The Unofficial Green Sheet Blog
Monday, December 5, 2011
Quito Seed Bank
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Sin dejar huellas
Leave No Trace is a well-known non-profit organization in the United States popular with outdoors enthusiasts that teaches people how to "enjoy the outdoors responsibly," and believes that the "empowerment of people to develop a sense of communal ownership of the outdoors generates a more sustainable, more environmentally educated global community."
"Sin dejar huellas," the Spanish term for Leave No Trace, is a great program to introduce in our sites. It might be most helpful for those of us who live near national parks, reserves, or other more or less natural areas because the principles are generally applicable to backcountry or frontcountry use. However, principles like "Dispose of waster properly" can and should followed, of course, in any place wild or not. The idea of LNT is to apply one's respect for nature to all aspects of life - whether you live in the city, the country, the beach, the mountains, wherever. These are the principles:
1. Plan ahead and prepare
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces
3. Dispose of waster properly
4. Leave what you find
5. Minimize campire impacts
6. Respect wildlife
7. Be considerate of other visitors
And each principle has a number of guidelines that you can read here: http://www.lnt.org/programs/principles.php
Also, LNT's Powerpoint document that introduces the program is available in Spanish to download here: http://www.slideboom.com/presentations/47661/SinDejarHuellas2008
A much smaller version of LNT website in Spanish is located here: www.lnt.org/programs/en_espanol.php
They have only one video in Spanish about PEAK, a program that promotes responsible recreation and environmental respect in kids. You can find more about PEAK and the situation cards on the LNT website. This is the less-than-engaging video:
De acuerdo o de ninguna manera
Leave No Trace Extreme Stewardship
I'm lucky enough to live at one of the entrances to a very large and diverse park in Ecuador with some very nice hot springs just a three-day round trip hike away and an erupting volcano only two days' walk from where I sit in the other direction. Every so often the school director takes a group of kids into the park to these hot springs, called El Placer. My idea is to incorporate Leave No Trace activities into this trip with help from the concepts section of the LNT website (LINK). The park requires that the kids are at least 12 years old so the activities will have to be designed around that. As it's a three-day trip, I have this sort of rough schedule thought out so far:
Day 1: Before leaving, introduce the concept of LNT with a dinamica. Discuss what it is, why it's important, and what they can do during their visit to practice LNT.
On the way out, I'd like the group to stop by the park office for a talk with the guards (the "Plan ahead and prepare" LNT principle). Themes they can briefly cover are: park rules and regulations (and why they exist) and what natural things they should look out for. At this point I'm planning on giving out small activity booklets (each a plastic zip bag because it rains perpetually here) that ask the kids to draw out things they see - animals, plants, birds, insects, vistas, the hot springs, anything. Maybe if this project happens and I get the booklets done, I'll post an update and share the booklets!
So during a lunch break we could discuss more LNT and do another dinamica - at this point I think it would be good to discuss trash disposal because they'll all probably have food-related garbage.
At night we'll either be camping or staying in cabanas, so here would be a good time to discuss how to minimize campfire impacts, where to camp, and where to put smelly objects like food so animals can't get it.
Day 2: In the morning we'd discuss breaking down camp properly. At some point, we'll arrive at the hot springs. It's not exactly LNT, but we could talk about how hot springs form and why there are hot springs here.
Day 3: During breaks, we could discuss what we've seen and share our activity booklets. And my plan is to present all the participants with a 'sin dejar huellas' certificate of completion, based on the LNT certificate you can find online and edit to Spanish.
Who knows if this will happen or even if it will evolve into something greater. There are tons of possibilities of working with Leave No Trace. Maybe holding shorter trips into the park focusing on one principle at a time, seven principles in total - it could even develop into something like a boyscout merit program.
Good luck! If any of you incorporate Sin dejar huellas in your work, please let me know what you´ve done!
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Photos and Info of Ecua-birds
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Science and art
Earlier this summer I was invited back to work at the school. My other project was wrapping up and I began to consider how I might be more effective if I were to return to work with the natural sciences classes. The material being taught hadn´t changed and I was, in all likelihood, bound to encounter the same apathy for the subject. But then I began to wonder how it could be different if students actually cared about what they were learning? Well, I certainly can´t make people care about something but I can spice up their cut-and-dry classes up with something more fun. I proposed doing an art class that aimed to reinforce what was being taught that week in the natural sciences classes. So far I´ve found that there seems to be a lot more participation and interest in what we cover. The kids look forward to my weekly visits and are sure to be in attendance on the days they know I´m coming. As of right now they may not be crazy about having to learn the anatomy of a flower or how the carbon cycle works, but the art class activities that they do has generated a lot more enthusiasm. The overall goal is to help cultivate creativity through hands-on activties related to the environment and knowledge about our natural world.
I typically have two 45 minute blocks that are split up by a short morning recess. For the first part of class I show a presentation and give a short lesson with the aid of a projector. During the second 45 minute block the students do the art project that is associated with the presentation. Last week we covered the theory of evolution as it relates to animal mimicry and camouflage. We showed a series of photos where various insects and amphibians are able to hide themselves or scare off predators using mimicry and then explained how animals have evolved over time to look like other things in order to survive. The students enjoyed trying to identify where or what the animal was.
For the activity portion of the class, the students constructed finger puppet butterflies that were colored and created so that they would blend-in to a drawing of leaves and tree foliage.
I used a software program to take all the color out of a photo so that the kids wouldn´t have to use additional class time having to draw out leaves and trees. If you don´t have a photo program that will do that, you can always go to Crayola.com/colorme to print out a coloring page using a photo that you select. The kids can color it in and then design their butterfly to ¨blend in¨with the colors that they´ve applied to that drawing. You simply cut out a butterfly template on regular paper. You also need to cut small strips of paper that can later be rolled and then glued to the butterfly template, effectively serving as the butterfly´s ¨body¨and the area where the finger holds up the puppet.
This is just an example of one activity that we´ve done. I try to get as much input from the teacher as I can for future art classes. If any of you have suggestions or ideas for activities that you´ve found to be particularly successful, I´d love to hear them.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Communication Breakdown
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Solar bottle light bulbs
Here is another one to add to that ever-growing list: a solar-powered light bulb.
You can watch the YouTube video below to see how they are installing these solar-powered bulbs to houses in the Phillipines. If your Internet access doesn't permit you to watch the video, don't worry. I have taken screen shots and explained the process below.
This first picture shows the inside of a home in the Phillipines in the middle of the day. You couldn't tell the difference because it is so dark.
You take a piece of tin roofing and cut a hole to place the large bottle. You need to seal it in place.
Then you fill the bottles with water.
Put a bottle cap's worth of chlorine in the bottles.
Cut a hole in the roof for the bottle to fit into.
Place the bottle in the roof.
Let there be light.
Social entrepreneurs in the Philippines are turning solar-powered light bulb installation into small businesses. It does not require technical training, and all the materials are readily available.