Announcements

Posted by Mandeep Atwal on 27 Oct 2010

An idea to save the rainforest

Posted by Sean Tierney on 21 Oct 2010

Now that we're about to move into a real action phase of the project, here's an idea worth considering. Watch the video below - it's guaranteed to inspire you. Where does Willie Smits' idea fit with DeforestAction?

Smits believes that to rebuild orangutan populations, we must first rebuild their forest habitat -- which means helping local people find options other than the short-term fix of harvesting forests to survive. His
Masarang Foundation raises money and awareness to restore habitat forests around the world -- and to empower local people. In 2007, Masarang opened a palm-sugar factory that uses thermal energy to turn sugar palms (fast-growing trees that thrive in degraded soils) into sugar and even ethanol, returning cash and power to the community and, with luck, starting the cycle toward a better future for people, trees and orangs.

Posted by Mandeep Atwal on 20 Oct 2010

Webinar DATES for your diaries!

Hi everyone!

Please find below a list of fortnightly webinar dates for your diaries:

Webinar 1: 15/07/2010

Webinar 2: 29/07/2010

Webinar 3: 12/08/2010

Webinar 4: 26/08/2010

Webinar 5: 09/09/2010

Webinar 6: 23/09/2010

VIRTUAL CONFERENCE: 07/10/2010

You will notice that the day has moved from Tuesday to a Thursday. Please note that the times have not changed and will remain the same as pervious webinars. Please refer to the below table for your reference:

Location	Local time	Time zone
London (U.K. - England)	3:00:00 AM	UTC+1 hour BST
Sydney (Australia - New South Wales)	12:00:00 Noon	UTC+10 hours EST
Singapore (Singapore)	10:00:00 AM	UTC+8 hours
Colombo (Sri Lanka)	7:30:00 AM	UTC+5:30 hours
Toronto (Canada - Ontario)	10:00 PM	UTC-4 hours EDT

I have proposed 8 webinar sessions between now and October. The webinar sessions may be replaced with virtual conferences when this is requested. I will email you every Monday to share with you the agenda of each webinar and confirmation of attendance.

Can’t wait to connect

Posted by Mandeep Atwal on 22 Jul 2010

DeforestACTION Student Survey

We would appreciate it if you could take the time to complete a short student survey on your SHOUT: DeforestACTIONexperience. The responses from the survey will provide us with the necessary information to improve the programme and to provide you with vital support as your DeforestACTION project continues to grow.

Student survey link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DeforestACTIONstudentsurvey

Many thanks,

Mandeep Atwal

SHOUT Co-ordinator

Posted by Mandeep Atwal on 19 Jul 2010

DeforestACTION: Teacher survey

We would appreciate it if you could take the time to complete a short survey on your SHOUT: DeforestACTION experience. The responses from the survey will provide us with the necessary information to improve the programme and to provide you with vital support as your DeforestACTION project continues to grow.

Teacher survey link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DeforestACTION

Many thanks,

Mandeep Atwal
SHOUT Co-ordinator

Posted by Mandeep Atwal on 31 May 2010

DeforestACTION Experience

Hi All

Don't forget to upload your school's DeforestACTION experience...we want to see pictures, videos, blogs and discussions that will provide us and other's insight into you're exciting journey :-)

Lead students can use this main site to share what is happening in schools but we encourage everyone to participate in discussions and blogs :-)

Posted by sarahassan on 27 May 2010

Indonesia is going to stop deforestation for two years - check out this article from BBC!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10167038.stm

Posted by sarahassan on 27 May 2010

DeforestACTION Project Plans and Conference Presentation!

Hello! Just a friendly reminder to upload your action plans in the "Files" section by Sunday, May 30th! As a reminder, take a look at the Action Plan worksheet and the webinar slides!

The conference is also coming up next Friday June 4th, 2010. Each school will one one-minute to present their final DeforestACTION projects! Think of it like a radio or television ad - how would you think about presenting your project if you only had one-minute? Post your ideas on the discussion boards!

Posted by sarahassan on 20 May 2010

SMART Project Goals

Hi everyone – don’t forget to post a blog of up to 3 SMART Goals for your school’s DeforestACTION Project as a blog post before next Tuesday, May 25th! As a reminder, take a look at the SMART Goals worksheet and the webinar slides!

For ideas:

Check out the sample SMART goals we created during the webinar;
Take a look at some campaign, fundraising and project ideas in the Files section and in the Bookmarks section.
Start a discussion thread to get feedback on your project goals!

See you next week!

Posted by sarahassan on 18 May 2010

Check out this Video on Deforestation!

Deforestation from Langston Ward on Vimeo.

Posted by sarahassan on 18 May 2010

What’s Happening in the DeforestACTION Community?

Project Scope

Our DeforestACTION project scope is focused on raising awareness about the connection between palm oil and deforestation and fundraising to protect acres of forest. Money collected from fundraising will be designated to an NGO working to protect lands in Asia Pacific.

Project Planning - Creating SMART Goals

We’ve now had two of four project planning webinars! Thanks to everyone for actively participating!

DeforestACTION Teams – please create 2-3 SMART Goals for your DeforestACTION project and upload them as a blog post by Tuesday May 25, 2010. Our mentors Ping, Adrienne and Leah are here to answer any questions you have, and they will also provide you feedback by next Tuesday to ensure that our DeforestACTION goals are strong! Stop by and say hello to them!

To access the SMART Goals worksheet, please go to Files>Project Planning Templates> Step One: Creating Project Goals. This worksheet will help you develop your DeforestACTION project goals! Remember – don’t print it as we are trying to use as little paper as possible!

Discussions, Blog Posts and New DeforestACTION Presentations

We’ve had some wonderful dialogue happening on the discussion threads - don’t forget to have your voice heard! The discussion threads are a great way to ask questions and share your thoughts, while getting to know your fellow peers participating in this global movement!

Check out the DeforestACTION teams blog posts by Silverton and Royal College! If you haven’t already, post the names of your team members from your school as a blog post!

Royal College has been very busy creating presentations about deforestation – take a look at the newest one!

“Build Your Community” Competition

As announced in the webinar last night, we have launched the “Build Your Community” Competition. It’s really simple:

1) Invite 5 new members to join the collaboration site.

2) Have them reply to the discussion boards, post a blog, submit a piece of writing or post some photos!

3) The school with the highest number of posts wins! We’ll announce the winner on June 4^th!

Think about your DeforestACTION Presentation for June 4^th!

Each school will have only 1-minute to present their final DeforestACTION projects on June 4th! If you only have 1-minute to tell the world what your DeforestACTION campaign is about, how would you do it? Be creative!

This is the beginning of our global movement! Remember – the trees will thank you!

Posted by sarahassan on 6 May 2010

Watch the First DeforestACTION Video Conference!

If you would like to watch the first half-an-hour of the DeforestACTION Video Conference, click here, or watch below!

Posted by sarahassan on 5 May 2010

What's Happening in the SHOUT DeforstACTION Community?

Just some updates on what has been happening around the SHOUT community:

Check out what students in Dallas Primary School and Royal College have been saying about deforestation on the discussion boards! Join the conversation and share your thoughts and ideas!
Meet our mentors! Browse through their blog posts, say hello and answer some of their interesting questions about deforestation – they are looking for your ideas!
Students from Royal College have posted some really great pieces of writing on deforestation, as well as shared another presentation about the impact of deforestation in Sri Lanka! Take a look and post your comment!

Here is a very short video on palm oil and deforestation - share your thoughts on the discussion board here!

Posted by sarahassan on 4 May 2010

Announcing the Winning SHOUT DeforestACTION Projects and Logo!

Thank you all for voting – with over 200 votes cast, it was a very close race! The winning logo is now the new logo for the SHOUT DeforestACTION collaboration classroom!

There were so many wonderful ideas, and with enthusiasm and dedication displayed by all students participating in this collaboration, TIG and Microsoft have decided to use the top three project ideas and work together with the SHOUT community to plan this DeforestACTION!

The top three project ideas are:

1) Silverton Primary School - Palm Oil and Deforestation;

2) Ngee Ann - Urban Jungle;

3) Tree Safe - Tree Sponsorship Program.

Before we begin our planning, we are going to take these three ideas and speak to industry experts, who will help us put them into one framework. We will then announce how these three ideas can become one project!

To begin planning our project, TIG will be hosting weekly meeting for the teacher and student leadership teams of each school beginning Tuesday, May 11^th, 2010 in Microsoft Live Meeting. Details will be sent out very shortly via email to lead teachers and students.

These meetings will be to:

1) Help students create a step-by-step action plan to implement this project in their local communities;

2) Work together as a global community of schools to protect existing rainforests.

Imagine the possibilities! Not only will we educate our communities about deforestation, but we can also work together to save trees! Together, we can create a global movement and take DeforestACTION!

Remember – we will be presenting our final action plan to the world at the Kick-Off virtual conference on June 4^th!

Congratulations to the top three winners!

Posted by sarahassan on 29 Apr 2010

Only a Few Days Left to Vote!

Hey everyone! Thanks again for making the first DeforestACTION virtual conference a success! I'm really excited by all of the ideas present! There are only a few more days left to vote - the winner will be announced on May 3rd!

As a reminder, here is a breakdown of each of the proposals:

Ngee Ann Secondary – (Singapore) – Project Goals: URBAN JUNGLE - Reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to deforestation, to encourage a green lifestyle and to educate people on the importance of potting a plant.

Silverton Primary (Australia) – Project Goals: Focus on raising awareness of the connection between palm oil production and deforestation, and ensuring supermarkets and the government guarantee that 25% of global palm oil production is from CSPO (Certified Sustainable Palm Oil).

Tree Safe (Student Leadership Team) – Project Goals: The ‘Tree Safe’ Idea is getting children around the globe to buy a tree which is to be cut down, from anywhere in the world and protect it in order to save the tree from being logged.

Dallas Primary School (Australia) – Project Goals: Enhancing awareness, creating local change and developing global alliances. This can be done through a series of different activities and campaigns: developing videos about human involvement in and actions taken to combat deforestation locally, create a series of quilt patches, and developing universally-recognizable symbols to inform consumers on products that are detrimental to the forest. Important within all these actions is the use of social-networking technology to enable collaboration and advocacy.

Royal College (Sri Lanka) – Project Goals: To prevent deforestation by taking care of existing trees, running advocacy campaigns for reforestation, engaging in reforestation, altering farming practices, using recycled items and exploring other energy sources instead of wood.

Crescent Girls School (Singapore) – Project Goals: The government will keep a record of every tree in their country, by marking each tree and keeping the record filed confidentially. Anyone who wishes to cut down a tree must seek permission from the government, and all planted trees must be registered. Failure to comply with the aforementioned conditions would instigate legal action.

Muntinlupa Science High School (Philippines) – Project Goals: Undertaking innovative activites to prevent deforestation, such as turning flour bags into hand bags (artistic projects), one-day of activities to educate the entire school on deforestation, which activities such as an “EnviRUNment” (marathon that involves picking up trash while spreading awareness about deforestation, and an “amazing race” inspired activity of answering trivia related to deforestation)

Hermit Park State Primary School (Australia) – Project Goals: Engaging in environmental lessons to other classes in the school; using paper on both side.

Good luck!

Posted by sarahassan on 22 Apr 2010

Vote For DeforestACTION!

Congratulations to all schools for sharing their wonderful presentations and innovative ideas on how to take deforestACTION! To see all of the presentations once again, please check out the files section.

It's now time to vote! You will be voting both for the plan of action you think the SHOUT school community should take, as well as for your favourite logo to represent your action!

To vote for your favourite plan and logo, please click here.

Voting will be from April 22nd to May 3rd 2010. We will announce the winning plan and logo on May 3rd! Good luck to all schools!

Posted by sarahassan on 22 Apr 2010

THANK YOU!

Despite the techincal difficulties (due to the storms in New Zealand!), thank you students, mentors, and teachers for your participation, your inspiration, and most of all, your dedication. As Amanda MacKenzie said in her speech, "the forests are the lungs of the world" - let's make this happen!

In friendship,

Sara, Terry and the Steering Committee of the DeforestACTION Collaboration

Posted by sarahassan on 21 Apr 2010

Watch and Participate in the Microsoft SHOUT DeforestACTION Broadcast Live!

Don't forget you can also participate in the conference by engaging in a live chat or sharing your thoughts on the discussion boards! Schools that are not able to participate in the video conference, but wish to observe, can watch the live feed of the video conference below:

Posted by sarahassan on 18 Apr 2010

Welcome to the Microsoft SHOUT DeforestACTION Collaboration!

The DeforestACTION Collaboration is a space for you to:

Become INSPIRED by the wonders of the forest;
Become INFORMED by understanding the causes, impacts and politics of deforestation at the local and global level;
Become INVOLED with students from around the world in creating a global action plan against deforestation.

In this space, you can:

Create a DeforestACTION blog for your school to share their ideas;
Check out games, videos and websites about deforestation in bookmarks;
Ask questions and share your thoughts with other students as well as answer assignment questions on the discussion boards;
Post and comment on deforestation images, art work and pictures in the gallery;
Upload and share your files and writing related to deforestation;
Use the map to tell us where you are from; and
Engage in real-time text and video chat.

Connect with eachother from around the world and take deforestACTION!

Educators: There are several activities listed in the Assignments section that can be conducted with your students. Please note that activities marked with a P are for primary students, and S for secondary students. For example, Activity P1 is the first activity for primary students, while S3 is the third activity for secondary students.