Category: Education

Hope and Heroes

Students' descriptions of inspiring people and organizations

Join the conversation! Who or what gets you excited about sustainability? Students in the Environmental Sustainability in Action class share their thoughts. Replies and additional examples welcome! Please include your name and DA affiliation with your post. I believe that hope the most important thing in climate actions because it is the path to motivation …

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Sampson County: Bread Basket and Dumping Ground of NC

Biogas digester

“Should I stay or leave?” That is the question that Denise Robinson from the Environmental Justice Community Action Network (EJCAN) leading us through Sampson county asks herself every day. With the smell from the hog waste and landfill a constant presence, and accessing clean water and pure air almost impossible, it is an understandable question. …

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Educating for Sustainability Workshop

Brian and Amani

Such positive, inspiring, highly informed, data-based and comprehensive content. Not just science-y stuff, as many anticipated. There’s an entry point for all participants. Andrea Caruso, US Science On October 2-3, DA will offer Jaimie Cloud’s Introduction to Educating for Sustainability. This workshop was first held at DA in August 2022, when some 45 members of …

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Students Present to Parents

students presenting to audience of parents

What is sustainability and why does it matter? By Rasna Prakash, President, DA Parents Association The DA Parents Association was fortunate to hear from the Upper School sustainability students at our December meeting.  Thomas Pollard ’24, Cana Yao ’26, Miller Roessler ’24 and Amelia Fay ’25 provided information to parents and caregivers about the opportunities …

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“We Aren’t Doing This Alone”: Duke Energy Conference Field Trip

By Kiersten Hackman and CJ Nwafor Last Wednesday, November 9th, 2022, was a Community Day for underclassmen and a mental health day for juniors and seniors, but to many in the Environmental Sustainability in Action class, it was an unprecedented opportunity to learn and engage with the greatest issue of our era: climate change. What: …

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No Ocean of Plastic

Last week I had a coaching session with Jaimie Cloud, who is advising DA about our curriculum and culture for sustainability. Our conversation was helpful on multiple fronts, but one detail particularly stuck with me. Jaimie mentioned the widely quoted finding that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050. For …

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Faculty Summer Readings on Sustainability Theme

Each year, Durham Academy kicks off our return to school with discussions of summer reading. Most folks think that summer reading remains a student experience, working through an assigned text to be ready to discuss it in first week English classes, but faculty and staff do summer reading, too! Usually we pick a focus for …

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Change Your Search – Plant Trees

Carbon Almanac book cover

I have long read Seth Godin’s writings; each day, Seth sends me a message to my inbox with his thought for the day. Over the summer, I read about his work with the crew working on the book and website The Carbon Almanac. I have been reading a lot of books lately about Climate Change. …

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We’re all in this together!

Crowd of people at tables in workshop

Lessons from the Educating for Sustainability workshop What does it mean to Educate for Sustainability? On August 9th and 10th, 2022, DA faculty and staff, upper school students, and parents, welcomed Jaimie Cloud of the Cloud Institute for Sustainable Education to lead us in answering this question for ourselves.  While many folks anticipated hearing the …

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Coming soon to a classroom near you!

DA Upper School elective course, fall 2022 Instructor: Tina Bessias, DA Sustainability Coordinator and Independent Study Coordinator Students in this course will be at the center of Durham Academy’s transition to environmental sustainability. Whether you are new to sustainability or an experienced leader,  you will grow your knowledge base and develop skills that are much in …

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