This is a summary document for a training program we are creating at Rancho Margot in northern Costa Rica -- as part of a global effort to birth "bioregional learning centers" for the spread of regenerative practices.
Guiding the Emergence of Humanity's FutureJoe Brewer
This document is a synthesis of inquiry that incorporates ideas and inspiration from many people. It grew out of conversations with Federico Bellone, Eduard Müller, Juan Sostheim, Melina Angel, Pramod Parajuli, Luis Camargo, Daniel Wahl, Stuart Cowan, and several others. What I learned from this diverse dialogue—accompanied by extensive reading—is that pedagogy is the most important thing to get right for any educational initiative that seeks to cultivate bioregional regeneration.
Pedagogy refers to the many ways of learning and how people evolve in their thoughts, feelings, actions, and social arrangements. It is a multifaceted concept that draws attention to capacities for cooperation, ability to trust others, perspective-taking, and a lot more that must be carefully addressed (and elegantly integrated) in the design of education programs. Pedagogy is often framed as a way to teach a particular concept or subject. I prefer to turn this around and employ it as a design perspective for how to assist the learning process, even if no teacher happens to be involved.
Shared here are some of the key pedagogical insights and thematic elements that have arisen so far in this inquiry. This learning journey is far from complete and will continue well after these words are written to the page. It is my earnest belief that Bioregional Regenerative Training Centers must emerge all over the world as integrative programs that help spread the practices and mindsets for regeneration of human communities and the ecosystems on which they depend for their survival.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
Design Institute for Regenerating the EarthJoe Brewer
This is our mission — regenerate ALL degraded lands on Earth to restore planetary health. Coordinated through bioregional learning centers that organize efforts locally while collaborating with each other across regions.
Guiding the Emergence of Humanity's FutureJoe Brewer
This document is a synthesis of inquiry that incorporates ideas and inspiration from many people. It grew out of conversations with Federico Bellone, Eduard Müller, Juan Sostheim, Melina Angel, Pramod Parajuli, Luis Camargo, Daniel Wahl, Stuart Cowan, and several others. What I learned from this diverse dialogue—accompanied by extensive reading—is that pedagogy is the most important thing to get right for any educational initiative that seeks to cultivate bioregional regeneration.
Pedagogy refers to the many ways of learning and how people evolve in their thoughts, feelings, actions, and social arrangements. It is a multifaceted concept that draws attention to capacities for cooperation, ability to trust others, perspective-taking, and a lot more that must be carefully addressed (and elegantly integrated) in the design of education programs. Pedagogy is often framed as a way to teach a particular concept or subject. I prefer to turn this around and employ it as a design perspective for how to assist the learning process, even if no teacher happens to be involved.
Shared here are some of the key pedagogical insights and thematic elements that have arisen so far in this inquiry. This learning journey is far from complete and will continue well after these words are written to the page. It is my earnest belief that Bioregional Regenerative Training Centers must emerge all over the world as integrative programs that help spread the practices and mindsets for regeneration of human communities and the ecosystems on which they depend for their survival.
Graduate Program in Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This document is a grant application submitted to the John Templeton Foundation proposing the creation of masters and doctoral programs in applied cultural evolution. We have not heard back about whether we will receive funding from them but felt it is worthwhile to share more of our vision with others who might like to collaborate in making this vision a reality.
This is a project outline for the creation of a School for Applied Cultural Evolution that works with the growing network of territorial hubs for bioregional regeneration being launched right now in Costa Rica. It’s purpose is to cultivate and continually improve learning ecosystems spanning across communities that organize their efforts around geographically defined locations where people strive to increase the functional capacities for their landscapes while simultaneously increasing the wellbeing of people living in harmony with them.
Design Institute for Regenerating the EarthJoe Brewer
This is our mission — regenerate ALL degraded lands on Earth to restore planetary health. Coordinated through bioregional learning centers that organize efforts locally while collaborating with each other across regions.
Development, Environment and Sustainabilty–the triumvirate on Geographical FrameProf Ashis Sarkar
Development, Environment and Sustainability form the triumvirate of present day World. If human is to survive and development is to remain sustainable, the geographical issues and concerns should be the thrust of analysis.
The project “Including the Elderly in Community Gardens” was designed to encourage this population group – senior citizens in their “golden years” – to participate in a variety of activities in community gardens and nature sites around Jerusalem. Through these activities the project seeks to increase the active, voluntary participation of the elderly in the greening of Jerusalem, to raise their awareness and commitment to the environment, and to solidify their engaged participation as a cohesive group within the broader community.
The project was initiated and led by the Municipality of Jerusalem, JDC-ESHEL (the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel), the Jerusalem Foundation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Society for the Protection of Nature, with the participation of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Idan, an NGO operating within this sector. (A full list of partners can be provided.)
Socio-Ecological Approaches to Integrated Landscape Management for Conservati...IBRADKolkata
Socio-Ecological Approaches facilitated changes in social order for a well-crafted agronomic intervention
of integrated landscape management and adoption of farming system by the particularly vulnerable tribal groups
PVTGs like Birhore, Kamars, and Lodhas who belonged to the pre-agrarian society. The malnutrition, lack of
opportunity for livelihood, degradation of natural resources, the impact of climate change necessitated launching of
the project for Participatory Action Research to sensitize the tribes, build capacity and involve them as a partner for
the development of social action and appropriate social institutions that helped in the successful organic farming. The
success of such a conservation-based sustainable livelihood program tried initially in three landscapes was adopted
in nine landscapes in three states of India as the “Replicable Model’’.
Participatory Action Research for Sustainable Tribal Livelihood: An Eco Chain...IBRADKolkata
ABSTRACT: The indigenous tribal community and forest have a symbiotic
relationship. Arresting the forest's degradation and development of livelihood option have
been tried with the Santhal in Purulia District of West Bengal as a partner through Participatory
Action Research (PAR). The Eco Chain Approach for creating awareness and SAPTASWAR,
a method to develop appropriate social institution for the conservation of natural resources
and adoption of technology developed by IBRAD, is illustrated with a case study herewith.
It is being carried out as an outcome-oriented intervention and finally generating a new
body of knowledge for replication in the similar context of sustainable livelihood of the
community.
Development, Environment and Sustainabilty–the triumvirate on Geographical FrameProf Ashis Sarkar
Development, Environment and Sustainability form the triumvirate of present day World. If human is to survive and development is to remain sustainable, the geographical issues and concerns should be the thrust of analysis.
The project “Including the Elderly in Community Gardens” was designed to encourage this population group – senior citizens in their “golden years” – to participate in a variety of activities in community gardens and nature sites around Jerusalem. Through these activities the project seeks to increase the active, voluntary participation of the elderly in the greening of Jerusalem, to raise their awareness and commitment to the environment, and to solidify their engaged participation as a cohesive group within the broader community.
The project was initiated and led by the Municipality of Jerusalem, JDC-ESHEL (the Association for the Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel), the Jerusalem Foundation, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Society for the Protection of Nature, with the participation of the Jerusalem Association of Community Councils and Idan, an NGO operating within this sector. (A full list of partners can be provided.)
Socio-Ecological Approaches to Integrated Landscape Management for Conservati...IBRADKolkata
Socio-Ecological Approaches facilitated changes in social order for a well-crafted agronomic intervention
of integrated landscape management and adoption of farming system by the particularly vulnerable tribal groups
PVTGs like Birhore, Kamars, and Lodhas who belonged to the pre-agrarian society. The malnutrition, lack of
opportunity for livelihood, degradation of natural resources, the impact of climate change necessitated launching of
the project for Participatory Action Research to sensitize the tribes, build capacity and involve them as a partner for
the development of social action and appropriate social institutions that helped in the successful organic farming. The
success of such a conservation-based sustainable livelihood program tried initially in three landscapes was adopted
in nine landscapes in three states of India as the “Replicable Model’’.
Participatory Action Research for Sustainable Tribal Livelihood: An Eco Chain...IBRADKolkata
ABSTRACT: The indigenous tribal community and forest have a symbiotic
relationship. Arresting the forest's degradation and development of livelihood option have
been tried with the Santhal in Purulia District of West Bengal as a partner through Participatory
Action Research (PAR). The Eco Chain Approach for creating awareness and SAPTASWAR,
a method to develop appropriate social institution for the conservation of natural resources
and adoption of technology developed by IBRAD, is illustrated with a case study herewith.
It is being carried out as an outcome-oriented intervention and finally generating a new
body of knowledge for replication in the similar context of sustainable livelihood of the
community.
Gaia Education promotes a holistic systems approach to education for sustainable development by:
• developing curricula to empower change makers with inner and outer skills to redesign human presence in a sustainable world.
• facilitating the delivery of transformative learning programmes in response to emerging needs
• disseminating grass-roots wisdom through learning communities.
How Urban Youth Can Be an Engine to Achieve More Sustainable Low Carbon Lifes...ESD UNU-IAS
This presentation was part of the RCE Americas Meeting 2017 in Vancouver, Canada on Sustainable Communities: Exploring the Role of ESD in Development of a “Green Culture”.
The Reciprocal Relationship of Higher Education Institutions and Their Commun...Innovations2Solutions
The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how action-oriented programs in community engagement are a means for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to advance the needs of their organizations. Advancement occurs through dynamic relationships and partnerships with a variety of community stakeholders. The result of this synergy is the enhancement of quality of life and an improved educational climate, which benefits students, staff, faculty and community members.
This is an introduction to the cooperative ownership model for bioregional regeneration in Barichara, Colombia. It explains how we are structuring a relationship between external donors and local stakeholders to engage in territorial-scale reforestation and water security.
Creating A School of Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
This slide deck presents an early draft of ideas for creating a school that is dedicated to helping communities learn how to guide their collective evolution toward health and resilience.
Billion Dollar Proposal for Applied Cultural EvolutionJoe Brewer
Let me begin by acknowledging those who came before me. The runner-up for a 1 billion euro grant from the European Union nearly a decade ago was FuturICT with their vision for modeling complex social systems to avoid (or manage) future economic collapses. So I am not the first person to propose that a massive effort is needed to (a) integrate the social sciences; and (b) do so with motivation to apply what is learned to address extremely difficult problems in the world. With that said, let me now offer my billion dollar proposal that follows in FuturICT’s footsteps. At the time they were competing for substantial funding, I was working with the International Centre for Earth Simulation to build its billion dollar (over a decade) vision for a high-performance computing facility that models the entire Earth in its full complexity. It is from these projects that I draw inspiration for this essay.
Also, a fact that should cause you to sit up straight. The annual budget for CERN (the high-energy particle accelerator in Geneva, Switzerland) was roughly 1.2 billion dollars in 2017. So what I am calling for here is what the European Union spends every single year on the search for fundamental particles for all of humanity to instead address the global ecological crisis and safeguard the future of our species.
Think about this for a moment before you continue reading this essay. It really should cause you to pause and reflect about our current priorities as human beings.
What I propose now is a framework for guiding humanity through the sustainability bottleneck as we navigate the planetary-scale systemic collapse outlined in the previous two essays in this series. If you want to hear me talk through this proposal in a recorded talk, I invite you to watch the 90 minute video on YouTube for a version that I presented to the cognitive science department at the University of California, Merced earlier this year. This essay will go into more detail about the vision I’ve been cultivating for a global network of culture design labs that—as argued in previous essays—I no longer believe is possible to build in the world.
Why I Am No Longer Attempting to Build A Rigorous Science of Social ChangeJoe Brewer
Let me start by saying that literally every social problem humanity now confronts will benefit from taking a rigorous, evidence-based approach to developing interventions that work. If I believe this—you might wonder—why would I title an article this way?
The answer is simply that I have been trying to manifest into the world a science of large-scale social change for 18 years. During that time I have repeatedly found that almost no one gives preference to being effective over the feeling of “being right.” This has been true as I’ve interacted with academic researchers, the staff of numerous nonprofit organizations, program officers and boards of directors at foundations, government personnel providing public services, and among social-impact businesses of various kinds.
So I am shifting gears and no longer attempting to build this grand visionary work. I simply don’t see it as feasible anymore and am going to introspect deeply about what I might do that is of service in times as serious as these when in my heart I now accept that my life’s work cannot succeed. In the spirit of the foundational challenge named in the opening of this essay, I invite you to prove me wrong. Critique and analyze my assumptions. Gather your own data to confront and challenge the argument laid out here. See if you can find a way to birth such an ambitious vision where I have failed to do so.
I would much rather be wrong and see effective solutions emerge than to be right and feel the hollow gratification of saying “I told you so” as the world goes into full-scale systemic collapse in the next few decades.
Onward, fellow humans.
This is an overview report on a 2013 study we conducted of social media content about global warming. It shows that underlying psychological drivers can be discerned from large data sets to reveal implicit structures of a major social discourse.
Culture Design Research Center - A Strategic PlanJoe Brewer
The key to birthing this is human scale. This document outlines a plan and business model for creating the Culture Design Research Center using a simple format and vetted model. The model is “old school” meaning a teacher creates a school of thought by attracting excellent students. It is the students who bring prominence and prestige to the school through their accomplishments.
Seeing Wetiko: Tracking the Spread of Memes on Social MediaJoe Brewer
Our team at /TheRules set out to birth a meme—the concept of “wetiko” from the Algonquin tradition—in a unique campaign earlier this year. We did this by recruiting artists and writers from around the world to create expressions that capture it. As this report shows, we found the meme has qualities that create resistance to spreading. In the process of watching how various people reacted to it, we learned a great deal about the larger cultural patterns that our work seeks to influence.
Our hope was to cultivate a diversity of expressions for this concept, which roughly translates as cultural cannibalism because it describes how pathologies of culture do psychological and environmental harm. In this regard we can call the campaign a success—an online gallery of photographs, songs, 3D interactive constructs, masks, and more can be found on the campaign website.
Yet when we monitored social media activity and other indicators of popularity, it was equally clear that this is an idea with properties that make it feel alien, mushy, too spiritual or exotic to resonate with many audiences. We ran parallel tracks for content that explicitly named Wetiko and content that expressed its conceptual features (like the core logic of cannibalism) without using the term.
What we learned was that the word itself hinders its spreading. At the same time, the deep cultural critique it offers is highly resonant with people around the world who feel anxiety about the ecological crisis, or have been marginalized and excluded by the dominant economic paradigm.
Read on to learn with us. Together we can apply this knowledge in future social change efforts that connect the dots across social movements and issues around the world.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Election ResultsJoe Brewer
We are excited to announce the results are in for our inaugural election—with clear winners for each of the 13 positions on the Executive Committee. This report provides an overview of the outcomes with commentary on the global nature of participation for our membership.
The election was held online for a six week period starting on Monday, July 11th and ending August 22nd. We choose this extended period for voting as many of our members engage in summer field research projects and we wanted to be inclusive for those who might be delayed in responding to email notifications inviting them to vote.
After receiving 379 completed ballots, the results are in.
Cultural Evolution Society 2016 Voter's ManualJoe Brewer
The inaugural election will be held online starting on Monday, July 11th and ending six weeks later on August 22nd. During this time, CES members will have the opportunity to fill out a ballot to select their preferred candidates for the 13 positions on the Executive Committee.
You can use this manual to do the following:
1. Learn about the selection process for nominating and recruiting candidates for this election.
2. Read personal statements from each of the candidates to make informed decisions about which candidate you prefer for each officer position.
The first section, titled Full Disclosure of Election Procedures, explains the steps we took to ensure a fair election while striving to meet an ambitious set of diversity criteria. It is written in the spirit of radical transparency and inclusion to get this society started with the openness and integrity that will be essential to our long-term success as a multidisciplinary scientific (and practitioner) community.
This is followed by another section, called Get to Know Your Candidates, that provides brief bios and personal statements from the 23 candidates running for office in this election. Use these materials to become familiar with the excellent lineup of people who have expressed the passion and commitment to run for one of the officer positions: president, secretary, treasurer, member-at-large, or student representative.
This manual was prepared by the CES Elections Committee to assist with inaugural elections. We hope you find it helpful as you vote for the first Executive Council of the Cultural Evolution Society.
What Are the Grand challenges for Cultural Evolution?Joe Brewer
An ad hoc steering committee initiated steps to form the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) in the summer of 2015. As part of the inaugural proceedings, a survey of CES members was conducted to identify a suite of "grand challenge" problems of broad scientific and social interest that can drive cutting-edge research and practice within the field of cultural evolutionary studies for future decades.
Over the course of several weeks, a total of 236 CES members from around the world completed an online questionnaire in which they could nominate up to ten such challenges, providing a brief description and rationale for each. Additionally, CES members were also asked to indicate their level of understanding and mode of training in core domains (cultural studies and evolutionary theory), how they see their current work fitting into the wider world of cultural evolutionary studies, and how they see themselves contributing to the grand challenges facing the society.
The responses to the initial grand challenges survey are summarized below.
As you read these words there is a group of people shaping how global humanity will think about the economy for the next few decades. No, there’s not a conspiracy theory unfolding here. What I am referring to is the United Nations process for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—where a course is being set for the next fifteen years of intergovernmental coordination for our economic system. This process has been quietly unfolding in the background for several years and will come to completion this fall in New York City.
I am a language researcher who cares about the future of humanity. And I share concern about the risks associated with globalization that currently threaten our collective future—climate disruption, soil depletion, widespread inequality and poverty, regional conflict, rigged financial systems, and more—the very same risks that concern many of the people involved in the SDG process. My primary responsibility at TheRules.org is to study cultural patterns of understanding and unpack their significance. This includes the use of frame analysis where I closely scrutinize the words used to think and talk about important issues.
Frame analysis is the study of mental models for human understanding. The concepts we have in our minds are structured in ways that can be systematically explored to reveal implicit assumptions, logical inferences, value judgments, and moral sentiments. An example relevant to the SDG process is the diversity of mental representations for poverty.
Poverty can be conceptualized as a disease that spreads like an epidemic, a prison to be liberated from, the condition of being incomplete or broken, a magical number measured in some predefined way, and more. We might talk about poverty eradication (treat it like a disease) or as a war (battle with and defeat it). Each meaning brings its own basic assumptions, constraining what poverty is understood to be about and how to deal with it.
Importantly, these meanings can be incorrect, inadequate, and problematic yet still be widely used. Poverty can be treated as merely a part of the natural world, for instance, which conceals the history of poverty creation throughout the last few hundred years where it came into being as a core feature of economic development.
When I looked at the language used to talk about the SDGs I was struck by how much hidden meaning can be found there. The analysis that follows is based on written text for the proposed sustainable development goals. It reveals a great deal about the faulty assumptions that remain uncritically accepted in the process. These assumptions jeopardize the entire effort by leaving out many of the structural factors that create poverty and directly contribute to ecological devastation.
No credible use of the word sustainable would perform in this way. In the following pages I make the case that the SDG process is fundamentally compromised and carries within it the seeds of its own
Exploring the Tools for Meme PropagationJoe Brewer
In this research report, I explore how we currently monitor cultural trends in our campaign efforts. I also want to begin mapping out the tools and capabilities that will be needed to fully operate as a “meme spreading” organization in the days ahead. We recently launched the One Party Planet pamphlet and have gathered a suite of social analytics that reveal much—both as indicators of spreading and as a demonstration of how much deeper and more nuanced our understandings will need to become as we adopt more sophisticated tools for cultural research moving forward.
The approach I take is to compare the spreading of One Party Planet with several memes that went viral as the United States experienced major racial conflict in the last two weeks. By doing so, we can begin to articulate what kinds of monitoring and analytic tools will be needed to fully implement our mission of taking radical ideas into the mainstream.
Why the Framing of Globalization MattersJoe Brewer
This report looks at the different ways globalization has been framed and offers suggestions for how to address systemic risks in our rapidly changing world through better storytelling.
Winning frames of the scottish independence movementJoe Brewer
Here's an analysis I did of the narratives and internet memes that seem to be driving Scotland toward independence. How might we all learn from this about the science of social change?
This report explores the framing of solidarity, and specifically the misleading ways that terms like "Middle Class" and "Global South" conceal more than they reveal about the structure of power in social movements around the world.
Seattle Innovators - A Case Study in Culture DesignJoe Brewer
This case study presents the design process for achieving large-scale collaboration around the vision of making Seattle the first carbon-neutral city in the world.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Normal Labour/ Stages of Labour/ Mechanism of LabourWasim Ak
Normal labor is also termed spontaneous labor, defined as the natural physiological process through which the fetus, placenta, and membranes are expelled from the uterus through the birth canal at term (37 to 42 weeks
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
Francesca Gottschalk - How can education support child empowerment.pptxEduSkills OECD
Francesca Gottschalk from the OECD’s Centre for Educational Research and Innovation presents at the Ask an Expert Webinar: How can education support child empowerment?
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Synthetic Fiber Construction in lab .pptxPavel ( NSTU)
Synthetic fiber production is a fascinating and complex field that blends chemistry, engineering, and environmental science. By understanding these aspects, students can gain a comprehensive view of synthetic fiber production, its impact on society and the environment, and the potential for future innovations. Synthetic fibers play a crucial role in modern society, impacting various aspects of daily life, industry, and the environment. ynthetic fibers are integral to modern life, offering a range of benefits from cost-effectiveness and versatility to innovative applications and performance characteristics. While they pose environmental challenges, ongoing research and development aim to create more sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. Understanding the importance of synthetic fibers helps in appreciating their role in the economy, industry, and daily life, while also emphasizing the need for sustainable practices and innovation.
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
2. Evolving Our future
How We Restore Planetary Health
Our Collective Intent
Humanity is currently living through the most profound period of planetary
change in the history of our species. We have altered or disrupted every major
ecological system of the Earth to the point of overshoot-and-collapse. The only
way to safeguard our future is to regenerate landscapes while cultivating
community health and resilience at regional scales.
Our vision is to create a world-class learning center for regenerative design that
enables entire regions to guide their own evolution toward greater health and
harmony with nature.
Rancho Margot is a living university that currently functions as an eco-hotel and1
self-sufficient farm. It is 440 acres of regenerated landscape in the Agua y Paz
Bioreserve of northern Costa Rica. Thousands of students come here each year2
http://www.ranchomargot.com/1
http://lacgeo.com/agua-y-paz-biosphere-reserve-costa-rica2
!2
3. for immersion programs in sustainable living and as volunteers in work-study
programs.
The next evolutionary step is to become a regenerative campus that trains and
certifies regenerative design practitioners to work with entire communities around
the world. Our core focus is on Latin America where biodiversity hotspots are
threatened and existing land-use practices continue to degrade the environment at
large scales. We have many organizational partners to work with and an emerging
global network of bioregional projects spread across North, Central, and South
America.
Here in Costa Rica we have Universidad para la Cooperacion International (UCI)3
as one of our primary collaborators. UCI has a 25 year track record of project-
based education in sustainable and regenerative development. They have prepared
a generation of leaders who helped set up and manage conservation land, shaped
policy formulation for sustainable development, and influenced the cultural
contexts in which people now prepare for a turbulent future.
UCI is in the process of restructuring its educational programs around regenerative
development for projects, communities, regions, and nations. They are currently
situated on a small campus in the heart of San José with a media center and faculty
who excel at hybrid online/immersion teaching. Rancho Margot has been a
longtime ally with their students and faculty.
Rancho Margot currently has a dormitory to house 40 students at a time and
bungalows for its hotel guests. It needs to expand its capacities for the immediate
work of partnering with UCI to deliver a robust 6-month training program for
regenerating entire bioregions.
The Training Program
There now exist many thousands of landscape restoration projects around the
world. Networks with global reach include Transition Towns, the Global
https://www.uci.ac.cr/3
!3
4. EcoVillage Network, Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and more that could be
named. In each case the focus is on individual projects or communities. You might
find reforestation efforts or a farm converted from traditional to regenerative
agriculture; neighborhood revitalization with green spaces or cleanup of pollution
from a waterway; and other valuable projects for local improvements.
What you won’t find at present is cogent tapestries of collaboration across entire
regions at the level of mountain ranges, coastal estuaries, and watersheds.
Bioregional efforts have been underway for decades in some places—like the ANAI
Project in the Talamanca Mountains of Costa Rica or the Cascadia Independence4
Project of the Pacific Northwest—but they lack the capacities for truly systemic5
transformation that would enable them to scale and replicate across the planet.
One absent capacity is the lack of properly trained regenerative designers who
know how to enter a community and begin to work with its existing assets to guide
such a transformational process. We have been working closely with the
Regenerative Communities Network and the Capital Institute to identify the best6 7
practices in bioregional design where there are already regional-scale collaborations
underway.
These include efforts like Niagara Share that work to remove all toxins from8
manufacturing in their local supply chains in partnership with material science
researchers at the University of Buffalo in New York. And also the work of
Regenerate Costa Rica to help the first country on Earth get within the “doughnut9
economics” targets for societal and ecological health at a national scale.
https://www.anaicostarica.org/4
https://www.cascadianow.org/5
https://regencommunities.net/6
http://capitalinstitute.org/7
https://niagarashare.org/8
http://fieldguide.capitalinstitute.org/costa-rica-hub.html9
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5. Our goal is to launch a 6-month training program in regenerative design that
prepares its graduates to map entire social and ecological systems; guide and
facilitate multi-stakeholder collaborative processes; and implement circular
economy principles for towns and regions where they work.
This will include four months of online training so the students can join from
anywhere in the world while keeping the program affordable enough to gain
adoption. There is also a two month immersion period where the students come to
Rancho Margot and employ what they are learning in real-world regenerative
projects that address regional challenges for the Agua y Paz Bioreserve.
Upon completion of this training period, they receive a certificate that they are
ready to deploy into another region of their choice. A full diploma will be issued
1-2 years later after measurable social impacts are achieved in their future work.
Workshops and alumni meetings will be organized for continued learning as part of
their professional development after completing the initial training period.
This is an essential feature of the program. Being trained and certified is only the
beginning. The real proof of student capabilities will be determined by how well
their efforts store and capture carbon, regenerate soils, clean up waterways, and
preserve biodiversity (on the ecological side) while building robust circulation and
healthy lifestyles in the economy of a local community (on the social side).
Our goal is not to certify people, but rather to regenerate landscapes through the
deployment of certified people. This difference is vital and gets to the core of what
a regenerative campus is all about. Students will learn-by-doing in a regenerative
environment—in this case Rancho Margot and the Agua y Paz Bioreserve—and
then will demonstrate-by-doing in a community project after receiving their
certificate.
Perhaps the clearest analogue to this education model is martial arts training. A
student who studies Karate, for example, must demonstrate skill with techniques
and movement forms in order to receive a black belt. This is considered to be the
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6. transition from beginner to advanced practice. Upon receiving the black belt, the
student must continue learning by teaching and training others if they want to
improve. They move to higher levels of certification by demonstrating their ability
to serve their communities using what they have learned.
We will apply this distinct aspect of practitioner-based learning to the preparation
of regenerative designers who deploy into real communities where landscapes have
been degraded and local economies are insufficient for the livelihoods of people
living within them. They will receive certification that they are ready for the
transition into advanced practice at the completion of our program. Then they
must serve a community to gain further certification and demonstrate their skills.
This enables us to generate cumulative learning with students who go out into the
world and continue their training. They will maintain active relationships with our
organizational partners, educational faculty, and fellow students as we all learn
together how to regenerate people and planet.
Scale and Budget
We envision this program running in three rotations per year—such that each
cohort of students coming to Rancho Margot for mentorship on projects arrives
two months later than the previous cohort. With an enrollment of 30 students in
each rotation, we can train 90 students per year.
This will require intensive mentorship during the immersion period. Each student
will have a faculty team comprised of three mentors who oversee their individual
project with one mentor in the principal role to offer in-depth personal support on
the student’s individualized learning journey.
Having a minimum of six mentorship faculty will enable each mentor to take on
five students at a time while providing oversight and counseling to the cohort as a
whole. We will draw upon many areas of expertise for these faculty—including
permaculture instructors, architects and urban planners, business managers and
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7. entrepreneurs, yoga and martial arts instructors for body-based practice, and
researchers who monitor and evaluate ecosystems.
Students will continue active engagement with the program for a minimum of two
years with an invitation to return to Rancho Margot for ongoing learning among
their peers. Instead of having alumni events in the traditional sense, we will host
several meetings per year where former students can come for workshops and
meetings to share what they have learned and increase each other’s knowledge
based on real-world experiences. These events will have a nominal fee associated
with them to cover operating costs and provide opportunities for the field of
regenerative design to grow into a mature domain of professional practice.
We anticipate that students will come from a variety of backgrounds—including as
existing staff for nonprofits and social impact businesses where their employers
cover the cost of tuition to grow their own organizational capacities. Philanthropic
organizations may find it desirable to provide scholarships as a way to invest in
nonprofits they already support as a way to improve the impacts of their donations
with staff training as a way to increase organizational impact.
Next Action Steps
It is time to launch this program. We have identified the training ground as Rancho
Margot and the biosphere reserve it resides within. Our education partner at UCI
has all of the curriculum pieces for a robust training program.
What we still need are seed funds to make core infrastructure improvements at the
ranch—expanding upon the 40 dormitory bunks, a library, working farm,
community programs, and eco-tourism hotel that are in place—so that we can
house the faculty and additional students who come for the immersion phase of
their training.
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8. A unique style of housing has been prototyped for rapid modular construction at
low cost, using materials from the local grounds where reforestation has been
underway for 15 years. Architectural plans have been drafted for the layout of the
campus and community around it. The curriculum is coming together and will be
ready for students by the summer of this year.
Now is the time to begin construction of expanded facilities and start promoting
our program to potential students. We are seeking a combination of impact
investors, philanthropists, and community partners to bring $1.5 million together so
that the expansion of housing capacity is delivered in time for students to arrive by
the end of 2019.
The details for this investment package can be discussed during site visits or by
scheduling a meeting with members of our leadership team. I look forward to
hearing from you and creating this together in the coming months!
Contact Person:
Joe Brewer
Capacity Cultivator for Regenerative Communities Network, Executive
Director of the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution, and Resident at
Rancho Margot
brewer@culturalevolutioncenter.org
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