[NAEP] MPES newsletter, V1.5

[Dawn Wiseman]

								March 17, 2008
 
	Volume 1, Issue 5

This is already our 5th issue of the MPES e-newsletter. We hope you 
are finding the information it contains helpful in your teaching. We 
always like to hear how people are using the resources we produce, 
and we're always trying to improve them. So, if you have any stories 
about how the newsletter is helping to support your teaching, or 
ideas about how it could do the job better, please let us know. 
Emails can be sent to dawn at nativeaccess.com, or you can call us 
anytime at 514-469-0746.


Lunar Ark
Last summer our friend Duncan Cree from Kanesatake attended the Space 
Studies Program hosted by the International Space University in 
Beijing, China. Over the course of the summer, participants had to 
select one of four collaborative projects to explore.

"They were all so interesting I had a hard time choosing," said 
Duncan. His group worked on developing feasible plans for robotic 
maintenance of geostationary satellites. Other teams considered 
traffic management in Earth orbit and using space-based technologies 
for earthquake prediction.

The fourth project focused on how and where to store the knowledge 
required to rebuild society after a disaster of planetary 
proportions. Now scientists are flogging the moon as the ideal 
location for this cache of information.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3511818.ece
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070814-lunar-ark.html


Rare sightings
Over the last few weeks there have been quite a few sightings of a 
number of rare / endangered species.

A California Wolverine, which conservationists were relatively sure 
no longer lived in the northern Sierra - Nevada mountains, was caught 
on a heat sensitive digital camera set up by researchers at Oregon 
State University to count martens.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/10/sierra.wolverine.ap/index.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080306144240.htm

A white killer whale was spotted off the coast of Alaska, by 
researchers on a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 
research ship.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/03/07/white.killer.whale.ap/index.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080307-AP-whale-picture.html

It isn't easy for animals to survive these days with poaching, 
deforestation and other pressures on their habitats. Two civil wars 
in the African nation of Liberia had convinced zoologists that pygmy 
hippos were wiped out in one of their few remaining natural ranges, 
but recent images have proven them wrong.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7286860.stm
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/03/10/pygmy.hippos/index.html?iref=hpmostpop
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080311-hippo-picture.html


Earth Hour
On March 31, 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 businesses in Sydney, 
Australia, turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. If the 
greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney during Earth Hour was 
sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars 
off the road for a year.

With Sydney icons like the Harbour Bridge and Opera House turning 
their lights off, and unique events such as weddings by candlelight, 
the world took notice. Inspired by the collective effort of millions 
of Sydneysiders, many major global cities are joining Earth Hour in 
2008, turning a symbolic event into a global movement.

This year's Earth Hour will take place starting at 8pm on Saturday, 
March 29. Go to http://www.earthhour.org/ to get more information and 
find out how to get involved.


Environment report
Huge storms and extreme weather events will become more common, says 
a report on climate change submitted to Natural Resources Canada on 
March 7. From Impacts to Adaptation: Canada in a Changing Climate 
2007 focuses on the impact climate change in terms of the weather it 
will generate, and the effects on areas like infrastructure, energy 
production and drinking water. Through a primarily regional approach, 
this assessment discusses current and future risks and opportunities 
that climate change presents to Canada, with a focus on human and 
managed systems. The entire report is available at
http://adaptation.nrcan.gc.ca/assess/2007/index_e.php


Iditarod
While this year's Iditarod race has just wound down, the event's web 
site provides great tools for teaching that are being used all over 
the world. Check them out:
http://www.iditarod.com/
http://www.iditarod.com/teachers/

This article which came to us from Pamela Bumsted in Alaska, outlines 
some of the ways teaching are using the race in their classrooms.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0313/p20s01-ussc.html


Upcoming events
Atlantic Native Teachers Education Conference (ANTEC)
May 14 - 16, 2008
Membertou Trade and Convention Centre
http://antec.ca/

National Association for Multicultural Education
November 12-16, 2008
New Orleans, LA
http://www.nameorg.org/


Next issue
The next issue of the MPES newsletter is due out in two weeks. If you 
have any information you'd like to share with colleagues please email 
it to dawn at nativeaccess.com.