OUIL601 - Dissertation proposal outline

I've decided on my final essay question:
'How can illustration be used to inspire an interest in wildlife conservation in young children'

For the practical side of COP3 I intend on making a story/activity book educating children on wildlife conservation.

The story will be about two girls, one who lives in the forest and was raised by squirells, she is called Tony. The other girl is called Rosie and she lives in the city.
One day Rosie goes exploring in the forest, she ends up falling down a steep hill and finds a huge house built into a tree, where Tony lives. Tony and Rosie go exploring together and Tony teaches Rosie about the wildlife.

I want to make a book that encapsulates all my research into children's education and try to make something that's not only educational, but also fun and engaging.

OUIL601 - Project Wild Thing - The Issues

Vanishing green space -
Those edgelands , the bits of wildness not far from every home are vanishing fast.
everything built on and developed, houses, shops, fast food and offices.

How can we safeguard green space for kids in every community? And what about the parks and common land?, with services cut here and there, how will these special places survive for our kids?

Time poor parents -

Life is busy, Time is short

Many parents are working more and more and distributed families mean there's less and less help with the kids.

Finding time to take kids outdoors is often seen as no can do.

How can the outdoors become a friend to parents once again? giving them time and space, and keeping their children happy, healthy and entertained?

Stranger Danger -

Largely perception and media driven.

But none the less, the fears are real.

We are scared of leaving our children outside on their own, and we look uncomfortably at people we don't know in our streets and neighbourhoods.

Risk averse culture - 

Don't do that, be careful, watch out, don't run, don't pick that up, come here!

Just start noticing the language we use with our kids outside

How do we stand back and make falling over and getting dirty the good thing that is for building confidence, independence and risk awareness?

Rise of screen time - 

Kids love the shiny tech as much as the rest of us.

The ubiquity and pervasiveness of screens across every aspect of our lives has happened with astonishing speed with limited disconnect anymore between on and offline. This is voted as the number one barrier to kids playing out across the whole network from parents to organisations.

How can we make sure we're aware of our screen time and we find balance by making time for WildTime, offline, outside, liking other stuff like plants, trees, the sun, the rain and all the cool creatures?

Play Inc -

Money has creeped with stealth into the world of child play.

Experiences and things need to be bought, treated, updated, downloaded and get better and better each time, The natural world offers mystery, creativity and gameplay for free and in abundance. It does however require guides, mentors, catalysts and time to develop connection, relationships, wonder and awe.

Nature starved curriculum -

Nature, apparently, is not going to help children, in the global economic race

There are fewer and fewer opportunities for most children to explore the natural world through their school education journey, which is where they spend most of their young lives, how can we get the outdoors back into everyday learning?

Lack of free range play - 

Fenced in, monitored, regulated.

Outdoor play is more often than not, contained. Too many rules, with too many constraints. We know that free range is better than battery. So how will the kids rome free again?

Kidvertising - 

Make it pink, make it blue, make them want it all.

The corporations are out to get kids and they're damn good at it, But should young kids have to deal with advertising and material pressures, and the envy and wants that it creates? All of which combine to make time outdoors feel less and less interesting.

Danger streets - 

It's a minefield out there.

As kids get older, they tell us the streets become dangerous with gangs and postcodes bringing all kinds of darkness into young lives. How can we work to create a feeling of safe neighbourhoods and safer places for kids, as they grow? How can we let them be free, but feel safe?

Carlamity -

Mind the car! Watch the van! Wait..

Car-ridden streets of noise, pollution and danger, which must be reclaimed by communities and kids alike, Let's re-claim the roads with street parades and parties. We can close the roads for play days. And we must teach kids that walking with headphones in isn't great. 

Bring back the green cross code? Bring in more 20mph zones? Make wider pavements in new developments?

OUIL601 - Project WIld Thing

Had a very productive morning, I spent £6 on a documentary called Project Wild Thing, it was very inspiring and money was well spent.
It gave me lots of ideas for my project and how I can expand on my current ideas.

These are some notes I took whilst I was watching:

2 Months to create a marketing campaign for nature

Island of Eigg is best place to raise children, rated happiest place to live.

Looks at how modern technology and advertising affects children

Michael Wolff - Wolff Olins

Find natures USP

What are natures strengths?
Nurishing
Natural
Exploration
Wild
Ultimate provider of adventure

Monkey Do outdoor play

Good for nothing - group of creatives

Wild Time App

A sense of oneness with nature and the universe

Chris Rose - Environmental campaigner

OUIL601 - The Wild Network

http://www.thewildnetwork.com/

The Wild Network is on a mission to re-wild childhood.

We are a collaborative venture, a network of thousands of people and organisations with a collective vision to re-wild childhood, grow Wild Time (time outside) and help kids thrive in the 21st century.

To deliver our mission we are organised around three areas of strategic activity:
1: Awareness, Campaigning activity to increase understanding of the problems and the barriers to Wild Time whilst engaging new audiences with the issues.

2: Networking, Creating opportunities for individuals and organisations to make connections, share best-practice, develop knowledge and collaborate.

3: Amplification, Spreading, accelerating and championing the work of existing solutions and co-creating new innovations to help re-wild childhood.

The Wild Network has hatched on the back of a documentary named Project Wild Thing, that takes a funny and revealing look at a complex issue: the increasingly disparate connection between children and nature.

OUIL601 - Juliette Oberndorfer

OUIL601 - Lorenzo Alvarez Gomez

OUIL601 - Monica Ramos

OUIL601 - List of books to read

OUIL601 - History of Wildlife Conservation

The Wildlife Trusts

• May 1912 - Charles Rothschild formed The Society for the Promotion of Nature Reserves, which became The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, which was the beginning of wildlife conservation in the UK. 
• The group worked hard to secure government protection for many sites around the UK.
• 1949 - nature conservation made it onto the statute with the National Parks & Access to the Countryside Act.
• Local conservation groups began appearing around the UK - Norfolk 1926, Yorkshire 1946 and Lincolnshire 1948
• There are now 47 Wildlife trusts covering the whole of the UK.

The WWF

• 1961 - The WWF is founded and is registered as a charity in Switzerland
• 1972 - Project Tiger is launched which runs parallel to the same project in India, which aims to set up nine national parks as tiger reserves.
• 1975 - WWF pioneers its first tropical rain forest campaign, meaning dozens of rain forests in Africa, South-East Asia and Latin America are managed as national parks or 
• 1976 - WWF's first marine programme, leading to protection for marine turtle nesting sites and the establishment of sanctuary's for whales.
• 1979 - WWF creates a fund to establish the Woolong nature reserve in China for the preservation of pandas 
• 1998 - WWF and the World Bank form an alliance to set up a network of worlwide protected areas including 200 million hectares of well managed forest by 2005.
• 1999 - WWF plays a big role in ensuring that sustainable development is an important part of the new National Curriculum in England.

OUIL601 - Emily Hughes

Image from The Little Gardener

Image from Wild

In Hughes’ picture book we meet a little girl who has known nothing but nature from birth – she was taught to talk by birds, to eat by bears and to play by foxes – she is unashamedly, irrefutably, irrepressibly wild.