Since my last post I have been plodding forward with my plans to get the idea of ESD more widely recognized in my area. To that end I have met with representatives of our local Land conservation group, The Harris Center, and Antioch University.
The meeting with the Harris center was quite productive and there is the possibility of an evening course nest spring and even a teacher workshop.
Today I held a meeting at school with a number of faculty who had expressed an interest in ESD. I gave a brief presentation on ESD and then we had an informal discussion, over lunch provided by my principal, to talk about how we might spread the idea with in the district, and certainly within our high school. It was suggested that I give a similar presentation at a faculty meeting and follow it with an assignment to come up with some ideas as to how ESD could fit into each teacher's curriculum. I have the Principal's OK to go ahead with this.
I have also started an online course through the GREEN Education Foundation. So far I have been very impressed with the quality of the course, both in terms of the online pedagogy, and in terms of content for the person who wants to learn about sustainability in education.
The course is currently in BETA testing so you can try it for free if you log onto
http://www.greeneducationfoundation.org/
There are also all kinds of great ESD lesson plans to be had here.
My next move is to get in touch with Franklin Pierce University with which my school has a close association. I'd like to work out some kind of partnership with them since they are in one of our two district towns.

I’ve been interested in ESD since before I started teaching. In fact ESD is the reason I started teaching, though I didn’t know at the time that it was called ESD. What I did know is that we live in a finite world but, through our dysfunctional economic model we are destroying our environment. As a scientist, I know that the next generation will need to be educated so that it can work toward solutions to the problems that two centuries of consumerism and infinite growth philosophy have created.

Sustainable development has three components:

• Environment
• Society
• Economy.

It includes all of the following

• Biodiversity
• Climate Change
• Cultural Diversity
• Indigenous Knowledge
• Disaster Risk Reduction
• Poverty Reduction
• Gender Equality
• Health Promotion
• Sustainable Lifestyles
• Peace and Human Security
• Water
• Sustainable Urbanization

It is directly relevant to our students because it is about their world and their future.

A useful, and brief (2 pages), white paper can be found at the U.S. Partnership for  Education for SustainableDevelopment website. The US Partnership has also published a set of National Learning Standards for K-12 education

Last year I was able to create a course which I called “Sustainability”. I still hadn’t heard about ESD but then I found out about the Fulbright-Japan program, applied and was introduced to the global community of like-minded educators. Introduction to this community through the Fulbright-Japan opportunity has increased my passion for ESD, and motivation to get ESD taught across the curriculum in the school in which I work, and eventually across the whole school district. I am fortunate in working with a number of colleagues who share my interest. Over the summer I was given a professional development grant to develop curriculum extending my sustainability course from one quarter to a full semester.

I have introduced the topic of sustainability to my Principal, and the District Superintendent and Curriculum Coordinator and have received their support. At the same time I recognize that a top down approach is not likely to be effective. To that end I am inviting a nucleus of like minded colleagues to join me in enhancing their curricula with ESD activities and projects.

It is my intention to document my progress with the introduction of ESD to the district through this Blog

7/4 Independence Day - Kyoto & Osaka

July 4^th, Independence day. This is our one free day in Japan. A bunch of us have decided to go to Kyoto with Keiko. We took the train to Kyoto and arrived at the new, modern station. There is a shopping mall built around the station and it has an observation deck on the roof. We went up to the roof to see all of Kyoto laid out before us ending, in the distance, in lush forest.

 

 

 

We purchased an all day bus ticket and headed out to our first temple of the day. The Ryōan-ji Temple which has beautiful gardens and a famous Zen rock garden.

Keiko on Temple Steps

Our next temple was Kinkaku-ji, also known as the Golden Temple.

 The next little trip was a real surprise. After a train and bus ride we arrived at Kibune. This is a beautiful little village up in the hills. It is famous for its ryokan, restaurants built on platforms over the river which face out on to beautiful waterfalls. Her you can eat noodles which float by you in a bamboo bordered stainless steel chute. Hard to explain. You’ll have to see the movie!(Catching Lunch ..) it follows this post.

 

 

 

 

 

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You can tie your wishes to a bamboo

You can tie them to a rack

or you can float them in the water

 

After enjoying the shrine we went into Osaka to the Dotumburi district. It was pouring with rain. We enjoyed the street with hundreds of restaurants and crazy signs. There was a fugu restaurant with a giant puffer fish sign hanging outside. We were heading for another food treat –Okonomiyaki. These are pancakes made with a batter and filled with greens, and a variety of meats and fish. You choose. There are two styles. We had the Hiroshima style. This means that the pancake is cooked in layers, rather than having all the ingredients mixed together.The cooking is done on a teppanyaki table while diners sit around the chefs at the bar which is, like the teppanyaki table, heated. DON”T PUT YOUR ELBOWS ON THE TABLE! The pancakes are served on the bar and eaten with a little shovel shaped spatula. See it done at Okonomiyaki

Courtesy of Aimee Welch

Courtesy of Aimee Welch

 

 

Thus ended our last full day in Japan

Catching Lunch in Kyoto

Click here to view this video

7/1 - 7/3 Kobe conference

Keiko and Yuko at Mosaic in Kobe

Keiko at the conference

This was the final wrap up. We spent all of our time working with our Japanese colleagues on the next steps. There were a number of excellent lectures but the focus was on the development of joint projects. I was involved with two of these, one was about food and is based on the book, The Hungry Planet, the other is about energy usage.
In th evening we had a farewell reception as our Japanese colleagues were heading back to their homes.

Dr. Satterwhite says Goodbye

Dan, Terri, Jen, Jess and, in front, Katrina

Me and Shinichi (my physics collaborator)

6/30 - Gold Leaf Museum, Tea house district & Recycling center

This was our last day in Kanazawa. We started the day by checking out of the hotel.We took a group picture on the hotel stairs.

We then jumped the bus for the Tomuro recycling center in Kanazawa city.
This is both a recycling center and an education center for fourth graders to learn about the importance of recycling. The entry hall had a variety of art made out of recycled materials.

We met the director of the center who apologized for the fact that the center was not in operation that day due to scheduled maintenance.He took us upstairs to a meeting room where he showed us a video which is used with fourth graders and describes how recycling is done in Kanazawa and why recycling is important.

We then went downstairs to a large exhibit hall which explained how recycling is done with different materials. He also showed us how Kanazawa recycles large objects like furniture and refrigerators and other appliances. Within the recycling center is a workshop where these items are repaired and then can be auctioned back to the people of Kanazawa. What a terrific idea.

 Then off to the Yasue Gold leaf Museum. This is located in a tea-house district of Kanazawa. In the museum the process of preparing gold leaf was explained. Gold was first discovered near Kanazawa before it was called Kanazawa. Kanazawa means golden stream. In addition to the discovery of gold a plant whose stems and leaves are required for the making of the paper which separates gold leaf also grows here. Thus the basic ingredients were available locally and the industry took off. Now the gold is bought on the commodities market in London. Most of it is from South Africa. Kanazawa provides 99% of the goldleaf used in Japan. It is found on the Golden Temple, photos of which you will see in a later blog.

Gold leaf shrine and screens

After the museum we walked around the tea district. Then back on the buses for lunch at a hotel in the station.

At the lunch we were able to make presentations to our amazing guides for the Kanazawa stay.

Then back on the train and on to Kobe, and our Okura hotel. I was surprised at our return because my new room was a huge corner room with great views and room for a pony! It was dinner on our own at night so few of us went to Chinatown.

6/29 Omicho Market,Shikindai Junior High,Ishikawa Nationa College of Technology, Night life

 Woke up early and met Aimee and Jen and we walked over to the Omicho Market. While the market hadn't opened yet, much of the food was out and we were able to take lots of cool photographs of interesting fish products and some other stuff which will remain a mystery to me.

Mystery stuff!

At 8:30 we caught a bus to Shikindai Junior High school. We arrived to the usual warm welcome. We were greeted with a speech and a brief outline of the education for sustainable development activities at the school. We then visited classes which included Taiko drumming, tea ceremony, Noh Theater and Kaga Yuzen dyeing. We also had a chance to look at some other classes.

Recycling bottle caps

Preparing for the meeting

Principal introduction

Taiko drumming

Tea ceremony class

Preparing scenery for the Noh play

Preparing Kaga Yuzen (silk dyeing)

Kaga Yuzen Kimono

Americans try Kaga Yuzen

Student Work

Science class, making guns from chopsticks!

Our next stop was the Ishikawa National College of Technology. We had lunch in the school cafeteria. The lunch is quite impressive I really enjoyed the shrimp tempura.

Beat this for school lunch!

 We were then met by the President and given a brief outline of the school by the Vice President. We were then given a tour of some classes which included a class on remote sensing, an architecture class in which they designed chairs made from wood thinned from the forest, and another class where they were developing ways to filter water for purification. This was the first place in which I'd seen technology, like whiteboards and computers, readily available to students.

Remote sensing class

Water filtration

Testing the water

Chair design. More comfortable than it looks!

More chairs

After our tour of the classes we had a meeting in which we were told about the education for sustainable development activities the school. We then met with teachers and discussed environmental projects ongoing in both countries.

English Workshop

We were then invited to the 44th English club workshop, where we were honored guests. The we shared a tea ceremony, lots of formal introductions, and then we were headed off with groups of students in order to give them an opportunity to practice their English. It was a lot of fun.

English Workshop

Later that evening I hooked up with Terry, Jess, Ed and Yo-yo. We had decided to explore Kanazawa's darker side. Apparently, when the salarymen are done with work they head to small bars where they meet up with young women. These women actors hostesses and pour drinks etc. The men woo these women and is quite a business in candy and huge bouquets of flowers which apparently are part of the wooing process. Anyway, there is a district in Kanazawa where these activities take place. It is full of small bars and karaoke lounges and shops which sell candy and flowers. It is a very interesting place to walk around. We found a neat place where they make tiny balls of egg which contain octopus. They also had black sesame ice cream. It made for a delicious dinner. We walked around and discovered a little alleyway full of tiny bars with enough room to seat eight people. We sat down in one of these bars ordered drinks and food was laid in front of us. Mostly different items in a dashi broth. It was quite an adventure.

Octopus balls (not really, eggs with octopus in them!)