Children's Association for Nature » Tools/Resources

Searther

Mina — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:49:50 +0000

Searther (formerly blackle.org) is a way of getting news about the environment that is reliable, diverse, but not overwhelming or depressing. There is a points system and it is almost like a game, and there are also secrets in the site that you can find using clues. It is well done and continues to improve. And if you search with thier browser instead of using Google, you basically are giving money to an environmental cause without paying anything! Check it out, but take the points with a grain of salt. Getting other people to join doesn’t really help the environment very much, and neither does rating their articles. Remember to help the environment directly and in your everyday life.

There are almost 500 great articles on Searther. If you are not interested in the five articles in the ‘news reel’, insert “http://www.searther.org/readArticle.php?id=” into your browser’s address bar and follow it by a number from 1-450.

By the way, you can’t rate or comment on articles that are not in the news reel. So don’t think you can get 2,250 free points.

Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.

Mina — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:19:11 +0000

Says Michael Pollan, journalist and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as well as his newest book, In Defense of food. These seven words are his guidelines for a healthy diet, but, as he said, his publisher was looking for 60,000 words not a post card.

Fortunately, it is a lot more complicated than that. At the talk I went to which took place on UBC Farm, Pollan pointed out how people who eat for health and are obsessed with their health are less healthy than people who eat for community or identity or pleasure. He also pointed out the connection between healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals and healthy people. The same things that make our environment healthy also are beneficial to our own health. Industry tries to make us eat more so they can sell more food, but in almost any culture you can find some ancient saying warning against this; eat until you are 80% full, eat until you are 75% full, etc. Even the prophet Muhammad said that a full belly is one that is one third food, one third drink, and one third air.

Things you can do to make a difference with food are:

Buy from farmers markets.

Eat food for the food not for the nutrients.

Show corporations that you care by voting with your fork. (making good choices as a consumer when you buy food)

Show your political leaders that you care by voting with your vote too.

Read the book to find out more!

Scratch

Mina — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:16:11 +0000

Scratch is a programming language— sort of. It has a super user-friendly interface, is designed to be easy for kids as young as six years old and still be fun for adults. All you have to do is snap ‘blocks’ together. You can use it to make 2D games, movies, simulations, and all kinds of other stuff. Then, you can post it on the Scratch website and other users put comments and ‘love-its,’ which are a form of rating system. All of the games can be downloaded and built on by other users, and Scratch automatically gives the original creator credit. As if this isn’t awesome enough, you can embed your games in your website.

If you make an environmental game in Scratch, get the embed code and make a post on this website. Switch your editing mode to ‘HTML’ and paste in the embed code. Then put your post in the Games category, and it will show up on the Games page.

Scratch is FREE. You can download it from the website. There is lots of helpful stuff on the website to help you get started.