Happy Halloween

The most amazing pumpkin carvings by Ray Villafane and his team of professional sculptors, from Michigan.

via The Guardian.

World's fluffiest bunny

This has been doing the rounds..... but I couldn't help it. I had to join in.

via Incredible Things

Three Questions for Tech Education Pioneer Scot Osterweil

Wow..... just read what Scot Osterweil has to say about education and technology.

Here's a little teaser.

"We’ve always seen technology as a way of increasing productivity and saving labor. And now that we’re actually reaping those benefits, we don’t know what to do about it.

What we really need to do is to give people back free time. The real challenge to education is to educate people on how to use that free time. So we have a choice. We can either have people sitting around idly, slack-jawed, watching TV and wandering the malls, or we can really teach them how to be lifelong learners and lifelong makers. We can unleash their creativity and encourage them to recognize that their playfulness is actually a productive activity, even if it isn’t used for work."

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

 

This stunning photograph by Etienne Francey, was runner up for the young photographer category in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013 competition and captures exactly how I feel today.

Why the 'Sit-able City' is the Next Big Idea

Interesting article over at Sustainable Cities Collective by Charles R Wolfe, about how "The Sit-able City" is better than the walkable city.

"Sitting, in order to rest, converse, beg and sell is what people have always done, and captures a major part of urban life." 

Just one in five UK children 'connected to nature', groundbreaking study finds

A new report by the UK's RSPB, from a three-year research project, found that only 21 per cent of children in the UK have a connection with nature......

Dr Mike Clarke, RSPB Chief Executive says:

 “Nature is in trouble, and children’s connection to nature is closely linked to this. The recent State of Nature report shows that nature in the UK is being lost at a dramatic rate. We can all take action to put nature back into childhood, to ensure young people have better lives and a better future.

“For the first time, we have created a baseline that we and others can use to measure just how connected to nature the UK’s children really are. By adopting this new approach, we can all monitor children’s connection and we are recommending that governments and local authorities take action to increase it through policy and practice decisions.”

Barbara Roberts - Mother of all Hedgehogs

Barbara Roberts - Mother of all Hedgehogs from RJMannPhotography on Vimeo.

Amazing.

Sugata Mitra

The man behind the Hole in the wall schools, Sugata Mitra, talks about his new project, a classroom in the clouds, over at BBC Future. Check it out, I can't share their video here so you have to follow the link to the Beeb website.

Fantastic.

How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses

Over at Wired, an excellent article about education.........

"The [education] system as a whole educates millions and is slow to recognize or adopt successful innovation. It’s a system that was constructed almost two centuries ago to meet the needs of the industrial age. Now that our society and economy have evolved beyond that era, our schools must also be reinvented."

Grand Rapids Urban Forest Project

Friends of Grand Rapids Parks is a citizen driven, non-profit in Michigan State that states:

"Our goal is to maximize the tree canopy in all parts of the city, making sure it’s healthy, safe, protected and well maintained so everyone in Grand Rapids can experience the cultural, social, economic, public health, and environmental benefits of trees."

Urban Forests. You've got my vote.. 

Pop-Up Playhouse

SCH + ARC Studio produced this idea for repurposing underused spaces in Philadelphia.

"Pop Up Playhouse proposes a prototype for play to reactivate abandoned sites as places to learn and interact with the architecture of the city."

Great.

Kevin Richardson: zoologist

I am so jealous.

Walk Bike to School

Today is walk, bike to school day in America. Check out the website to see how you can get involved. Fab.

George Monbiot: The problem with education? Children aren't feral enough

Article at The Guardian by George Monbiot about kids, outdoors and well, you get the drift. 

"In the woods the next day we paddled in a stream, rolled down a hill, ate blackberries, tasted mushrooms, had helicopter races with sycamore keys, explored an ant's nest, broke sticks and collected acorns."

I'd love a day like that.....

Phyto Kinetic: Green Roofs for City Buses

A green roof on a city bus, what's not to love.

By Marc Grañén, from an article found at Urban Gardens.

How Physical Fitness May Promote School Success

Article over at The New York Times about fitness and academic performance in schools. One group of researchers conclusion was:

“Reducing or eliminating physical education in schools, as is often done in tight financial times, may not be the best way to ensure educational success among our young people.”

Something we all know, but when a study proves it everyone goes "I told you so......" Sheez. If they'd just listened to us in the first place.

The Fallen

I won't even try and explain this project myself, just quote from the website:

"The objective was to make a visual representation of 9000 people drawn in the sand which equates the number of Civilians, Germans Forces and Allies that died during the D-day landings, 6^th June during WWII as an example of what happens in the absence of peace."

Sad, moving, beautiful and sad again.

The Grit Survey

Over at Brainpickings is an interesting article about the book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough and his writings on maths-teacher-turned-psychologist Angela Duckworth's studies and research into how self-control and grit impact success.

Angela Duckworth is from Penn State University so you can head over to their website Authentic Happiness website and can take the grit survey.