Impactful student-led investigation of potential for climate and sustainability learning within the new CEB Tripos
Shumona Deshmukh Nath, an Earth Sciences student at Cambridge to facilitate the integration of climate and sustainability into the teaching of the new Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Tripos. Shumona undertook this project as part of Cambridge Zero’s Future Leaders Programme, a paid summer placement programme for undergraduate students.
Project Aims
- Identify the skills, knowledge and competencies for sustainability that the course should deliver to its students
- Curate resources for the lecturers to use in teaching
- Explore examples of practice at other institutions and courses
- Establish a framework for addressing sustainability in the course
- Use all these to inform the recommendations made to the department
Process
Initial Assessment: held discussions with lecturers and students about the existing course and plans for the new course; module-by-module review of the new course using the Course Guide
Work on 1A Sustainability: supported the creation of a new first-year sustainability module by reviewing teaching materials, researching opensource LCA software and identifying case studies
Case study generation: carried out 8 interviews with CEB alumni working in careers aligned with sustainability
Exploring examples of practice: discussed the chemical engineering course at University of Bath and the NST 1B Quantitative Environmental Sciences course at Cambridge
Integrating research into CEB teaching: explored different methods to help lecturers integrate examples from ongoing departmental research into their teaching
Future Student-led work in CEB: facilitated collaboration between Cambridge Climate Society (CCS) and Cambridge University Chemical Engineering Society (CUCES) to build on the work of this project in the Department over the coming year(s).
Outputs from the project
- A framework for Education for Sustainability within the new Tripos
- Recommendations for integrating departmental research into undergraduate teaching
- Arranged a course collaboration between the CEB Tripos and the Quantitative Environmental Sciences second-year module
- Generated feasibility calculation exercises for a second-year module; resources for LCAs; alumni profiles for departmental use
- Proposed an action plan for a CCS x CUCES collaboration on climate education (Cambridge Climate Society x Cambridge University Chemical Engineering Society).