Eden up for some serious money

BG educators in the Uk are being badgered today to participate in a public vote on how to spend £50 million. This money is from the UK's national Lottery and for the first time the lottery are using television programme and a public vote to decide how to spend this pot of money. There are four projects in the competition, including the Eden Project's plans for the 'Edge'. This would be their third 'biome' and is intended to illustrate people and plants 'on the edge'

Eden are describing the project as:
The Edge will be a landmark new building at the Eden Project.
Its scale and ambition will make the Edge an international icon of sustainability, showing mankind is capable of amazing things. The building will be a model of cutting-edge architecture and technology, harvesting water and energy from the sun, wind, and rain to show how we all might live in the future. It will be a testament to one-planet living, built to the lowest possible carbon footprint and designed to last.
Inside… …there will be desert, oasis and water gardens on a scale never attempted. Underneath… …a series of interlocking underground chambers will provide spaces for some of the great voices of the age – artists, writers, scientists and musicians - to work with communities and families and share the best ideas they have for improving their lives and environments, now and in the future.

The other projects also sound interesting (have a look at the 50 million pound giveaway website to see), but this is a great opportunity for a member of the botanic garden community to increase their capacity for conservation education and sustainable development...we've got our fingers crossed!

Happy Christmas

So, its the season of festivities and celebrations. Hooray, after the autumn the education department has had, it will be such a relief. First there was the education congress - which was excellent. Check out the reports on the BGCI website and the proceedings if you didn't get to it yourself. Then, there was the International Diploma course in education in botanic gardens - 13 participants from 12 countries. We went everywhere with them, Eden Project, Barnes Wetland Centre, Chelsea Physic Garden, even the Globe theatre.

In the middle of all that I has exams, modules on ecological management and sustainable development - approaches and indicators, for a post graduate certificate in sustainable development. This is a distance learning programme run by Imperial College, London. It ahas been really interesting studying for it - not only the subject, but also to understand how these distance learning courses go. Once a year in the post I receive a pack - a folder, a CD Rom, text books and further reading materials. My course I print out from the CD Rom (I can't read from computer screens, it bugs me) and away I go - 10 hours study per week for 30-odd weeks. I'm sure its more work than I ever did for my Master's degree - and its only a third of a Masters! Then in October I sit one 2-hour exam for each module. I just found out today, I have passed this year's modules- thank goodness!

Its interesting, as there are hundreds of us, studying the same topic, all over the world - but we never meet! There is an on-line discussion and study area, but it is under-used as a resource, I have been too scared to join in the discussions so far - even though I have questions on the materials too.

These are the kinds of things we will have to bear in mind if we decide to progress with the idea of developing a distance learning programme for environmental education - participants at the Education Congress were asked about it, and 70 % said they were interested. We will need a lot of work to develop this further, working in partnership with other capacity building organisation, maybe a university, maybe other botanic gardens, and definitely some funders! But it would be interesting to give it a go, and be more environmentally friendly than sending trainers overseas to run training courses.

What do you think? Would you be interested in participating in a distance learning programme examining environmental education - master planning, evaluation, theory, philosophy, practical aspects, everything you could need to set up your own education centre? What would you want to get out of it and how would you want it to look - on the internet, on CD Rom, on paper...the possibilities are vast!

In the meantime, have a great Christmas if you are celebrating and an engaging New Year. I'm off to the beautiful New Forest for some walking and feasting. Until 2007!