Though for some, homework is something to be avoided at all costs, for others, it represents a future. But where there is no light after sundown, there can be no home learning. A pocket-sized solar lamp is changing that.
In this week's edition of eco@africa, we turn out attention to a small flower-shaped lamp that is as at home in interiors stores and living rooms across the Western world as it is in mud huts in the furthest flung corners of Africa. Little Sun, as artist Olafur Eliasson's novel invention is called, is bringing light and therefore hope to children who would otherwise be plunged into darkness with the setting of the sun.
We will also meet a Nigerian environmental sensation, so passionate about his work in nature conservation that he has essentially become synonymous with it, learn about the power of water hyacinths, and travel to Kenya where elephants are at the center of human-wildlife conflict.
In Europe, we go to Spain to explore the benefits of using micro organisms to improve soil quality, and head up into Germany's mountains to find out about how to protect them from pollution.