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Sunset

smile4433 posted a photo:

Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.

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BioBlitz Recognized as Integral to Cutting Edge Action-Oriented Inquiry-Based Social Studies Teaching and Learning

By Amber Strong Makaiau

Can humans reverse the negative effects they have had on the environment? This was the compelling question that close to 250 public high school students and their teachers asked as they conducted a BioBlitz in the two ahupua‘a (Hawaiian land divisions) surrounding their school last spring. The BioBlitz, which was born out of professional collaboration between the Hawai‘i National Geographic Alliance, the Hawaii State Department of Education, and the Institute for Teacher Education at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, recently received national recognition as one of the ten winners of the “C3 Teachers's Inquiry Challenge” for social studies curriculum design.

"Over — Over 200 students board busses at Kailua High School on their way to participate in the C3 Framework BioBlitz inquiry in the ahupua‘a of Kailua and Waimanalo. Photographer: Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau

The purpose of the challenge was to support and reward social studies educators using the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards and the newly developed Inquiry Design Model™ (IDM). It was co-sponsored by C3 Teachers and the Social Studies Assessment, Curriculum, and Instruction (SSACI) Collaborative, which is part of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

The winning BioBlitz was designed specifically for the students of Kailua High School, which is located on the Windward side of the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. It was structured using the following learning steps:

First, the students were introduced to the compelling question, “Can humans reverse the negative effects they have had on the environment?”
Second, to provide some context to the question, the students were given examples of historical and contemporary interactions between humans and the environment. As a part of these lessons they were taught about the Hawaiian land subdivsion concept known as ahupua‘a. Directly following the lessons they were asked to generate their own questions about the relationship between humans and the environment in the two ahupua‘a surrounding their school.
Third, to help them answer their questions, the students were taught a number of disciplinary concepts and tools related to the field of geography. For example, they learned how to analyze historical primary documents to evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions. In addition, they learnedhow to use BioBlitz technologies (e.g. iNaturalist) to record contemporary environmental characteristics.
Fourth, they were asked to use what they learned to evaluate two sources of evidence: (a) a number of place-based primary texts and (b) all of the data that was gathered during the students' BioBlitz. Then, they compared the analysis of these two sources of evidence, developed claims to help them answer the compelling question, and used evidence from the two sources to support their claims.
At the end of the inquiry, the students wrote about what they learned and took informed action in their classroom, school, or broader community.

The BioBlitz portion of the inquiry occurred on May 5, 2016 between 8:00am and 1:00pm HST. On this date Kailua High School teachers in three different cluster groups worked alongside volunteer biologists, marine scientists, botanists, cultural experts, and other officials from state agencies to support the students as they gathered data from five different geographic regions located in the Kailua and Waimanalo ahupua‘a.

The national prize awarded for this entire effort helps to reinforce the powerful role that National Geographic initiatives like BioBlitz can play in supporting innovative approaches to interdisciplinary, action-oriented, and inquiry-based teaching and learning within mainstream social studies education. It is the type of curriculum innovation that we can't afford to wait for. Today's students must have the tools they need for asking and answering the tough questions that will move us all closer to the collective action that is needed for improving the relationship that humans have with their environment.

Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau is the Director of Curriculum and Research at the University of Hawai‘i Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education and an Associate Specialist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Education Institute for Teacher Education Secondary Program. She is a dedicated practitioner of philosophy for children Hawai‘i who achieved National Board Certification while teaching secondary social studies in the Hawaii State Department of Education for over ten years. In 2011 she won the Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching. Her current projects include carrying out multicultural, social justice, and democratic approaches to pre-service social studies teacher education, using self-study research methodologies to promote international collaboration, and developing the emergent field of deliberative pedagogy.

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In Myanmar, Nature Can Help Communities Face Climate Challenges
The impacts of climate change are becoming an ever starker reality around the world, with 2016 on pace to be the hottest year in human history - topping the previous record set just last year. While the Paris Agreement represents significant progress toward addressing this global challenge, international leaders need to further accelerate emissions reductions to keep global temperature rise "well below 2°C above-pre-industrial levels and aiming for 1.5 degrees Celsius," as called for in the landmark agreement.

A landscape of forests and mountains in Myanmar. Photo Credit: © Minzayar Oo / WWF-US

And that need is more urgent than ever. With current greenhouse gas emissions levels, we are tracking toward a much more severe scenario: a planet that is 3 to 5°C degrees warmer by the end of the century and potentially much sooner. As we have already experienced with increasingly extreme and variable weather around the world--from unprecedented heat waves to increasingly frequent and intense "1,000 year" floods occurring year after year -- even just 1 degree Celsius of warming yields devastating impacts on humans and wildlife.

Building resilience to these increasing extremes and many more unavoidable effects of warming is imperative. It is especially important in developing countries like Myanmar, where millions of subsistence farmers with limited access to services and poor infrastructure are disproportionately vulnerable. By some metrics, Myanmar is the second most vulnerable country to extreme hazards like floods and extreme storms. I have seen this first hand through our engagement with local communities in the dry zone town of Pakkoku, where changing rainfall patterns have already made farming in an arid region even more difficult, forcing people to move to the capital as climate refugees.

As we are increasingly seeing around the world, one of the best ways to help communities like these adapt to such changes by working with nature to increase resilience, from providing coastal defenses against storms to reducing flood risk for millions of people downstream. Today, Myanmar is in a unique position to do exactly this: it is transitioning to democracy and rapidly growing its economy after decades of military rule - which effectively limited economic growth and exploitation of its natural resources for the past 50 years. As a result, the country now has an opportunity in its development trajectory to increase prosperity for millions while also "baking in" climate resilience from the start, in part through protecting its abundant natural wealth. That's wonderful news for conservationists worldwide as Myanmar is home to some of the last truly pristine, healthy ecosystems and rich biodiversity on our planet.

When other nations faced critical decision points like these in the past, a deficit of information about the value in preserving nature often contributed to unsustainable development outcomes that also contributed to increased vulnerability to climate change. The economic benefits of natural resource exploitation through carbon intensive and extractive industries like timber, mining, and oil and gas have always been well understood. Yet, those associated with protecting and conserving ecosystems and biodiversity and enhancing climate resilience -- clean air, water, carbon sequestration, local climate control, flood retention, or coastal defenses against extreme storms -- have been more obscure.

But now we have the power (and the data) to change that dynamic. Now common technological tools, like geospatial information systems (GIS), which make use of high-quality satellite imagery, are being used in ever more innovative ways to help us put prices on these benefits. As a result, today conservation scientists can produce comparable, "apples to apples" assessments of the economic values provided by intact, healthy ecosystems. And every year, we are learning new ways to conserve nature as new research and studies add to our understanding of how benefits from on-the-ground preservation can outweigh those from extraction and exploitation.

We have much more to learn, especially from a largely understudied element of this growing field: how exactly can intact ecosystems help us adapt to our changing climate? That's why I'm here at the IUCN World Conservation Congress this week. I'm here to talk with conservation practitioners and leaders from around the world about our efforts to develop this kind of new information for decision-makers in Myanmar.

WWF is working with diverse partners and the national government to create nationwide maps of Myanmar's ecosystem services and explain how these natural systems - mangroves, forests, watersheds -- buffer against both immediate and longer term climate change impacts. Our analysis shows how Myanmar's intact inland forests provide clean water by reducing soil runoff into rivers and streams, reduce flooding by retaining and slowing down water flows, and how its coastal mangroves and reefs provide key protection against increasingly extreme storms.

With this improved understanding of the services these natural systems provide, Myanmar can make progress toward its goal of developing a green, resilient economy. And, it can become a model for how to leapfrog over standard brown development and manage the ever increasing impacts of climate change in the 21st century.

WWF will continue working with our partners in Myanmar and around the world to provide information on the enormous benefits nature provides to local livelihoods and national economies. In this way, we can help governments around the world make similar investment and planning decisions that reduce the difficult trade-offs between economic growth and ecosystem conservation, all while building resilience to the effects of our changing climate.

This post is part of a series on the World Conservation Congress taking place this week. Held every four years, it brings together about 6,000 people, including heads of state, government officials, business leaders, representatives from indigenous groups, scientists, academics, influencers, educators, artists and NGOs, from all over the world to discuss and decide on solutions to the world's most pressing environmental challenges. To read all the posts in this series click here.

A Burmese fisherman paddles with his foot while setting a new net at Inle Lake, where local villages on stilts have perfectly adapted livelihoods to living and relying on the numerous benefits provided by the surrounding ecosystem, from fish to weaving materials and ever-increasing tourism dollars. These livelihoods are increasingly vulnerable to climate change, as higher temperatures increase droughts and lower water levels to new lows. Photo Credit: © Ryan Bartlett

Taking the local transportation through villages adapted to living, and relying on, the biodiversity of Inle Lake. Photo Credit: © Ryan Bartlett.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

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How A Baseball Batter's Brain Reacts To A Fast Pitch

NPR's Scott Simon talks with neurophysiologist Jason Sherwin about his research into how a baseball batter processes an incoming fastball.

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Interesting insights from @John_CITES - In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect wildlife? https://t.co/MQ38Qb4amQ
https://t.co/MQ38Qb4amQ

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Cinemapocalypse Now?
"apocalypse-now"

Let's talk box office! Because it's one of my pet obsessions; I've long been curious how the rise of new entertainment tech (Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Pokémon Go) will impact movies, our oldest and most storied cultural commons. And because I was trawling through Box Office Mojo's numbers, as you do, and happened to stumble across something which makes me fear for… Read More
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Samsung Recalls Galaxy Note 7 Over Exploding, Burning Batteries

After the device launched in early August, dozens of users reported that their waterproof smartphones caught fire or exploded. Samsung traced the problem to its battery and promises replacements.

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#SignforElephants ? prior to new global ? treaty agreement impacting all endangered species: https://t.co/tJ5Ghfgr7w https://t.co/7XTlSLo3tP
https://t.co/tJ5Ghfgr7w

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September Glow

Fun@365 posted a photo:

Sunrise bokeh in the garden

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Radar Tower @ CoalHouse Fort

RimantaSlanius posted a photo:

This was taken in East Tilbury .

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Who's A Good Girl? Your Dog, Who Understands More Than You Might Think

A team of Hungarian scientists has determined dogs can understand words, not just tone. NPR's Scott Simon says it may mean we should rethink our entire relationship with our furry friends.

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origin by Marta Bevacqua

origin by Marta Bevacqua

out on Irk Magazine, with Juliet Searle and make up by Meyloo follow me on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/MartaBevacquaPhotography/ or instagram @martabevacqua for more photos and news. www.martabevacquaphotography.com

Marta Bevacqua: Photos

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Gates of Greenwich

DMontalbano posted a photo:

Some images don't make the original cut. Then, months later, I'll see something in them that I had missed or discounted first time around. This one's a prime example. I was pulled back into it by one little detail I hadn't seen - the flyer on the right-hand gate.

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I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong review we are possessed by bacteria
Each of us contains 40 trillion microbes. Their power is enormous, and we are just beginning to realise it, as this thrilling book details

We are not alone. We have never been alone. We are possessed. Our inner demons cannot be cast out, because they did not move in and take possession: they were here before us, and will live on after us. They are invisible, insidious and exist in overwhelming numbers. They manage us in myriad ways: deliver our minerals and vitamins, help digest our lunch, and provide in different ways all our cheese, yoghurt, beer, wine, bread, bacon and beef. Microbes can affect our mood, take charge of our immune system, protect us from disease, make us ill, kill us and then decompose us.

All life is here, and death too, and sex and violence, including deviations of which you had never dreamed

Complex life has a 500m-year evolutionary history: microbial life is at least 3.5bn years old. We are their offspring

Continue reading...
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The Korean-American Anthony Bourdain
At just 26, he runs his own kitchen, has worked in a three-Michelin-star NYC restaurant and has his own cookbook.
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The Haute Dining Scene in Paris: Tacos, Fried Chicken and Cocktails
Carina Soto Velasquez takes the City of Love outside its comfort zone.
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Sunrise at Primrose Hill

Miko D posted a photo:

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It's OK to fine someone for repeating a historical fact, says Russian Supreme Court

Truly bizarre decision over web post about invasion of Poland in 1939

The Russian Supreme Court has upheld a conviction against a blogger who correctly noted that the Soviet Union jointly invaded Poland with the Nazi government in 1939.…

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A Flamingo's Journey

Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:

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In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect #wildlife? #CITES https://t.co/IZqxWYvWlf
https://t.co/IZqxWYvWlf

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Trilobites: Juno Offers New Look at Jupiter's North Pole
NASA released new pictures taken by the spacecraft's camera as it finished its first of 36 orbits around our solar system's biggest planet.
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As the World Rushes By

ShutterJack posted a photo:

Gazing upon the hustle and bustle of city life on a rainy day

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Botanical

ShutterJack posted a photo:

Detail of a leaf

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In a world of 7 billion people how can we protect endangered species? By @John_CITES https://t.co/BCICUMFpBE
https://t.co/BCICUMFpBE

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'Ghost snake' discovered in Madagascar
Researchers discovered a new snake species in Madagascar and named it 'ghost snake' for its pale grey coloration and elusiveness. The researchers named it Madagascarophis lolo, pronounced 'luu luu,' which means ghost in Malagasy.
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