corridor glazing installed

ground floor corridor window designs

Design key requirements:
monochrome (no colour)
transparent so as not to obstruct light
site responsive and educational

images of school children with flower motif (child’s drawing) have been constructed with reference to the ‘golden section’ or Fibonacci numerical series.

The idea references the ‘golden section’ & was prompted by a conversation with Tom Mason – we mentioned how the hall seemed of cathedral proportions & Tom thought the ‘golden section’ may have been used in it’s architectural design.

The flower drawings in the design illustrate the Fibonacci number series:
1>2>3>5>8

In the 12th century, Leonardo Fibonacci discovered a simple numerical series that is the foundation for an incredible mathematical relationship behind phi.

Starting with 0 and 1, each new number in the series is simply the sum of the two before it. 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, . . .

Divide any number in the Fibonacci sequence by the one before it, for example 55/34, or 21/13, and the answer is always close to 1.61803. This is known as the Golden Ratio, and hence Fibonacci’s Sequence is also called the Golden Sequence. (http://goldennumber.net/fibonser.htm)

This image illustrates use of the Golden Grid™ – you can print the “Golden Ruler”© grid and use it to see the golden section and phi in various objects. (http://goldennumber.net/images/goldenrulercard.gif)

The Growing Schools Garden;

.. a route to learning, was first unveiled at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show in July 2002. Its aim was to demonstrate how schools can, and do, transform barren playgrounds into welcoming and exciting green spaces, providing enrichment, stimulation and learning for all pupils. A series of factsheets have been produced to show how the 21 core schools created their features for the Growing Schools Garden

Free trees for schools

Tree For All is a new kind of movement that gives children the chance to understand nature and the power to care for it.

It’s about young people taking action today that will reap benefits for their children and grandchildren – a thriving landscape teeming with life.

The campaign aims to:

• Plant 12 million trees throughout the UK between September 2004 and 2009 – that’s one tree planted for every child under 16. If all the trees were planted together they would fill 18,000 football pitches.
• Involve one million children directly in planting trees through schools, community groups, public events or in their gardens.

School grounds in need of TLC can benefit from a free pack of 30 native trees (enough for a small grove or short length of hedge) which come with guidance on planting and maintenance plus curriculum-linked activities. There is more information here. Download the resources here.

sustainable schools

The Sustainable schools website Helping schools to become more sustainable. Information, inspiration, resources and workshops for Education For Sustainable development. SUSchool is a project of the Alternative Technology Centre (ATC), a not-for-profit information and education centre on Sustainable Development. We are proud of our dynamic collaborative approach to developing education resources.

SUSchool  resources are available through membership

71 steps towards becoming a sustainable
school. Click to access.

Easton’s Planet Heroes game – trumps

trumps is an online a game made by Sidharth Sharma and Easton Primary school

In the early stages of the project, the children from Easton Primary School were taken on a number of hands-on trips to include @Bristol, The Centre of Sustainable Energy, The Recycling Consortium and the Living Rivers Project. Parents were also invited on the trips in an effort to extend the discussions outside of the school day. They helped to document the activities and worked with the children on set tasks.

As well as both the parents and artist documenting the sessions, the children were encouraged to use digital cameras to record them as well. This material was used as a starting point for an artistic discussion.

‘switch off’

we have suggested a morning ‘switch off’

the idea being to raise awareness of energy use in the school and invite staff to use this as an opportunity to do related curricula work with their classes. In support of this we continue to make links to various energy / education websites from this blog and save relevant downloads for print. These activities will range across the key stages fitting in with various subjects such as geography, science, art & citizenship.

I Count is the campaign of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition, the ever-growing coalition of more than 50 organizations.

the bird feeder hat

nice idea for a school project – make a hat & keep very still!

The Bird Feeder Hat, designed to be quirky, gives you an opportunity to wear a bird feeder on your head in order to begin experiencing a deeper kinship with a wild creature up close. 

A short film about recycling

produced with young people at the TC Unit at Tilbury Primary Schoo, Hull.

director – Jon Robson Cafesociety.org

“The main focus of our work in schools and communities is the development of active citizenship and self-expression through training in media skills and literacy.”

need a bag?

BAGLADY
“This decade I’ll mostly be wearing plastic bags”, she announces, “to highlight a global scandal we can stop. Help me rid the planet of plastic bags and rubbish!”

Baglady’s Global Appeal

All we want is:

1. Shops and shopkeepers to ask ‘Do you really NEEDabag?’

2. Customers to say ‘No’ to plastic bags

3. People to bring their own bags

This is our own simple contribution to help care for our environment.

NEEDabag? 2 campaign is on in Northern Ireland, spreading to England. Scotland, Wales, Australia and around the world. A disgusting 500 million bags are used every year. So what can we do about it?

Baglady can speak in public, meet people, gather and disseminate information, facilitate workshops, deliver entertaining street theatre, and more. She goes almost anywhere but insists on travelling ASAP (As Sustainably as Possible), and works with all ages: KIDS and ALLS (Adults Learning to Live Sustainably).

Recycler – the rapping robot

Recycler the rapping robot visits schools to spread the message of the three Rs. During his performance, Recycler sings, dances and talks to the children about what they can do to reduce, reuse and recycle their rubbish.

Fun ways of linking recycling and waste into the curriculum. check here for further information.

May 9th – the Solar System and Ecology

Hannah Cox led a series of two worshops on the solar sysem & ecology

with year 3 at Barton Hill school

workshop 2

live representation of the solar system..

the children hold the painted planets they’ve made & follow the corresponding orbits

drawing the orbits – using string as a compass

plotting the seasons

feedback circle.. good thing / bad thing?

“I like all the the information we got”

“I liked the portrait game” (workshop 1)

” I liked going upstairs & seeing it all from above”

“there wasn’t anything bad, I liked it all”

“..really liked using the cameras”

May 2nd – the Solar System and Ecology

Hannah Cox led a series of two worshops on the solar sysem & ecology

with year 3 at Barton Hill school

workshop 1

Name Game with Globe

Group Portrait

* Form circle each person with one large sheet of paper in front of them

* every body writes there name on the paper in front of them

* all move one place to the right -
look at the person who’s name is on the paper – and start to paint them

* all move one place to the right – and repeat
until everybody is back were they started

Understanding earths position in the solar system

Painting the planets

suatainable schools area at TeacherNet

The Sustainable Schools area of TeacherNet is designed to support schools on their journey to sustainability, introducing the principles of sustainable development and offering guidance on how to embed these principles into the heart of school life. The 2006/07 Academic Year is a Year of Action on Sustainable development for schools. The DfES will be working with partners to provide resources and materials to help embed sustainable development into all areas of school life.

clock and calendar powered by food

This fruit powered digital clock and calendar combines micro-electronic technology with the natural electrical potential of a fresh fruit or vegetable. The Fruit Clock uses the original scientific principles on which all modern electrical storage batteries are based. Just add a fresh orange, apple, lemon, lime, pear, banana, or any another convenient fruit or vegetable to the supplied components in this kit and you have the perfect synthesis of nature’s own electrical power resource and the accuracy of a digital clock.

Vehicle Display: The Green Energy Machine (GEM)

“Sunsational Entertainment”

Fairs, schools events, exhibitions… for any type of event the Green Energy Machine (GEM) is an indispensable resource to promote sustainable energy.

GEM demonstrates exciting examples of wind and solar technologies, which can assist towards an understanding of RENEWABLE ENERGY and the need to reduce CO2 emissions.

The displays include:

• a wind turbine (350 Watts)
• a solar water heating demonstration
• an 800 Watt photovoltaic array

We also have a number of fun solar devices including solar fountains and a solar bike.

local resources

there are a number of eco schools in Bristol listed on the Recycling Consortium website. They are based at the Create centre in Bristol and offer numerous resources & information for teachers & pupils.

The Recycling Consortium’s Education Team offer FREE workshops and assemblies to schools in Bristol and North Somerset.