Rachel Sharp
My role as a strategic change intern for the Curriculum Transformation Programme was to support the evaluation and delivery of opportunities for undergraduates to incorporate learning about sustainability in the curriculum. I was tasked to identify case studies from across the University and produce guidance and exemplars of good practice. I also supported the Senior Design Lead, Student Engagement Strategy Group (SESG) and the Challenge Course Community of Practice with delivering student engagement activities to evaluate the student experience of challenge courses.
I’ve worked with a mentor through the Earth Fellows programme, who suggested that I sign up to do Carbon Literacy Training. This training helped me strengthen basic knowledge and terminology on climate change and carbon emissions, and also helped me gain an awareness of the costs and impacts of everyday activities, and to think about how I could reduce emissions. This has been helpful for me personally by providing me with the tools to make informed decisions and implement sustainable practices in the spaces I am involved in, as well as be a voice for greener decision making.
A key objective of the challenge course pilot is to evaluate the student experience and use these learning to feed into their development. Rachel’s support in gaining student feedback has been very helpful in informing decision making. – Jo Divers, Curriculum Transformation Programme
Juliet Booker
As one of two Earth Fellow for Curriculum and Sustainability, I have worked with staff and students from across Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) to surface how and where sustainability and material use are existing within curriculums. I have also worked alongside Katherine Troeller with the Teaching and Sustainability Community of Practice to organize a conference around climate and connection.
Coming from a master’s in landscape architecture, it has been really interesting to learn more about the different ways sustainable material use and reuse are happening across disciplines in ECA. It’s helped me interrogate my own material use in the studio and consider how reuse makes for more creative practice.
Katherine Troeller
I am one of two Climate and Sustainability Curriculum Earth Fellows. My role is split into two parts – the first has involved mapping sustainability in the School of Maths curricula. The second has involved planning the inaugural conference for the University’s Teaching Climate and Sustainability community of practice with my Edinburgh College of Art counterpart, Juliet. It has been wonderful to learn about, and really engage with, all the incredible work the University is doing in relation to sustainability.
This has been the first time that I’ve organised a conference from start to finish. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to gain experience across the entire event lifecycle – I've learned so much about conference design from colleagues at Learning for Sustainability Scotland and the Department for Social Responsibility and Sustainability.
This project mapped sustainability-relevant teaching along with the skills and competencies needed to engage with it in School of Mathematics curriculum. It supports the University’s mission to embed sustainability across curricula and is already influencing course review and planning. – Dr Goncalo Dos Reis, Reader, School of Mathematics