Recycling at its best - a real vet clinic example

Following last weeks post I recieved this gem from one of our students.  Too good not to share!

Quoting the email I received: "Here's one of my recycling projects just done last week.

The recipe is:

• 2x old broken upright lamps

• 1x assistant

• 1x screwdriver

 

My clinic now has 2 new drip stands for nothing. "

Awesome work! 2 very functional items for avet clinic, 2 less things in landfill.  Who else out there has some real vet clinic examples of recycling at its best to share?

Recycling at its best

This week something light hearted!

These pictures came through my email.  I thought they would be worth sharing to inspire you.  I have chosen ones I reckon you could use to enhance the environment of your animal facility or to inspire original ideas to enhance your working environment. 

Enhance the outside of your facility and make it inviting and a talking point

Another way to enhance the environment by attracting the birds. Wild bird seed can be purchased for next to nothing at most supermarkets and many pet shops.  Better still plant Kowhai and other tress that attract the native birds. 

I use old jeans to make door stoppers but look at this cool idea.  I imagine the legs are filled with straw or something and then a plastic plant bag is used in the top to contain the plant and stop the jeans getting mouldy.  I would think this would be a short term display but a great way to enhance an ugly spot outside your building.  You could run a competition and have a changing feature every few months on the ugly spot!

Another way to enhance windows

Nothing more relaxing than a good water feature - use this idea to inspire you to add a water feature to your outdoor environment!

No earrings in vet clinics - so leave then at home hanging on this cool earring holder!

Give your clients cool ideas by feeding the resident cat in a food bowl like this!

I don't know about you but my hand towels are always falling down - try this idea to hang a hand towel or teatowel everywhere you need one

Enhance that outdoor space again - create a peaceful garden for visiting clients who may be visiting or grieving a sick/lost pet. 

You can pick up old pianos for next to nothing!  How cool would your library of text books look in this!

Another idea for attracting the birds to your environment

30 is not the new 20

As many readers of this blog are in their 20's, others have 20 somethings in their care or they employ them I thought this was an enlightening talk. 

It is often thought that the 20's is a decade you can fritter away.  Meg Jay explains why this is not the case.

If you are a 20 something you should watch this.  It is not at all saying you need to settle down, just that you need to put things in place so when you are ready it will work successfully whether it be a relationship, your job, having a family or so on. 

If you are employing 20 somethings you should watch this.  Perhaps you should be helping them develop their careers and their place in employment as well as the world.  As an educator or relative of a 20 something the same goes for you too.

As I listened to this, as someone somewhat older than 20, it totally resonated with me.  I don't, by any stretch of the imagination, think that everyone needs to turn up the pschyotherapy, as seems to be common place is the USA, but I think the messages from this pschyotherapist are very simple and very true. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhhgI4tSMwc

Next week I hope to open some good discussions on the use of pharmaceuticals - watch this space

Have a great week and keep warm out there.

How knowing what your neighbours are doing can change habits

Lets use a "bus" as a metaphor for you local community, your profession or any other group of people you interact with. 

Broadly speaking there are 3 types of people on "the bus" - there are a  few at the back (the detractors) trying to stop it from moving, there are those at the front driving it (the leaders) and the other 80% are along for the ride.  They will follow the leaders.  If the followers know what everyone else is doing then they will behave in the same way too.  The detractors at the back of the bus will eventually get left behind. 

The TedTalk below shows how behavioural science can be used to change behaviours.  In this talk, Alex Laskey shows how letting people know how well they are doing against their neighbours in terms of energy consumption changes behaviour.  If they know their neighbours are using less then they will attempt to use less too.  The reality is we all know how to reduce our energy consumption, we just lack the motivation to do it - perhaps we all assume no one else is putting in the effort so we'll just do the same.  But this talk clearly shows how letting people know how they are going against others close by is a driver for change.

Alex Laskey: How behavioral science can lower your energy bill

So if this can be done for energy, what else can it be done for?  Lets think about some animal related examples:

• Taking the dog for a walk - Imagine if everyone knew how often their neighbours dogs were being walked.
• Keeping your pets at an optimum weight - Imagine if you kept a neighbouring register of the trim dogs and the not so trim dogs and without naming names you could market that to your local clientèle and help create healthier pets who require less medical treatment throughout their lives. 
• Annual health checks - If you knew that most of your neighbours took their pets for annual health checks wouldn't you be driven to do that too? 
• What about businesses competing against business - What if you knew that all the neighbouring practices had installed low-flow taps and a foot pedal in their scrub sink to reduce water use?  Would you feel compelled to do the same?  What about neighbouring practices demonstrating a reduction in waste?    

I am sure you can think of many more examples of when this could happen in our homes and workplaces. Post some of your ideas in the comments section and we can learn from each other. 

Education of the Future

Recently I had the pleasure of listening to a TEDx talk by Steve Henry from Otago Polytechnic's Centre for Sustainable Practice.  As a lifelong learner, I found this talk particularly eye-opening.

Education is changing rapidly. It is transitioning away from the haloed institutions where the teacher shalt know everything and dictate it to a classroom full of eager learners who shalt not talk, but shall take in everything the learned teacher has to say. The new educational picture is that of a world brimming with easy access information, and the advent of global communication via the internet. We are all learners whether we are newborn or in our senior years - life long learning is important and essential, and it is a part of modern life.

How will these changes effect learning in the future?

Maybe we will no longer go to "the bricks" to learn but instead will learn through "clicks" and the interactions that we get with people and on-the-job experiences.  The way we are recognised for that learning will also change.  We may still want a qualification but we may go to the institution already knowing what we need for the qualification and instead ask for that to be recognised.

Who knows what might happen, but one thing is for sure, the educational process is already changing and will continue to do so! 

Listen to Steve's talk here for more and consider how that impacts on you as a current and future learner. 

This image shows a Modern Learning Environment - an example of how all new schools in NZ are being built today. How different is this from your local school environment?