Children's Association for Nature » Stuff

Schools of the Future

Mina — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:12:12 +0000

We need better schools, schools that prepare kids for their lives in the unknown.

A school should…

Be a place where kids can come to learn because they want to.
Be a place where kids can come to interact with other kids and learn from eachother.
Allow kids to develop their skills and passions.
Have teachers who are able to help kids find their skills and passions.
Be a place to try new things.
Be a place where kids are not afraid to make mistakes.
Be a place where a kid can start making a difference in the world.
Be mostly run by kids.

A school should not…

Cause stress.
Be a place where kids are bullied.
Be the center of a kid’s life. (You go to elementary school to learn how to get through highschool, which is to learn how to get a job and/or go to university, and you work, work, work and then you die. Any questions?)
Prevent kids from reaching their full potential in any way.
Make learning into a chore, and teach kids to hate it.

Become an Official Energy Hog Buster

Mina — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:52:40 +0000

Energy Hog (the kid’s part) is an animated website in the form of a game where you can learn how to become an official energy hog buster. You have to beat 5 games and when you are done you get a printable certificate. Only five major energy hogs are covered (with some notes on how to prevent other things from being energy hogs) but it is still good if you don’t know a lot about energy hogs. Just do not take the games and the pictures literally!

Bike to School Week

Mina — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:15:31 +0000

Or you can walk, run, jog, scooter, skateboard, take transit, unicycle, or skip to school (as opposed to skip school). Encourage your friends and family to do the same, substituting ‘work’ for ’school’ where necessary. The official Bike to Work Week is from May 11 to the 17th, but if you start now you’ll make a bigger difference.

The CAN club at Tyee is starting a poster campaign to try and get as many people in our school as possible to get to school without using cars for a week, and maybe longer. We are coming up with all kinds of neat scoring systems that will add extra motivation. I’ll be back soon with pictures and more details.

Upcoming Game: Eco Zabo

Mina — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 17:44:24 +0000

I am working on a game with a monkey that teaches you about environmental issues such as climate change and consumerism, which will hopefully be up within the month. You can check out the preview on my website.

Check out the Resources

Mina — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:47:52 +0000

My website, Cobwebs and Seaslugs, had this out-of-place page of kids activities and stuff (my website is mostly research I have done on different environmental issues). So, I moved it over and renamed it as ‘resources’ and it is currently the longest and likely the most interesting/useful. As well as that, I made a game called Save-The-Tree-Pong where you controll a shield and have to protect the tree from axes that fly at it.

The Big Bang

Mina — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:44:21 +0000

The beginning of all CAN, or at least, all of CAN’s website. Sadly to say, our template isn’t cool and slick-looking yet, but the earth was not perfect in the beginning either. It took millions of years before, well, anything really. We certainly won’t take that long! We’re off to a great start and are looking forward to having an awesome website.

-Mina and Zoë