San Diego at Powershift 2011

Powershift 2011 kicks off today, bringing 10,000 people to Washington, DC to discuss, learn, and lobby for “green” and energy issues happening in the US. My students and I have traveled from San Diego to present Climate Change Research at the conference.  Our presence is important for many reasons, but for the sake of my business it is important because my students will be the few if not only high school aged students in attendance. As high school students attending and presenting my students are setting a new standard for the 10,000 college and post college attendees, and also blazing the trail for other high school students around the country. Our attendance also helps justify the need to engage and educate the youth on the environmental issues that our currently happening; the youth wants to do their part too and we need to help them.

This year’s Powershift brings speeches from former Vice President Al Gore, Van Jones, and current EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson…Why is it important to have such people speaking at a conference, is it like they are preaching to the choir? Well yes and no, speaking to choir yes, but they are also connecting with the choir on a personal level and showing them that not just the “average Joe” is trying to educate and bring awareness to these issues. Along with these speakers we will hear from Kal Penn, Kumar from the Harold & Kumar Movies. Which brings me to my next point, using the entertainment industry to educate and entertain our youth.

At Powershift 2009 “The Roots” rocked out with Powershift attendees in the name of being and going green. The concerts was filled and everyone from the older attendees to my students at that time rocked out with them and enjoyed the concert, but also became more educated and pumped up on being and going green. Powershift already has the right idea using entertainers to strengthen the numbers of attendance to such a controversial, yet important issue of going green. More often than not the youth need know that what they are doing is considered “cool” so what better way than to use the entertainers they see as “cool”.  I’ m excited to see who is lined up to perform this year, but I am sure whoever it is will reach those who already sure of their “green” advocacy to those who are just beginning to explore “green”, and I’m sure some new “green” advocates will be added to this list.

For more information on Powershift 2011 check out the official site here http://www.powershift2011.org/ and see for yourself how you can be educated and entertained at the same time. 

Sony Promotes Green Awareness

This weekend I received an email form Sony about an upcoming Social Media Camp they are hosting here in San Diego. My first thought was this would definitely be something for me attend to learn more about Social Media for my personal reason and knowledge for my current and future job. Working with the youth knowing as much as I can about Social Media will only make my job easier and help me to build a stronger relationship with them.  Learning more about Social Media will also help me with my recruitment for future students, and marketing and advertising for my program. This is especially important because my job is with a non profit organization and finding free to minimal cost ways of marketing is a huge plus and this money can be spent on program improvements. Most importantly Social Media provides a "green" marketing source, which is the main focus of my program.

As I kept reading the email, it said the camp would take place at Sony Electronic’s magnificent LEED certified building and this really wowed me and got my brain thinking; Sony has LEED certified building! LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. I had no idea Sony was doing their part to be more “green” and definitely didn’t know they had LEED build.  So now my brain went from just learning about Social Media to learning about Social Media and Sony’s LEED certified building.  Once I know the details to Sony’s LEED building then I can tell my students about it and potentially have a field trip to the building for 1^st hand knowledge and experience. The students will be able to see how a brand such as Sony can be green and for the environment, yet still be one of the top brand names in each of its industry types. As my students are already green conscious this can also give them ideas on green jobs that are not necessarily in the sciences but in technology, media, marketing, etc. I now have a major Brand to use an example for my personal business, educating the youth on green awareness through the entertainment industry.

I know can’t wait even more for this camp and I will am sure it will be a valuable learning experience. For more details on the camp checkout http://socialmediaclub.org/event/social-media-camp-san-diego 

Green Education & Entertainment

The Green industry is a growing one because of that this allows for many different new areas of the industry are always coming up. My brand industry focus is on education and entertainment.  While green education is a little more common, more specifically in schools, after school programs, and environmental agencies, green entertainment is not is not. But what is green entertainment exactly? For me this form entertainment is both educating and entertaining while focusing on being green. For example a concert to raise money for a specific environmental issue, this educates on the issue and the musicians entertain.  As far as I knew there was not a specific term or category for this type of entertainment, Green Entertainment.  

That was until I came across greenandsave.com, which “strives to inform the public about eco-conscious living, environmental matters, world issues, energy efficiency, green innovations, health issues, and more.” Under green entertainment you have the following categories: sports, green people, education, and green news. Sports, green people, and education are exactly what I was looking for. The information in each of these categories is a valuable part of how I will work with the green entertainment industry. Its good see I am not the only person thinking this way.

Green and Save has adds from business and schools that are related to “green”.  I find this to be a “no brainer” if you will but, more specifically the type of ads they have is important.  For education the site has an ad for a Master in Global Environmental Change. This shows me they are trying to appeal to people with their Bachelor’s and thinking of their Master’s in something “green”. It also shows me Green and Save knows who their target market is and more importantly who is most likely to be their target audience.

The sites, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and YouTube are social media networks in which

Green and Save is a member of. Using social media networks to help build and strengthen your brand name is something I will do with my own brand. This is also free marketing and advertising which allows you potentially reach everyone in the world who is also a member of the networks.  Now anyone can be global, so our issues can be heard globally other than from the news perspective, allowing for potential global help, well I like to think so. Even if social media networks don’t ignite a global shift in going green, the potential for such unity is there and for that simple reason you almost have to be a member of some social media network to strengthen your brand name and keep up with industry.

Green and Save ‘s marketing and social media network teams have done their job, I am going follow them on their social media networks and increase my knowledge in Green Entertainment.

Checkout Green and Save for yourself @ http://www.greenandsave.com/news

Ken Robinson: Our Current Education System

I watched to a blog video on TED.com by Ken Robinson about education paradigms and he answered questions I personally had about our Education system in the United States. Ken Robinson discussed how our education system is essentially keeping our children’s education potential to a minimum.  The main points I took from the video were the current education system is outdated, and the topic of “divergent thinking”.

Ken points out how the current education system is failing our children and is based on separating each child and prejudging their educational capacity. For this reason the smart are getting smarter, while the others are staying at the same level or falling behind. A study was done asking kindergartners how many uses for a paper clip they could think of.  98% gave 200 or more uses putting them at genius intellectual level. The study continued retesting every 5 years until they were 15, and every 5 years the number scoring 200 decreased. Ken says this digression is because age 15 most of us have some type of formal education, which teaches there is one answer and one answer only.  Which brings me to my next point of “divergent thinking”.

“Divergent thinking is not the same thing as creative thinking” Ken states. Divergent thinking is seeing many answers to a solution and many different solutions that may work. Ken discusses how divergent thinking is good and many children think this way but are essential told not to think this way.  Instead they are told again there is one answer and one answer only. Divergent thinking is necessary to keep up with world and economy today, but because children are being program to only think of one answer they are not using their creative like they should be.

Being a director of an education program this subject matter is very important to me, and how Ken broke down the current education system made sense to me because I can relate to what he was saying.  I have students that go to Creative Arts Schools and students that attend traditional schools, and those at the creative arts schools tend to use more divergent thinking when it comes to problem solving. I am not an expert nor have I done a study, but after watching the video a lot of the different ways my students problem solve made more sense to me. Encouraging “divergent thinking” is a positive move in changing and potentially bettering our current education system.

Watch the full video at

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html 

Walk the Watershed 2011

Walk the Watershed 2011 took place yesterday at Swan Canyon, part of the Pueblo Watershed in San Diego, Ca. Students from the Elementary Institute of Science, Ocean Discovery, and Outside the Lens lead the community on tours through Swan Canyon explaining what a watershed is and the importance of keeping our watersheds healthy. So what is a watershed? A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place, for Swan Canyon going into the San Day Bay and Pacific Ocean. After students lead the tours, students and community members participated in watershed restoration, removing non-native plants, planting native plants, and removing trash from the Canyon. Canyon trails were made to help with soil erosion and over a thousand pounds of trash was removed from the Canyon. At the end of the restoration everyone enjoyed food and word from the neighboring district councilman, Councilman Tony Young. 

This is the third year the event has taken place and each year the numbers attending rises and the watershed continues to prosper in health. This year we noticed an increase in youth participants, which was reassuring that some of our efforts to educate and get the youth more involved with their environment is working. As I continue to partner on the event I hope to continue to see the youth evolvement grow as well as the Canyons health. To find out more about the event you can visit sdcoastkeeper.org. 

Energy Action Coalition

Energy Action Coalition, “a coalition of 50 youth-led environmental and social justice groups working together to build the youth clean energy and climate movement”, is an organization I have known about and participated with since 2009.  In 2009 I had the opportunity to attend Powershift 2009 in Washington, DC, my fist time hearing about and participating with the organization.  Since then I have been receiving emails and updates on the energy issues we learned about at Powershift 2009.  Along with these emails I received emails about plans for Powershift 2011, which will also be held in Washington, DC. After receiving emails I wanted to learn more about what the upcoming Powershift would focus on, but when I went to the Energy Action Coalition website I found very little about Powershift 2011. I found a lot of information about what the Coalition is doing and issues they are focusing on, and information from Powershift 2011.  I thought to myself how Powershift 2009 had much more web marketing so why doesn’t Powershift 2011 have just as much? I realized a couple weeks back that I had scene Powershift 2011 entered in the Pepsi Refresh Project to raise money for the event.

I came to the obvious conclusion that for this Powershift the Energy Action Coalition has a reduced budget from 2009, but why is that? Also instead of having the conference inside the Convention Center like before this time it will be held in the DC United Professional Soccer Team’s Stadium. But that could be a good thing in anticipation for a larger turnout, and if they plan on using the inside of the stadium and box seating for break out session it could definitely work in there favor. Case in point they would not have rent out a larger venue for performance because the soccer field is more than big enough to setup stage and conference participants would not have to leave to attend the performance.

I think I understand the change in location, but I can’t get over the decrease in marketing and promotion; maybe it will pick up in January 2011. Powershift 2009 was such a success and broke records from Powershift 2007, so I find it hard to believe a conference is doing so well wouldn’t at least maintain or increase its marketing after such success. I don’t know but hopefully Powershift 2011 will be a success like its predecessor’s. I will be sure to give all the details from the conference and a special note for my students who hope to present Climate Change Research they did in Glacier National Park at the conference.

References:

http://energyactioncoalition.org/about

http://www.refresheverything.com/categories/the-planet

Green Celebrities!

     On Thursday November 25 NBC News San Diego posted an article title “A Day Without Plastics”. The article caught my eye because not having plastic bags would change the Green industry for the better. After reading the article I noticed a section titled, “Green Celebrities”, it was perfect! What better way to encourage and inspire the youth to be more “green” than to show them the people they watch and look up to at that age, the celebrities. Since becoming the director of a science program for high school students that focuses on “Green Living”, I have thought about how to get Celebrities and the Youth connected on going green. 

     Working with my students I have a greater appreciation of how today’s celebrities can influence the “cool “ kids and the “un cool” kids, but more importantly how they are influencing them. Discussion are no longer just about the celebrities are wearing, but how they eat, how they shop, how are they impacting this world are in the discussion about today’s celebrities.  Knowing that it can be pretty clear how something as simple as “Green Celebrities” can have an impact on how the future generations accept and view the green industry.

     The celebrities listed in this section we from all generations and I would say known by today’s youth and older. Celebrities starting with Cameron Diaz going to Larry King to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but more importantly beneath each celebrities photo was a description of what they were doing that was “Green” friendly; “actress Hayden Panettiere is one tough activist. In 2007 she stood toe to toe with Japanese whale and dolphin hunters and blocked them from killing the creatures”-Source: A Day Without Plastic | NBC San Diego.  

     Posting this list of celebrities on popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter could almost be seen as free advertising for the green industry. Whatever issues the celebrities are working on the youth would then become aware of it and become and advocate for the issue them self. Even if it is celebrities making recyclable bags over plastic bags the new fad it gets the youth being both “cool” and “green”.