Wednesday
This morning I’m on a call with a school teacher. Supported by an RGS Innovative Geography Teaching Grant, we’re collaborating to design a geo-environmental toolkit to support citizen science approaches in geography lessons. This work is fully co-created with teachers: in a survey we ran, teachers identified a need for resources exploring more unique ways to support students doing experiential enquiry, and a mix of new and experienced geography teachers will trial the toolkit to help us ensure it meets their needs.
Next it’s time to catch up with my duties as co-editor role at the journal ‘Routes’. I send the latest manuscripts written by students out for review by geography teachers and researchers, and summarize reviews that have come in. I aim to provide supportive and constructive feedback to the authors to help them publish.
Before heading home, I check in with the archives team at the University of York library. To encourage people to connect with nature and participate in the York City Nature Challenge, we’re organizing an interactive visual exhibition at a student-run gallery on campus. Bringing together items from the archives with contributions from staff and students, we’ll be able to showcase old field notes and local specimens, introduce people to nature in literature, encourage them to play nature-based board games, and doodle in nature journals.
In the evening, my co-organizers and I head to the Fulford Arms pub to drum up interest in the challenge at the annual Pint of Science festival. We’re equipped with colorful stickers of the endemic and famous Tansy beetle to share with the public, so it’s bound to be a success!