An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming - Al Gore - Youth Version Grade 5–8—This young readers' version of the recent documentary film's companion adult volume cuts the page count by about a third but preserves the original's cogent message and many of its striking visuals. After explaining that his interest in the environment predates even his mother's reading of Silent Spring aloud to him as a teenager, Gore proceeds to document steeply rising carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere, and then to link that to accelerating changes in temperature and precipitation patterns worldwide. Using easy-to-grasp graphics and revealing before-and-after photos, he shows how glaciers and ice shelves are disappearing all over the globe with alarming speed, pointing to profound climate changes and increased danger from rising sea levels in the near future. O'Connor rephrases Gore's arguments in briefer, simpler language without compromising their flow, plainly intending to disturb readers rather than frighten them. He writes measured, matter-of-fact prose, letting facts and trends speak for themselves—but, suggesting that "what happens locally has worldwide consequences," he closes with the assertion that we will all have to "change the way we live our lives." Like the film, this title may leave readers to look elsewhere for both documentation and for specific plans of action, but as an appeal to reason it's as polished and persuasive as it can be.—John Peters, New York Public Library
Journey for the Planet: A Kid's 5-Week Adventure to Create an Earth-Friendly Life A fun, engaging illustrated workbook for every child who wants to make a difference for the world. Drawing on his successful EcoTeam workbook, which sold over 250,000 copies through a unique grassroots distribution model, environmental change pioneer David Gershon guides children through a series of action steps that can impact both climate change and the environment as a whole.
Mantis Report An offshoot of the Sunflower Report -- an account of the adventure of raising praying mantises, a blog growing towards developing learning activities of kids of all ages.
Marlboro College Sustainability MBA The Marlboro "Managing For Sustainability" MBA is taught in person and online. It is focused on preparing students to work towards balanced social, environmental, and economic performance by companies, and helping students contribute to the sustainable development of the communities and regions where they operate.
NEED - National Energy Education Development Project The National Energy Education Development Project's goal is to promote an energy conscious and educated society by creating effective networks of students, educators, business, government and community leaders to design and deliver objective, multi-sided energy education programs. NEED works with state and local partners to provide 600+ energy education workshops and inservices to teachers and students throughout the school year. The workshops are designed to help educators implement energy programs in their classrooms while developing student knowledge and leadership skills. NEED also provides professional development workshops to school districts, energy companies, and other training organizations upon request.
PicoTurbine - wind/solar education kits Company offers plans, books, and kits for renewable energy education and homebrew projects including wind and solar kits. Free, downloadable do-it-yourself plans, and kits that include all the materials for a modest charge. We also sell plans and kits from other vendors. The PicoTurbine is an 8-inch tall, fully functioning wind turbine, the produces enough electricity to light up a bicolor LED that flashes red and green to show the alternating current. It has been used by universities such as MIT and Caltech, as well as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for summer youth programs.
Profile: James McLurkin James McLurkin of MIT is one of the world's leading designers of robot "swarms"—groups of robots that work together for a greater purpose.
Profile: Sunflower Club An online version of a regional newspaper article about the Sunflower Club, for kids of all ages. Pictures of growers of monster sunflowers scattered throughout the U.S. and Europe.
Sundance Solar Solar and wind power kits and toys, as well as a variety of solar-powered consumer electronics items, books, etc.
Sunflower Club - Official Site The experimental beta site for the sunflower club. The Sunflower Club is an environmental activity for kids of all ages. Purpose: grow sunflowers, pass the seeds on to a new generation of growers, and watch the family tree grow, tracing the ancestry. Learn about community, exchange questions and wisdom with other growers.A curriculum for kids is being developed as well.
Sunflower Report 1.0 The original sunflower blog that started it all, and led to the Sunflower Club at www.sunflowerclub.net
Wind Energy Handbook Authoritative text on the core concepts of wind energy, written as a reference guide for engineers, wind turbine designers, consultants, and graduate students. With deep, highly technical analyses, this book examines machine architecture, performance of various turbine configurations, wind resources, electric grid integration, and siting constraints. The authors draw on considerable industry and academic experience, and include hundreds of equations, with a symbols reference.
