Happy Teacher Appreciation Week and many thanks to all of you for doing the great work that you do!  We loved this observation describing the Spring posted to the online classroom today from Nikolaus at Great River School.  He titled it, There Is Life Among Us.

I'm sitting outside of my apartment building. In the back there is a little enclosed off area kind of hidden in the woods, it is between housing and the golf coarse. It is really nice. I'm just sitting in the sun listening to all of the birds chirping and playing around. I can hear lots of scrapes on the bark of trees as squirrels run up and down trees. The sun is heating up my back and my head while the wind cools off my body. It is very peaceful. When I look around I see wonderful bright green trees that look like they are overexcited that it's springtime. There are still buds on the trees but most of them have turned into rich green leaves. On some of the trees there is even lots of bright pink flowers. I could sit here for days just listening to the leaves swaying in the wind, hearing the birds chirp and hearing the animals play. It is a very nice day.

In other news, the Twin Cities Naturalist, is a great phenology resource for those of you in the Twin Cities Metro Area keeping up with nature as it wakes up this spring and read Minnesota farmer Jack Hedin's reflections on how climate change is impacting agriculture.

Richard Alley's recent article is a fun illustration of how deniers will cherry pick data to support their claims.  Read it here.  As part of Earth: The Operator's Manural, Aley's How to Talk to An Ostrich series of videos are great short videos that give rebuttals to denier arguments. 

Check out TEDtalks new TEDEd!  They have taken TEDtalks, created quizzes and questions to think about so they can be more useful in the classroom.  We especially like the James Balog's Time-lapse proof of extreme ice loss.

Enter the White House's Youth Sustainability Challenge.  Submit Your Videos Today! 

 The first public draft of the Next Generations Science Standards is open for review May 11 – June 1.  This will be an opportunity to influence the future of science education and see where climate change fits in.  There will be focus group meetings across the state to learn about the standards and to provide joint review.  Register for the meetings and receive location information. 

Professional Development
Don't forget to register for the Minnesota Association for Environmental Education's Annual Conference June 21 and 22 at Itasca State Park. 

The Minnesota Department of Education is offering 1 day workshops on Teaching Outside the Box: An Introduction to Integrating Environmental and Outdoor Education in Grades K-12 throughout the summer and fall.  More info

Mark your calendars for August 6, 7:00 PM at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, Cowles Auditorium for an evening with Dr. Eugenie Scott and Will Steger. Dr. Scott, is the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE). For the past 30 years NCSE has primarily focused on defending the teaching of evolution in the classroom. In 2012, in response to complaints from teachers that they were coming under fire for teaching global warming and other climate change concepts, NCSE decided to support the teaching of climate change in addition to evolution.

We are still looking for teachers interested in presenting for 5-10 minutes, August 8, about how they used Minnesota's Changing Climate.  Sign up here or contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions.

Join the other educators on this map and register today and share with your colleagues this Summer's Institute for Climate Change Education, August 7-8.

We were very disappointed to learn today from Patrick Fitzgerald at NWF, that Congressman Chip Cravaack of Minnesota's 8th Congressional District, has offered an amendment to eliminate funding to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Climate Change Education Program.  This will affect great science-based climate change education projects here in Minnesota that includes the Como Zoo & Conservatory and SERC at Carleton College, an important partner in the Climate Literacy Network.  In the Great Lakes Region NSF has been funding a Great Lakes Network, focused on bringing together educators, scientists and others focused on climate change education to encourage collaboration and decrease duplication of efforts.  Funding from the National Science Foundation for climate change education is integral to the work we do: developing science based climate change education resources and programs and maintaining a nationwide network dedicated specifically to climate change education.

Please call Representative Cravaack's office today (202) 225-6211 and tell him to vote NO on Amendment 7 to HR 5326 (from Congressional Record 5/7/12)

Sample talking points

• I am a constituent from ____...
• I’m calling today about your amendment to eliminate the NSF climate change education program…
• Environmental and Climate Change Education is important to me because…
• I’m involved in X, Y and Z related to this issue…
• I hope you will consider withdrawing your amendment to eliminate NSF’s climate change education program

More on HR 5326
OFFERED BY: MR. CRAVAACK
AMENDMENT NO. 7: At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following: SEC. ll. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to carry out the activities of the Climate Change Education program of the National Science Foundation.

For more background, here is NSF’s program summary.

Here is the list of NSF grantees.