A special edition of the School Science Review devoted to Education for Sustainability, published to mark the half way stage of the UNESCO Decade, seemed like an ideal opportunity for an article on the potential of the Earth Charter for science teaching in secondary schools. The only difficulty was that the Jeffrey Newman, EC affiliate in the UK, has no scientific expertise whatsoever – so it was necessary to find collaborators.
Fortunately, in the wonderful way that such things happen, two outstanding people quickly emerged willing to give support. Dr Stephan Harding is a world-famous ecologist, collaborator with James Lovelock who first developed the Gaia theory which sees Earth as a living organism. Harding’s depth and breadth of scientific understanding underpins the article.
Jason Holbrook was formerly Head of Science and is now Deputy Head of Avonbourne School in Bournemouth. It was through his involvement with the Earth Charter in writing the article that he and the Head Teacher, Debbie Godfrey-Phaure decided that Avonbourne should become the first school in the UK to endorse the Earth Charter. Jason has ensured that the article includes practical suggestions of use to teachers in their development of a scientific curriculum.
Click here to see the article