by Luis Eberl | 2 Sep 2022 | Contest winners, Educators' Catalog, Environment, Europe, Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, Student Posts, Youth Voices
Swiss citizens are burying cotton underpants and tea bags in their gardens and fields to help scientists assess the quality of soil in the Alpine nation. (Photo courtesy of Beweisstück Unterhose) This article, by high school student Luis Eberl, was produced out of...
Student reporter Luis Eberl of Realgymnasium Rämibühl in Zurich, Switzerland, interviewed scientist Marcel van der Heijden of the University of Zurich about an experiment to find ways to slow down or prevent soil deterioration caused by erosion, construction, pesticides and drought. The project invites citizens to test their own soil by planting tea bags and cotton underpants – two common household items – and then testing the level of deterioration. Eberl shows how scientists are engaging everyday people in climate change projects to demonstrate that individuals’ small actions can lead to global solutions.
Exercise: Interviewing an expert for a story is a great way to get information to readers that might not be reported elsewhere. Have students think of an issue that would be important to report and see if they can identify an expert who might be good to interview for a story on that issue.
by Jessica Strickland | 22 Aug 2022 | Culture, Media Literacy, Spain
News Decoder’s correspondents have covered the world’s biggest stories over decades. Here are books they suggest would-be journalists should read. “Books to read for aspiring journalists” I was looking for publications that would help me, as well as...
by Bryson Hull | 9 Aug 2022 | Decoders, Educators' Catalog, Europe, Politics, Ukraine, World
A conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan is heating up as the war in Ukraine prompts geopolitical realignments, with implications for outside powers including the West and Russia. Azerbaijani soldiers carry portraits of soldiers killed during fighting over...
“It is easy to pay little attention or to even ignore regional conflicts, but they can hold the key to understanding larger political currents in the world.” Correspondent Bryson Hull’s words remind us of why a simmering conflict in the Caucuses between Armenia and Azerbaijan has potential implications for all of us. News Decoder is premised on the notion that young people know a great deal, through headlines on their screens, about what is happening in the world but, because they are young, can have difficulty connecting the dots and understanding why far-away events matter to them. Hull offers a clear explanation of why fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh appears periodically in those headlines, and then disappears, only to reappear some day, like so many other intractable conflicts in distant places.
Exercise: Ask your students to identify a regional conflict that became a proxy for armed competition involving stronger powers.
by Jessica Moody | 29 Jul 2022 | Environment, Europe
There’s a disconnect between the urgency of climate science and the indifference of governments, media and business to act. Are we too late? Firefighters at the scene of a wildfire in Tabara, Spain, 19 July 2022 (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) “I want you to...
by Anthony Fong | 6 Apr 2022 | Europe, Personal Reflections, Ukraine
I’m a medic with a team helping Ukrainian refugees who are fleeing their country. Tonight, we hope we’ve given one young man a chance to survive. The author (bottom left) and colleagues from the Canadian Medical Assistant Team at the Krakovets border...
by Bernd Debusmann | 4 Apr 2022 | Europe, Human Rights, Ukraine
More than two-thirds of the world’s population live in nations that have not denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some Cold War bonds endure. A screen showing results from a vote in the United Nations General Assembly on a resolution condemning Russia’s...
by Urvashi Bundel | 1 Apr 2022 | Art, Europe, Human Rights, Ukraine
A poem by an Indian humanitarian honors refugees fleeing the destruction wrought by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We Flap Our Wings Of Fire Do not go brave into that dark, he saidRaising our defiant hands into the sky,We flap our wings of fire.Covered in smoke...
by Nela Piwonska | 31 Mar 2022 | Educators' Catalog, Europe, Human Rights, Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, Student Posts, Ukraine, Youth Voices
More Ukrainians have fled to Poland than any other country. Like so many Poles, my relatives are doing what they can to help. Displaced Ukrainians on a Poland-bound train bid farewell in Lviv, western Ukraine, 22 March 2022. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) Here’s how...
The best journalists are good listeners. They hear the words of those worth listening to, and they offer the best quotes to their audience to give voice to the protagonists of the story. Many young writers have difficulty hearing and passing along those quotes. But Nela Piwonska of Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zurich is an exception to the rule and proves it with captivating quotes from relatives in Poland who are on the front lines of Europe’s latest refugee crisis. Against a heartbreaking backdrop of families fleeing war, Piwonska manages to offer an uplifting final quote: “The only positive change in my life is the realisation of how much good is left in people.”
Exercise: Divide your students into teams of two and have them interview each other and then write stories that are based primarily on quotes.
by Helen Womack | 30 Mar 2022 | Europe, Ukraine
Ukrainian refugees come to Anastasia in Hungary for a night or two before moving on. This Russian is helping refugees while war rages at home. Anastasia at home in Budapest, Hungary (photo by Helen Womack) Anastasia’s phone is constantly ringing. She is at the heart...
by Theodor M. A. Davidoff | 24 Mar 2022 | Europe, Personal Reflections, Politics, Realgymnasium Rämibühl Zürich, Student Posts, Youth Voices
My grandmother has spent her entire life in Georgia. The Soviet Union was not all bad, she said, but Georgia’s dawning independence was beautiful. My grandfather and grandmother, Ellen Bagdasarian Davidova, getting married in 1967 “My name is Ellen Davidova,...
