Win $60,000 in the Incredible Green Contest!

The Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy are giving away a big prize for students, read what they have to say about it here:

 

All over the world people are suffering from the threat of extreme weather. In the United States, heavy rainstorms hit the East coast, while droughts and forest fires have broken out in the West coast. The northern hemisphere has been affected by heat waves, while Australia suffers from the highest temperature in thousands of years. Michael Oppenheimer of the United Nations Panel on Climate Change and Kevin Trenberth of the U.S. Center for Atmospheric Research expressed that the recent high temperatures, heavy rains, and forest fires are all evidence for climate change caused by the green house effect. And this is just the beginning. In the future abnormal weather patterns will become increasingly frequent.As global citizens we need to recognize our joint responsibility to slow down climate change and raise awareness on the impact of climate change on the Earth.

 

Information and Communications Technology is currently applied to many aspects of human life. Although the ICT industry emits 2% of the annual global carbon emissions, if we incorporate ICT to different fields, we can reduce up to 15% of carbon emissions! Therefore, ICT is an important tool to carbon reduction in the future and the way we include ICT in green innovation is key to environmental protection.

 

The Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) and the Acer Foundation have organized a competition this year called the Incredible Green Contest. The purpose of this international competition is to inspire students of any gender, age, or nationality to creatively find a way to solve environmental issues through the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). These issues can be about conservation of energy, reduction of carbon emissions, ecological protection, or anything environment-related.

 

Students can register individually or in groups up to five people. Up to three mentors are allowed per group. The incentives to join this competition are boundless. The first place winner(s) wins a huge monetary prize of $60,000 and two of the finalists will receive a complimentary trip Taipei, Taiwan with a visit to COMPUTEX 2013. Mentors of the winning team will be granted a research grant of $5,000. Prizes are also available for runners up and other honours.

 

Creativity has no bounds and we hope that you, as environmental educators, can help promote the Incredible Green Contest so that students can express their ideas of how to save the green Earth through ICT.

 

For more information, please visit: http://taiseen.org.tw/en/

 

By Tina, Event Coordinator, TAISE

 

Engage Students in STEM Learning with Biomimicry

Workshop to Be Held in Findhorn, Scotland

Prince Charles says of biomimicry:

“…the emerging discipline of biomimicry puts what zoologists and biologists know about natural systems together with the problems engineers and architects are trying to solve, in order to produce technology that mimics how Nature operates.”

Learn about biomimicry, and how to teach it, while exploring five habitats in coastal northeast Scotland. Join Biomimicry 3.8 Institute for a weeklong Biomimicry Educator Training Workshop, August 25–31, 2012, hosted at Findhorn College, the educational arm of the famous Findhorn Ecovillage.

Biomimicry is a design discipline, a branch of science, a problem-solving method, a sustainability ethos, a movement, a stance toward nature, and a new way of viewing and valuing biodiversity. At its most practical, biomimicry is a way of seeking sustainable solutions by borrowing life’s blueprints, chemical recipes, and ecosystem strategies.  At its most transformative, it brings us into right relation with the rest of the natural world, as students learning to be a welcome species on this planet.

Biomimicry’s sensible, eco-friendly approach to design has tremendous appeal for both educators and students. Designed to meet the interests and needs of k-12, university, and informal educators, the Biomimicry Educator Training Workshop offers instruction in the fundamentals of biomimicry, an introduction to Life’s Principles, and communication strategies for sharing biomimicry with students of any age. Participants will learn from local plants, animals, and ecosystems while exploring tidal bays, rivers, forests, and heather dunelands on the fringe of the Scottish highlands. They will return home with a plan for incorporating biomimicry education into their own curricula and programs as well as a toolkit of supporting resources. Register today for this innovative and inspiring program at biomimicry.net/findhorn

The Biomimicry 3.8 Institute focuses on supporting educators and encouraging them, and their students, to work collaboratively and consciously to bring innovative and sustainable designs to fruition using biomimicry principles.

Ali Solomon, Biomimicry 3.8 Institute