Vanessa Bower has a beautiful origin story of the Baobab trees here The very impressive Baobab trees comes in many shapes and the Madagascar species is one of many.

By pure chance I stumbled upon a cheap, safe and student-friendly way to visit the home of Metusaleh (introduced below), by many seen as the worlds oldest tree (S/he hasn’t met his/her swedish competetitor yet, but that is a story yet to hear). Use a special gallery tour function of Google Earth! It’s a bit like a 3D computer game and I haven’t yet quite figured out how to navigate through this virtual trip. But it really widens and deepens the experience, compared to what text and photos can tell your imagination. Once you have seen it, you can’t imagine how it would be not to have experienced the landscape where all these ancient trees live. So get Google Earth (we will have other uses for it later …) Open it and at “Layers” in the bottom left column, click “Galleries”. Look for “Researching the Ancient Bristlecone Pines”. I found it on the second page of interesting tours. Successes, problems and questions can be shared in a comment!

If you want to be updated on what is happening in the world of applied storytelling, especially in organizations and the corporate world, Kathy Hansen’s blog “A Storied Career” is a must. And if your pupils wants to know how to use storytelling to get a job, Kathy is the guru to listen to. Today she has a post which is far from the demands of modern life: The Earth Is the Original Non-Linear Storyteller

Here is the first post in a series which will bring some pedagogically useful science issues, photos, stories and a journey around the world. It is a learning quest in search of the world’s oldest living tree.

(Credit: dcrjsr @ Wikimedia Commons. Click to see larger photo!)

Old trees can be very impressive, if you have met a really old oak you can almost feel that many generations of humans have passed during the lifetime of the tree. Of course they are nowhere near as old as bacteria, which scientists have revived after a quarter of a billion years. But I was astonished to learn that some of our tree neighbours have been around since before the architect Imhotep began building pyramids.

The first contender for the title as the oldest living tree is called Metuselah. S/he lives in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest of the White Mountains in California. Its exact location is kept secret because an even older tree, called Prometheus, was cut down in 1964. Metuselah is 4,842 years old (as of 2011), as measured by annual ring count.

So what happened around 2.831 BCE, when Metuselah began to grow? Wikipedia and Timeline says that this was the time when King Gilgamesh ruled Sumer, Stonehenge and Troy were built and the first alphabets could be used on clay tablets and papyrus. In China Fu Xi, the first of the Three Emperors, is said have invented writing. And not only that, he and his sister or wife Nüwa created mankind out of clay.

So an almost endless net of science, myths & stories can be woven around the birthday of Metuselah. Not only the biblical story …

The biological science safari could start at Pinus longaeva. What I would like to know are some biological answers to why these trees can be so old? What questions would you like to share?

One of the fun, simple and meaningful pedagogical activities you could do is to inspire children and young people to tell stories. It will develop their language skills, give them self-confidence and add to the atmosphere in the group. By exploring a story through telling it, they might also learn more from it. Especially by discovering valuable questions when trying to make tellable sense of it. And they will remember both the story and the lessons learned connected with it better. No you don’t need more benefits Just do it, and share your experiences here. Perhaps even with a video …

… one for the teller, one for the listeners and one for the one who asked for the story!

Many storytellers know this traditional armenian ending of a folktale. The version above highlights also the role of people like Doniazade, Sheherazade’s largely unknown sister who is the one who tricks the sultan to listen to the tales. But you can also stress the pedagogical wisdom in a story like this:

Three apples fell from heaven, one for the teller, one for the listener and one for those who understood.

See also post #137 and #138 at Storylovers and the first page of an article in Folklore (1987) So what is your favorite version?

At the same festival, Henrik Hallgren and his musician friend also had a similar program; “When the trees could speak”. Here is what he has to say about his experiences.

Henrik is a storyteller, archeologist and ecophilosopher. Here are some of his ideas about storytelling and ecology:

Please share your thoughts, experiences and questions in a comment!

What is the WSD?
The World Storytelling Day is a global celebration of the art of oral storytelling. It is celebrated every year on March 20, the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere, the autumn equinox in the southern. As many people as possible tell and listen to stories in as many languages and at as many places as possible, during the same day and night. Participants tell each other about their events in order to share stories and inspiration, to learn from each other and to create international contacts.

What can you do at a school …
… or wherever teaching, telling and learning takes place? That’s what this blog is designed to find out! You can expect a lot of story and teaching ideas to be added here. Please leave a comment here if you want to participate, if you are looking for educators to cooperate with and if you have ideas how to use the project in your teaching.

How do you host a storytelling event?
Easy! Your local storytelling group, festival, committee, or even an individual storyteller, can simply plan an event for March 20th, and promote it as part of World Storytelling Day. The theme for 2012 is “Trees”. Dream big, and let everyone know about your plans!

If you plan to arrange a public storytelling event, don’t forget to register it at the calendar on worldstorytellingday.webs.com There you will also find further information.

Spread the word around the globe!
Tell your storytelling friends, teachers and organizations about this! And don´t forget people you know in other parts of the world. Talk to them, send them a message and tell them stories …