New course for teachers on FEE Academy about Young Reporters for the Environment!

Are you a teacher or an educator wondering how to implement the YRE programme? We are happy to launch a new course on FEE Academy——YRE for Teachers!

The course is designed to provide an opportunity for teachers from registered schools to learn how to carry out the YRE programme systematically. It integrates a variety of topics such as the YRE methodology, journalistic skills used in YRE, as well as teaching practices and activities from the FEE network. Using various resources such as videos, graphs, readings, and quizzes, the course will help teachers become familiar with the programme, and get inspired to implement the programme in and outside of their classrooms.

YRE Launches 2 New Courses on FEE Academy!

Happy New Year to THE wonderful YRE community!

We are very excited to announce the launch of our first two Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) courses in the Foundation for Education’s (FEE) online learning platform, FEE Academy. Our YRE International team has put a tremendous amount of time and care into creating a YRE National Operators introduction course and a photography and photojournalism course for students (whether they have participated in YRE before or not)!

Made especially for current and soon-to-be YRE National Operators, the YRE National Operators course gives learners an overview of the YRE programme, how to set up and run the programme at the national level, and lots of tools and resources to support our National Operators in making the YRE programme a success!

Our second course, Photography for Photojournalism, was created to give young people anywhere with an internet connection an opportunity to learn about visual storytelling, develop their photography skills and become familiar with the YRE programme and our annual international competition. The lessons are divided across six modules, and learners are asked to participate in activities both online and offline. It has been designed so that learners can go through the content independently and at their own pace, making it a flexible and fun learning experience!

While we are proud of what we’ve created so far, we know it could always be better, which is why we will be continuously improving the quality and content of the courses based on the feedback we receive from you, the learners.

Curious? You can easily enroll any time before March 1st. Individuals who have enrolled in the courses will then be able to participate in the courses starting from January 15th until March 19th.

Itching to get started on a course? First, go to FEE Academy and create an account. Once you’re a confirmed user, you can log into FEE Academy, go to the Young Reporters for the Environment section and enroll in the course you’d like to take. It’s that simple! Looking forward to seeing you in class!

-       The YRE International Team

Scottish Young Reporters for the Environment interview Cabinet Secretary

Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for Climate Change visited One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden entries at Gardening Scotland Show.

Young Reporters from Grove Academy had the opportunity to explain to the Cabinet Secretary Roseanna Cunningham MSP, how they had achieved a winning design. They then interviewed her about her recent appointment to the Government, with responsibility for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform.

Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) invited Eco­-Schools from across Scotland to design a colourful and exciting pocket sized garden using plants that can be eaten and attract biodiversity, and reuse materials which would otherwise have been thrown away. There were 80 entries from across Scotland judged by members of the Garden for Life Forum.

The 18 winning designs of nursery and school pupils who entered the first nationwide One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden competition sprung to life to create the Living Garden at Gardening Scotland - the first time that the area has not been designed by a professional gardener. 

Eve Keepax, Food and Environment Officer, KSB, said:  “We are delighted that schools had the opportunity to participate. It is exciting to have received so many high quality designs from right across the length and breadth of Scotland and is wonderful to see them come to life at Gardening Scotland.” 

Deborah Long, Chair of the Garden for Life Forum, KSB, added: “The Garden for Life Forum members have been delighted by the enthusiasm schools across Scotland have shown for the One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden Design Challenge.”

The pocket gardens in The Living Garden were highlighted on the BBC TV show Beechgrove Garden on 3 June. The show is in the top three most popular TV programmes in Scotland. Young Reporters from Lomond School turned the tables on veteran horticulture guru Jim McColl who has presented the show for a record 38 years. Their interview of Jim was filmed by the BBC.

After the show the organisers confirmed that this year the number of young visitors to Gardening Scotland had doubled.

(story provided by Keep Scotland Beautiful)

YRE Mission at a Rock Festival

Portuguese Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) attended a six-day Mission at ‘Rock in Rio Lisboa 2016’ to investigate the sustainability measures and concerns of this music festival that involves 80.000 people per day on average.

The festival has, since 2013, been recognised as a sustainable event in accordance with ISO 20121. It aims to be a carbon neutral event and supports the social project ‘Amazonia Live’, also investigated by YRE students in Portugal.

Throughout the festival, two groups of twelve YRE students from different schools all over Portugal conducted their journalistic research work through interviews, surveys and photographs, and later produced a set of 46 reports which can be found here or on the Facebook page created for this activity.

The reports address themes related to mobility, waste, donation of materials, energy efficiency, smart cities, as well as relating to the organisation's vision, sustainability and its impact on the surrounding community.

A Litter Less Campaign event also took place during the festival and was organised by ABAE (FEE’s member in Portugal) with the participation of friends of YRE. Litter Less campaigners collected 15 1L bottles of cigarette butts, and took pictures with messages about sustainable behavior to highlight and promote their actions. Photos can be found on the campaign’s Facebook page.

During the mission the youth stayed at a YRE school, Colegio Valsassina,  located 500m from the festival area. Journalistic investigation took place between 16:00 and 21:00, and the reports were prepared between 9:00 and 14:00 at the the mission press centre in a designated area inside the school.

YRE in RIR is the fourth edition of the activity; the partnership with Rock in Rio has been major motivation for the YRE network and also an excellent reward for the most committed YRE students.

127 environmental projects submitted to the Maltese National YRE Competition

127 projects were submitted to the National YRE Competition in Malta during the scholastic year 2015 - 2016, with themes varying from waste, water and transport to active aging and migration. Integration with the local curriculum was the main focus and it was successfully implemented through the classes of European Studies, Languages, Geography and Environmental studies. 

The level reached was high and the sponsors were highly impressed with the outcome. So much so that a local MEP will be sponsoring two students and two teachers to visit the European Parliament and interview the MEPs there. Environmental missions and workshops also featured well, with positive outcomes and excellent profile raising and promotion of the projects. Projects for next year include more focus on curriculum integration and PR for the schools and students. 

The national award ceremony was held on 3 June 2016.  Local sponsors presented their awards while the international winners were announced during the same ceremony. Participating students and teachers had the opportunity to give their experience on YRE. 

YRE Global Action Day in Montenegro

The Young Reporters for the Environment Competition in Montenegro culminated in an award ceremony for the best participants.

The competition is organised by EKOM, a member of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), for the ninth consecutive year in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The theme of this year's campaign was ‘Trees for the Planet’, which was also the slogan of this year's Earth Day. 

A YRE Global Action Day was held on 22 April 2016 in Podgorica, along with the award ceremony. The awards were given to the winners by Daliborka Pejović, State Secretary of the Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism, and a special recognition in the category of ‘Trees for the Planet’ was presented by Nina Lješević, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Ministry also provided seedlings for the best students and schools.

Moreover, the guests were greeted by Saša Karajović, CEO of EKOM, and Vasilije Bušković on behalf of the National Jury.  

Over 400 students from 21 secondary and 40 primary schools sent around 550 submissions for this year's competition. 76 professors worked as mentors to help with the preparation of submissions.

More photos on http://mladi-ekoreporteri.org.me/content/view/146/1/

All selected submissions on http://mladi-ekoreporteri.org.me/content/view/145/1/