Spaceship Earth takes off

Press Release: Econation
Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Spaceship Earth takes off

The first education-for-sustainability course in the GreenKiwi programme, called Spaceship Earth, has been launched. GreenKiwi is an initiative created by Econation to provide resources that help teachers and students discover sustainability.

"It is called education 'for' sustainability, as opposed to education 'about' sustainability, because the focus is on inspiring positive attitudes and prompting positive action," says GreenKiwi Programme Director Michael Lockhart.

A total of four student-centred courses, designed for different curriculum levels, are planned as part of the GreenKiwi programme. Each course will be built around a framework that creates an interpretive context for a wide range of learning objectives.

"The benefit is that the content teaches existing curriculum, but in a way that connects it in the minds of the students and makes it more relevant," says Mr Lockhart.

"Spaceship Earth, which is for students in years seven and eight, is an extended thought experiment. Students are asked to decide what will be needed on a spaceship that is going on a 200 year journey around our solar system," Mr Lockhart explains.

"The spaceship will need to be a small replica of the earth with all of earth's life-sustaining services. Students will discover what those services are – things like fresh water, air, energy, food and communities – and how humans use and impact them. The idea is that students discover that earth itself is like a giant spaceship – a limited, finely-balanced, interconnected system".

Spaceship Earth is presented in a teachers' guide which can be downloaded for free by teachers in New Zealand. A mediated wiki is also planned so that teachers and students can share their discoveries as well as connecting and helping each other online.

"We want to keep the whole programme free because we want as many teachers as possible using the resources. We are currently seeking a sponsor for GreenKiwi to help us achieve this goal," said Mr Lockhart.

Econation is New Zealand's leading independent provider of information and education for sustainability.

For more information:
http://www.greenkiwi.org.nz
http://www.econation.co.nz

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