Climate change is a major concern to young people and our education strategy supports these aspirations. At the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research, or BIFoR, we are continually developing a range of tools to widen participation and highlight climate change research in our teaching and learning in schools and University. There are a number of opportunities for learning outside the classroom by visiting the FACE (free air carbon enrichment) experiment and our state-of-the-art glass houses and laboratories on campus.
To overcome the logistical and distance limitations of visiting the FACE site we have partnered with Digital Education to develop a range of virtual tours and field trips. These range from the FACE site itself, mangroves in Dubai and a tour of the Wyre forest in the context of the writer Ruskin. We also use virtual tours of glaciers in Norway to enable students to experience data collection in the Alpine environment. Our students have created virtual resources addressing pollination and climate change, which have been used in first year UG teaching. Students can also participate directly in the research through volunteering, collecting data ranging from animal traps, leaf damage and soil analysis.
A rapidly developing climate change agenda and the inherent plant blindness of students and teachers stimulated us to develop BIFoR in a Box to enable schools and community groups to create their own forest laboratories and we have profiles and mini lectures by our PhD students to highlight careers.
This diverse set of open resources aims to facilitate greater numbers of students at all levels to find solutions to the existential threat of climate change.