No-Waste Thanksgiving

I don't know about your Thanksgiving traditions, but as for many Americans, I'm nearly certain they center around the food, the feast, the festivities. And usually, lots of lots of all of that. If your house is like mine--typically too much of it!

Typically, across the United States, 40% of all food goes to waste. This stems from super-sized portions at restaurants, expiration dates, over-shopping, and on holidays like Thanksgiving, planning too much for the crew coming to you.


With all of that in mind, here are some tips to go about having a no-waste Thanksgiving (and other feasts and feeding frenzies throughout the year:

FoodTank Resources:

• This statistic from FoodTank was startling:  "Each year, consumers purchase over 700 million pounds of turkey, according to the National Turkey Federation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that 35 percent of the meat purchased does not get eaten–ending up in landfills, along with sweet potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, and other holiday fare."
• In addition to facts like that above, there are a slew of practical ideas you can do, down to donating your leftovers to local food banks
• FoodTank provides 14 apps to help you link your excess food to your smartphone.

RecycleNation provides 8 ideas on how hone in on your planning to help cut down on too many leftovers. They include:

• checking your guest list, 
• turkey shopping for your numbers, 
• consider going meat free, 
• watching for dishes that need special ingredients (where the rest then gets wasted), 
• making stock with the bones or using FindAComposter to repurpose that food waste,
• sending leftovers home with your guests,
• getting creative with the leftovers you are left with!
• using the dishwasher versus handwashing--it's more water efficient!

Hungry Harvest's variation to the theme is also to freeze whatever leftovers you know you aren't going to get to. Additionally, bumping up those veggies always helps! MindBodyGreen and Wild Minimalist, agree, adding in letting natural items inspire your decor (versus anything store-bought or plastic).

Popular Science also included a lot of the ideas above (including finding a composting center) and this per person serving:

• 1 lb turkey per person
• Proteins 4-8 oz (1/2 cup to 1 cup)
• Starches 4-8 oz
• Vegetables 4-6 oz

However my favorite share of theirs was their link to the Guest-imator tool, a calculator designed to help you plan your Thanksgiving menu. You plug in # eaters (by small, average, and big eaters), amount of leftovers, and the type of menu you want: "Classic Thanksgiving," "Veggie Paradise." and "Smorgasbord" w/a little bit of everything. I'm definitely going to check that one out!

Whatever you plan for this Thanksgiving ahead, may your meal be plentiful, just not overflowing! Think largely while you eat lightly--maybe still a feast for you, but lightening the load on our planet!

Clipart from http://www.lovethispic.com/image/44755/snoopy-and-charlie-brown-thanksgiving; http://clipart-library.com/snoopy-thanksgiving-cliparts.html; Guest-imator image from https://savethefood.com/guestimator; video from https://youtu.be/z1X-HWPbeD4

The Dynamic Duo of Tech Museums: The Tech Museum of Innovation & The Computer History Museum

I've talked about Dynamic Duo's before, both here and here.

I think I may have landed the "edtech-ie-est" duo of them all.  The Tech Museum of Innovation (in San Jose) and the Computer History Museum (in Mountain View, CA). Located a mere 13 miles from each other, in the heart of Silicon Valley, they work together nicely to give you a view of our techie past and take you well into our techie present and future.

As you can imagine, my trek to San Francisco & Silicon Valley certainly included the two of these museums... and a crazy number of photos taken at both. If you ever have the chance to visit in person, you should.

The Computer History Museum (CHM)

Exhibits while I was there:

• Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing: From the abacus to mainframes to where we are today! This is where I spent the most time. It was amazing and awe-inspiring to be surrounded by the number of artifacts (approximately 1,100...including the 1978 Merlin, which I loved as a kid!)
• Make Software: Change the World
• Thinking Big: Ada Lovelace: Dating back to the mid 1800s, Ada was a mathematician and a woman ahead of her time. 
• Where To? Another favored area, where you got the opportunity to sit in a self-driving car. While in the Silicon Valley area, we actually saw two of these on the streets!!
• IBM 1401 Demo Lab: This room-sized computer takes you literally back in time to 1959
• PDP-1 Demo Lab: Another flashback to 1959 and the "one-ton minicomputer." These two rooms really show you how far we have come (as I took a picture of them on my smartphone hand-held computer!)

Resources for You To Explore:

• Education Programs Overview
• Visits or Workshops for K-12 & also College Groups.
• One hour Beam Virtual Tours can be scheduled (at least 4 weeks in advance) for Mondays at 10 am PST. This involves a "telepresence robot," named Beam, who will drive you through parts of the museum with a docent! (This is totally on my radar to check into!)
• Resources for Educators including tool kits and educator newsletters.
• CHM Live: "High Tech Luminaries" share stories and more at the Museum. These are scheduled events on the calendar, or check out videos of these visits on the CHM YouTube channel
• CHM Collections
• Online Exhibits

The Tech Museum of Innovation

The Tech Tag: Coming home with "digital mementos" of our experience there was pretty darn cool.

The Exhibits while I was there: 

• BioDesign Studio
• Body Metrics
• Body Worlds Decoded: This was incredible with the plastinated bodies and slices of true parts. They also provided you with a tablet so you could see artificial reality images popping up on hot spots right there in the museum to truly make the learning come to life! I also liked the huge, table-sized touch screen computer where you could see right inside the human body!
• Cyber Detectives: Perfect for anyone who likes code breaking!
• Exploration Gallery: The Shake Platform simulated what a California Earthquake feels like. Feeling that magnitude of 6.7 was stronger than this Maryland and Midwest girl has ever felt!!
  
• Innovations in Health Care: Another one of my favorite exhibit. This is always where I feel innovation is going to be the key to solving so many of our global issues.
• Reboot Reality: "A Digital Experience Lab" where you can experience "immersive media." We loved the Animaker, where you used Legos to create animals, then it virtually created that animal from scanning your Legos, then popped it up on the animated big screen!
• Social Robots
• The Tech for Global Good
• The Tech Studio (A Maker Space on steroids, with just about any material you could think of to build with!)
• Unfortunately, the IMAX was down until November 2018 for renovations.

Resources for You To Explore:

• Overviews on the multitudes of exhibits (complete with videos)
• Bowers Institute of Professional Development--both workshops and online resources for teachers
• Tech Academies: STEM Resources for students and teachers
• Field trip & membership information for the locals, as well as Tech challenges and Family Math/Engineering experiences

Luckily though for the rest of us, there are so many online resources, you can soak it up from... you computer, of course!


Images from my camera! Compilations made using the LiPix app.  Logos from each museum's website!

Bill Nye's Nat Geo Explorer's "Meltdown"

This past Sunday night (November 1st), over at the National Geographic Channel, you could find Bill Nye lying on a couch.  He was stretched back on his therapist's couch, bemoaning how he was feeling with the angst & grief of his planet.  His therapist, Arnold Schwarzenegger, told him that what he is facing is "climate change grief."  Arnold told him (as only "Ahr-nold" can do) that he's going through the 5 stages of mourning about climate change:

1. denial
2. anger
3. bargaining
4. depression
5. acceptance

It is from the couch of the therapist's office that Sunday night's "Meltdown" began, from National Geographics' Channel's show Explorer.

Although the show is a little humorous in places, it certainly isn't humorous about the loss, potential future loss, & subsequent grief we will face if we continue on the trajectory we are currently on.  The stunning quote from NatGeo's own web news article by Michael Greshko states:

"According to the National Wildlife Federation, more than 200 million Americans likely will bear some mental health hiccup because of climate change and related events."

That's a lot of people, and a lot of hiccups.

If you haven't seen the show, check the listings to see if/when it is going to be replayed.
Sunday, Nov. 8th 9 am EST looks like it might be the next time it plays.

In the meantime, check out:

The "Cool It!" Special Issue of National Geographic's Magazine--centered around climate change.  Check out the interactives & online additions here.

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Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEoZV4htuXo, pic from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/10/151131-climate-change-grief-bill-nye-explorer-television/

7.2+ Billion & Counting

Nearly 2 years ago (almost to the swiftly approaching day) on October 31, 2011 it was projected that we reached 7 billion people planet-wide. Here's an anticipated infographic from that time period 2 years ago.

Where are we now--just 2 years later?  A good 265,000,000 more people and counting...by the second!!  That rounds up 7,300,000,000 people! That's 7-point-3 BILLION people. To see exactly where we are, population-wise, the Worldometers website can show you how swiftly it changes by the second.  In the time it took me to write this piece, the population jumped well over 2000 people.

According to the UN World Population Report, here in 2014, we are only 11 years from a predicted 8 billion by the year 2025.  Future plans?  If current trends continue:  9 billion by 2050.  10 billion around 2081,  And 11 billion by 2100.  Now, while I won't live to see 2100, that's only 86 years from where I'm sitting.  My children might not see it, but my unborn grandkids probably will.  So 2 generations from now, we'll be on the rise of over 3 billion people (which is just under half of our current human population of 7.265 billion people right now).

I don't know about you, and I don't know about my unborn grandkids, but I suspect none of us (or them) will want to live like sardines.  How will we fit?  What will the impacts be on our resources and the environment.  How are we going to generate that much "stuff" with all our material desires for "stuff" in just 86 year.  Houston, we have a problem here.  We are only one planet of one size.  What's it going to take to stop it, and slow down that Worldometer clock?!?!

And given what we are doing currently to our planet (with refusal to truly address global issues of pollution, deforestation, marine debris, climate change, energy consumption, and more), what will the planet we have created look like, 86 years from now?

Images:  In 5 minutes: 7 Billion People from http://allinfographics.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/population-in-5-minutes-infographic.jpg;  Worldometers logo from http://www.worldometers.info/img/logo-en12.gif, 7 billion people:  ipad app:  http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/7-billion

Thanksgiving Eco Stats

An interesting article came out a week and change ago in the Washington Post.  It detailed the environmental cost of Thanksgiving Dinner.  Back in the day with the Wampanogs & the Pilgrims, the carbon footprint at the first Thanksgiving was incredibly low...however these days, of course things are a tad different.

The Washington Post article computed food miles of some of the Tgiving staples, and then compared them with data from the Environmental Working Group in order to break down the amount of fossil fuels used to get things from field and farm to supermarket to your table.  Here's a graphic I created using the iPad app Skitch and the data from the Post article.  Needless to say, the carbon cost of your Thanksgiving feast adds up quickly--and that's not even looking at the caloric cost!

Moral of the story:  reminds you that no matter how yummy it is... everything comes at a cost!  Thinking "green" happens on every scene.

Original pic from http://www.bettycrocker.com/menus-holidays-parties/mhplibrary/holidays/bettys-guide-to-hosting-your-first-thanksgiving, doctored by me with the Skitch iPad app using the data from the Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/the-environmental-costs-of-a-thanksgiving-meal-food-miles-and-other-damage/2013/11/11/0d861954-44ee-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html).

 First Thanksgiving pic from http://www.annmcgovern.com/?qatags=the-pilgrims-first-thanksgiving

Cut Your Trash Impact--There's an App For That

In today's world of smartphones, iPads, Kindle Fires and more, it seems like the latest joke is "There's an app for that."  Well, it's true when it comes to going green--at least it is over at Ocean Conservancy.

Just like a pebble thrown out in the water can make a vast, far-reaching impact, so can Rippl, the Ocean Concervancy's newest app. Using their free app, you can build in reminders, track your progress, and help you build habits.  Check out their mini-video:



From their website, Rippl's highlight's include: 

• Free green living tips to improve daily habits;
• Goal setting capability to track your anti-trash impact;
• Alerts you can customize to help you schedule reminders and build habits;
• Recommendations backed by science to help you work toward a healthier planet
• Online opportunities for you to build your green community & share personal sustainability successes!

So it seems like a quick visit the app store  might be in order to help your smartphone make YOU smarter and greener, living a more sustainable lifestyle!!


Image and video from http://www.oceanconservancy.org/.  

Marvy Math Month @ Eagle Cove School!

January 31st finds us at the end of Math Month at Eagle Cove School.  Tomorrow, February 1st, is the day the last projects are due in from our PreK to 5th grade population.  All classes worked together to put a project or two together (to find out more, see my Jan. 29th "Math Month Meets Eco-Stats & A Touch of Tech" blog article), while our 2nd to 5th graders also worked on individual projects as well.  Even our youngest PreK'ers made mitten graphs and button-clad snowmen.  Our 8-paneled stage enclosure is filling up nicely, with more to come tomorrow, for sure!

"Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."              ~Albert Einstein

No matter how many years these boards get filled (and this is my 4th of being in charge of cheerleading this month and seeing that all projects get hung), and I swear, each year tops the one before it!  So many neat, new, original project ideas... from individual students as well as from classrooms as a group, art, science, and more! And even more in-class projects in the books we read in library, the songs we sing and play in music, the rhythm we count out in gymnastics in PE, and the foreign words we count in Spanish! 

Yes, yes indeed... it's a marvelous, mega, math world in which we at Eagle Cove School live... and we love, love, love it!!  

"Go down deep enough into anything & you will find mathematics." ~ Dean Schlicter

Photo from my camera, from my school!

Series 7 Billion--Part 2 of 7

Here in the aftermath of Halloween, late night trick or treating (on a school night, no less), and sugar highs and lows, GTG is dedicated this week to checking out 7 billion--what it looks like in terms of population, and what that means for our planet. So, here's some "food for thought" and a few more finds (no, not quite 7 billion!) as you raid your Halloween stash!

1.  7 Billion and Me is a site with a boatload of information.  Included is yet another running tally of our population growth, along with a bunch of other resources as well.  (Kids do indeed find it pretty amazing as to how fast those counters move!).  You can also include your demographics (including your birth date) to determine just how exactly 7 billion affects you.  The website was created by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and it builds a bit of perspective on where 1 person can fit into the mix.  You also could experiment with your students to see how the results change if you vary the demographics and home countries!!

2.  The World of 7 Billion is another site, with a gazillion more goodies.  Among other things there, you can find an interactive wall chart showcasing a timeline of population growth, middle & high school lesson plans, and activities for school wide events.  You can also find student contest videos that were submitted by high school students back in May 2011 voicing how they, as students, could make a plan to be part of the global population situation.

3.  On Free Technology for Teachers yesterday, Richard  Byrne highlighted a story on NPR, Visualizing How a Population Grows to 7 Billion.  It included a great video, which you can check out there, or here below.



Pic with numbered signs equalling 7 billion from http://www.unfpa.org/public/home, Video from NPR, and World of 7 Billion from www.worldof7billion.org .

Earth Day is On Its Way: Doing the Math

For Easter, my kids were giddy as can be about their chocolate finds:  filled eggs, bunnies, & baskets.  As for me, I perhaps had the same level of excitement as they did by the gift my father-in-law gave me:  the National Geographic quarterly Special Issue--Water: Our Thirsty World.  Not only was there this amazing fold-out map of the world rivers--which I teach--but on the flip side of it, there was an amazing poster of "Hidden Water."  In super-sized droplets, the poster notes the amounts of gallons of "virtual water" it takes to produce different items from beginning to end, including planting, raising, sometimes feeding, and factory production of an item.

For example:  1 pound of beef and some potatoes with a glass of wine could set you back 248 gallons of water:  185 gallons (the beef) + 31 gallons (the potatoes) + 32 gallons (the wine).   And, depending on your dining attire, you could be out 3,666 gallons of water just wearing a cotton shirt (766 gal./water) and a pair of jeans (2,900 gallons).  That's a mind-boggling amount of water!  You can do  further H2O investigations at National Geographic's interactive website:  http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/freshwater/embedded-water/

Do your own math:  discover your own "Water Footprint" by going to http://www.h2oconserve.org/home.php.  While you're using this Water Calculator, the site gives you helpful hints on how to diminish your water usage.  The H2O Conserve website also has an education and kids section, the latter of which has a cute video featuring "Aqua," an 8-year old gal in search of water info. A cute little video to show your kids or your classroom.  The education section has a 17-page water curriculum complete with student pages and project ideas.  The site also recommends (as do I) a visit to Water: H2O = Life, the online information about the international traveling exhibit from New York's American Museum of Natural History

While you're calculating, you can't just stop at your Water Footprint calculation.  The next logical & important stop is the Carbon Footprint Calculator.  You can find a kid-friendly calculator at http://eeweek.org/carbon_calculator.  Input your numbers and the calculator will do the math for you, telling you approximately how many planets worth of energy you are using as compared to others nation-wide.

Of course, once you do all of these calculations, you'll see that "doing the math" is the easy part.  It's important to decide for yourself...what are you going to do with that information??  What changes can and will you make?

Pictures from http://transitionwestmarin.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/carbon-calculator.jpg, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/, http://eeweek.org/carbon_calculator, and http://www.h2oconserve.org/home.php%20