4.7 if we want to mitigate climate change. Implementing these topics in schools is not purely a top down or a bottom up approach, it requires action from both administrators and classroom teachers. As a student, I would like to encourage science teachers to take this course and to implement sustainability in creative ways.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/climate/line-3-pipeline-protest-native-americans.html

https://www.nrdc.org/newark-drinking-water-crisis

https://www.udemy.com/course/sdg47-across-curriculum/

 

By Tara Stafford Ocansey

Updated: Jun 5, 2021

This Summer, the Eco Ambassador program hosted by the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University’s Earth Institute is inviting middle and high school students to take part in a program focused on “SDG 14 Life Below Water: Storytelling with ArcGIS”.

In this summer program, a partnership with Esri and SDGs Today, students will take part in workshops and panel discussions to explore issues of interest relating to SDG 14, and learn skills for using ArcGIS and StoryMaps to support their research and advocacy for the SDGs. More info on the summer program can be found on our Eco Ambassador page here and in this StoryMap.

To help Eco Ambassadors identify their SDG 14 issues of interest for their summer StoryMap projects, the below selections provide a wide array of multimedia learning resources, activities, and toolkits from leading institutions and organizations that explore various oceans and fisheries-related issues, as well as data sources that help show where we stand in relation to achieving SDG 14 targets.

SDG 14 LEARNING RESOURCES

Earth Institute Live: K-12 Education

This online channel features experts from across Columbia University’s Earth Institute presenting relevant sustainability content in 60-minute live sessions for K12 students and educators. Through these videos, the program aims to bring interdisciplinary research across the Earth Institute to classrooms. Each session features an appropriate targeted age range based on the topic, and the sessions vary between topical lectures, demos, and skills-based training. Many of the videos also feature additional educational resources related to the content covered in these online sessions. Select sessions featuring SDG 14-related topics for middle and high school are linked below:

• A World of Change: Ice and Ocean Interactions in Antarctica
• Migration and Fish Management (Grades 9 – 12 educators)
• The Hudson’s Habitat (Grades 6-8 educators)
• Sea for Yourself: Exploring Sea Level Rise through the Polar Explorer (Grades 7-12)

UNESCO SDG Resources for Educators

As part of UNESCO’s SDG Resources for Educators, the page for SDG 14 includes sections for early childhood, primary, and secondary education, with pedagogical resources for teachers, as well as activities and multimedia resources to learn more about marine ecosystems and how we can sustain them.

• SDG Resources for Educators: Life Below Water

National Geographic: Ocean Education

This wealth of interactive multimedia activities and resources are organized by grade level – K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12, with additional links to toolkits for taking local community action.

• National Geographic Ocean Education Resources

Ocean Wise

Ocean Wise offers two levels of “Ocean Literacy” courses for students, for middle school (grades 7-9), and high school (grades 10-12). The site also has resources for teachers.

Ocean Literacy courses tailored for middle and high school students

• Ocean Literacy courses

SCIC Online Global Citizenship Education Resources

Canada’s Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation offers their own resource hub linking to various resources, including Netflix documentaries and TED Talks focused on Life Below Water.

• SDG 14 Global Citizenship Education Resources

SDG 14 DATA TRACKING & VISUALIZATION

SDGs Today

SDGs Today, part of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, is the global hub for real-time SDG Data, with datasets as well as collections of StoryMaps for each of the 17 SDGs. Resources for SDG 14 are linked below:

• SDG 14 Datasets
• SDG 14 StoryMaps

SDG Tracker

Our World in Data’s SDG Tracker is an open-access resource where users can track and explore global and country-level progress towards each of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals through interactive data visualizations. This resource is kept up-to-date with all of the latest data across all of the 17 Goals. For SDG 14, each target is presented along with the latest data available on its progress.

• SDG 14 Tracker

Ocean Action Hub

Similar to the SDG Tracker, this resource provides added contextual explanations of the various SDG 14 targets, along with maps and data visualizations that help show the current status of the SDG 14 targets.

• Ocean Action Hub

Pacific Data Hub

This SDG Tracker focuses on the Pacific Region, with data tables and visualizations highlighting the status of SDG 14 targets in the Pacific Region.

• Pacific Data Hub SDG 14 Tracker

By Jasmine Ali

I was cleaning out my closet and I had decided to drop off my old clothes at GreenDrop in Springfield, where the clothes are then donated to thrift shops and organizations such as the Red Cross. I realized my family had some old shoes, and I did a google search to find organizations where I could donate them. I came across Soles 4 Souls, and their mission of turning shoes into opportunity was inspiring. I decided to start a shoe drive in our community to help keep shoes from going to our landfills and instead to a good cause.

I set my goal to be 500 pairs of shoes, which seemed ambitious at the time, however, the community was so supportive and I ended up collecting about 700 pairs! According to the Soles4Souls website, 700 pairs of shoes saves 21,000 pounds of carbon from going into the atmosphere, and in the countries where the shoes are shipped to, they can provide food, shelter, and education for a family for 12 months. I am deeply thankful for those who supported my initiative by donating their shoes and giving me shipping boxes to send them to the Soles4Souls headquarters. Together, we made a powerful impact.

 

Volunteering is an essential part of my life. Conducting a shoe drive was just one part of what I do. I volunteer regularly with the South Mountain Conservancy where I help pick up litter and make new trails. I organized an environmental education summer camp for elementary school aged children in our community last summer. I’m the coordinator for Extinction Rebellion Youth NJ, an environmental movement that uses nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action on the climate crisis. I also work with the Green Cause, a youth-led environmental education organization. I am also a part of other environmental groups such as Fridays for Future, NJ Student Sustainability Coalition, MHS Ocean Conservation Club, and Sunrise Millburn. My greatest passion is protecting our environment. I’m vegan for the environment, and I’ve just started an Instagram account called @veganmillburn where I highlight the vegan options in our town to help normalize and promote vegan food. I also like to paint and draw. I’m a huge plant lover, and I’m starting a butterfly garden in my yard this year to help save the butterflies and honeybees.

In college, I hope to major in Environmental Studies. I’m very interested in pursuing something that has to do with environmental policy or environmental education. I want to do everything I can to combat climate change and help conserve our oceans. Thank you to everyone who donated shoes for helping me get one step closer to achieving my goals.

 

 

Bio

Jasmine Ali is the coordinator of Extinction Rebellion Youth NJ and a member of many other environmental groups. She is a proud volunteer for the South Mountain Conservancy where she works to protect and preserve the local reservation. She also teaches children about the science and impacts of climate change through presentations and lab activities. She hopes to study Environmental Analysis in college, with an emphasis on Environmental Policy or Environmental Education.