MiEarth

MiEarth is a fairly new site that provides access to a growing selection of videos focused on the environment and what we can do to help keep it clean and healthy. The site is the result of a collaboration between the University of Michigan-Dearborn and Detroit Public TV. There are 5 main categories of videos to choose from. They are:

• Green Team: Videos about environmental heroes throughout the state
• Green Communities: Videos about the environmental work of local governments
• Green Inc.: Videos about the environmental work of companies
• My View: Personal videos from members and users expressing their viewpoints on the environmental challenges we face and offering their own solutions
• For Kids: Educational videos on the environment for k12 students

You can link directly to different videos but currently there isn't the option to embed them in another site. You can also upload your own videos to the site and while I haven't tried this yet (I really don't have any of my own videos that are specifically about saving the environment) I would assume there is some kind of moderating that goes on to make sure the content is appropriate.

There is a small collection of teacher resources on the site that provides information and links to different environmental related activities, events and fieldtrips that teachers can plan or participate in with their students. The site is fairly new so the amount of resources and videos is still a bit small but this would be a nice resource to consider particularly if you are a teacher in Michigan, but also for teachers in other parts of the country and world.

The Cycle

Since it is April, and Earth Day is coming up later this month, I thought I would share The Cycle, a website with a series of animated videos on recycling. Video topics include an overview of the concepts of reducing, reusing and recycling as ways to help the environment as well as several individual videos on the different common materials that can be recycled such as plastics, metal, paper and glass. These videos have a lot of great information to help kids and adults better understand exactly what can and can't be recycled. You can check out the overview video below or watch all the videos by clicking here. These would be a great way to jumpstart discussions with students or kick-off a recycling unit at your school.

Earth Day Ideas

It has been a while since I last posted but I'm going to try to be more diligent and consistent in my postings from now on. I realize that Earth Day 2008 is coming to an end but I still wanted to share some resources that could be used on every day of the year to help remind us about how we can take care of the Earth.

First of all, there are a variety of Green search engines that you can use to be more environmentally conscious. Ecocho works to offset Carbon emissions by planting 2 trees for every 1,000 searches conducted. The trees are paid for by ads on the site. Blackle is essentially Google but with a black background, which requires less energy on the part of your monitor.

ElectroCity is a SimCity type game where kids get to be the mayor of their own town. In order for their town to grow they need to make decisions about how to supply power and attract more citizens. Mayors are graded on their impact on the environment, population growth and other factors. The game is free and doesn't require any registration.

The final tool I want to share is the Planet Green Game, which provides students with different tasks to complete as they learn about the environment and what they can do to have less of an impact on it. The tasks range between very easy and more complicated so it's hard to tell exactly what age this tool was geared towards but it's worth taking a look at either way.