1. The Green Apple Scheme
A summary report of curriculum innovation
projects for Education for Sustainable
Development
August 2016
2. 2
About 3
Green Impact for Primary Care 4
Teacher Education for Sustainable Futures 5
Site-Specific & Immersive Performance 6
Community Engagement, Ethics and ESD 7
Embedding Sustainability Thinking into Fieldwork 7
Child-focused Research and Empowerment 8
Interdisciplinary Learning: Archaeology, Anthropology and Well-Being 8
Remembrance, Critique and Memorialisation of Conflict in the 21st Century 9
Local Learning: Sustainability Practice, Global Links, and Ethics 9
Ethics and Anatomy 10
Report compiled by
Aisling E. P. Tierney, Research Associate, August 2016
For more information on the scheme and to apply, email esd-team@bristol.ac.uk.
3. 3
The Green Apple Scheme
targets all areas of the
institution, including estates,
research, the informal and
formal curriculum.
This Education for
Sustainable Development
(ESD) small grants scheme
offers students and
academics at the University
of Bristol the opportunity to
develop projects that are
discipline specific but also
relate to ESD. Individuals
and teams can apply for
small grants from the
c.£5,000 fund for any
projects relating to taught
programmes (including
undergraduates and taught
postgraduates).
The University has based its
understanding of ESD on the
UNESCO definition which
covers four main areas:
social and economic justice;
cultural diversity; human
rights of future generations;
and the protection and
restoration of the Earth’s
ecosystems. Students should
gain an understanding of the
long- term impact they
currently have, and will have,
in their future personal and
professional life, on the
environment and how to live
within the earth’s limits.
ESD encompasses more
than just environmental
factors also including social,
economic, ethical and
cultural values. This covers
our whole system of beliefs,
values, attitudes, customs
and institution shaping our
gender, race and other social
relations, and affects the way
we perceive ourselves and
the world and how we
interact with other people
and the rest of nature.
Bids can be made by both
staff and students. The
following types of proposals
are particularly welcome:
Bids that explore how ESD
can be further embedded
within the formal curriculum
Projects that encourage
overlapping efforts between
estates, research, the
informal and formal
curriculum
Bids that include students as
co-creators of learning and
that utilise student
participation in the designing
of proposals
Bids that involve active
learning, such as community
engagement
Individual grants do not
typically exceed £1,000, but
project proposals above this
amount are considered. Each
faculty/school/department
may apply for more than one
bid. Funding may be used to
cover: releasing staff, travel,
conference fees, workshop
costs, etc.
Applications must
demonstrate how findings will
be disseminated to both
internal and external
audiences. The ESD Team
are placed to offer complete
support when writing
application bids and are
available as required
throughout completion of the
project.
Since 2014, ten projects
have been funded by the
scheme in the following
disciplines:
Centre for Academic Primary
Care
Graduate School of
Education
Department of Theatre
Department of Archaeology
and Anthropology
Centre for Comparative and
Clinical Anatomy
About
4. 4
Green Impact for Primary Care
Faculty of Health Sciences - Centre for
Academic Primary Care
Dr. Simon Thornton
Dr. Trevor Thompson
Green Impact is a change
and engagement programme
– it helps people understand
sustainability and social
responsibility, shows them
what they can do to make a
difference and supports them
in achieving these actions.
Over 400 organisations have
used the model to date,
developing and delivering
their own bespoke
programmes and
encouraging collaboration
and effective communication
of goals, successes and
challenges. Green Impact
has reached more than
100,000 people and training
over 2,500 students in
sustainability and social
responsibility. For more
information visit nus.org.uk/
greenimpact.
In 2013, NUS, the University
of Bristol and several Bristol-
based GPs started
discussing how Green
Impact could be used to
engage GP surgeries in
sustainability and social
responsibility. A specific
toolkit was developed, with
criteria that focussed on
actions that could be
completed by staff in GP
surgeries to improve
efficiency, reduce wastage
and ultimately improve the
quality of care received by
patients. The personalised
title, Green Impact for Health
(GIFH), reflects the
specialisation that has gone
into the toolkit.
The GIFH pilot aimed to:
Deliver cost savings through
more efficient use of
resources;
Deliver carbon savings
through more efficient use of
resources;
Have a positive impact on
society by: a. Creating
attitudinal and behaviour shift
in favour of more sustainable
practices among staff,
students and patients
participating in or associated
with the pilot; b. Improving
overall patient healthcare.
There is interest in the next
cycle of GIFH from practices
across Bristol, Devon,
Surrey, London, Tyne and
Wear and Derby.
Discussions are also in
progress with the Centre for
Sustainable Healthcare
about how this could be
further developed and rolled
out on a wider scale, using
the GIFH toolkit to include
sustainability in the medical
curriculum and getting
students involved in the
Green Impact process
Key performance indicators
KPI1: cost/carbon savings
from switching off key
equipment.
Communications about
switching off lights and
equipment across the 6
Pathfinder Practices has
saved up to an estimated
£2,053 and 13 tonnes of
carbon per year.
KPI2: cost/carbon savings
from more efficient paper
use.
Encouraging staff to print
double-sided across 4 of the
Pathfinder Practices has
saved up to an estimated
£2,660 and 7 tonnes of
carbon per year.
KPI3: baseline
characteristics from practices
in terms of energy spend,
referral practices, waste
spend, procurement spend,
carbon footprint.
This information was not
available a t the end of the
pilot, but wider rollouts will
aim to collect to be used as a
basis for comparison once
changes have been
implemented. Due to
seasonal variation, billing
delays etc., an annual
analysis may be advisable.
KPI4: shift from lower pro-
sustainable behaviour scores
to higher pro-sustainable
scores in individual GP staff
around specific behaviours
such as utilising active,
sustainable travel options,
turning off appliances,
recycling waste, etc.
There is statistically
significant data that provides
evidence showing a shift
from lower pro-sustainable
behaviour scores to higher
ones. The number of people
who reported doing ‘quite a
few things that are
environmentally friendly’
increased by 50% as a result
of the programme, and a
corresponding decrease in
the number that only do ‘one
or two things that are
environmentally friendly’.
KPI5: change in
percentage of staff in each
sustainability segment
Over the course of the
project, there was a
statistically significant
decrease in participants
rating themselves as
‘Cautious Participants’ or
‘Sideline Supporters’ and a
large increase in those rating
themselves as the more pro-
sustainable ‘Concerned
Consumers’. There is no
significant change at the
extremes of the scale,
although there is no evidence
that the project had any
adverse effects on attitudes.
5. 5
Teacher Education for
Sustainable Futures
Faculty of Social Sciences & Law - Graduate
School of Education
Celia Tidmarsh
Alf Coles
Justin Dillon
Marina Gall
Kate Hawkey
Jon James
David Kerr
Janet Orchard
Jocelyn Wishart
The project aimed to bring
together stakeholders from
across the Bristol PGCE
Partnership, including
university tutors and their
colleagues, post graduate
student-teachers and school-
based colleagues, to identify
a shared agenda for
education for sustainable
development (ESD) and to
explore potential learning
opportunities within school
curricula and the PGCE
Partnership programme. It
was envisioned that the
award would lay the
foundations for a whole
course initiative in 2016-17
that features ESD within and
across school subjects.
Core Group meetings
A ‘Core Group’ of
stakeholders met on three
occasions between February
and July 2016.
Meeting 1: exploration of
meaning of ESD; discussion
of ideas for where space for
ESD exist in university and
school curriculum; subject
group discussions; plenary
discussion to share
generated ideas.
Meeting 2: feeding back on
actions undertaken including
development of website for
coordinating work; small
group discussions, settling
on actions.
Meeting 3: exploring
initiatives undertaken;
clarifying emerging themes;
identifying actions for next
year, including making
resources from this cohort
available to new students.
Learning initiatives
Subject-based and inter-
disciplinary initiatives were
trialled by teachers in
schools:
Individual subject initiatives
(in Maths, History, Science,
English).
Cross-subject initiatives
(History/Science/Geography
and RE/Citizenship).
Whole course initiative (PT
involvement – leading to
plans for an introductory ‘slot’
on 1st day and in summer
EPS).
Example – Maths and
proportional thinking
Pupils were introduced to the
World Village concept, where
the Earth’s population is
represented by one hundred
people. This provided a tool
to talk about proportional
thinking and discuss
estimates. Global data, such
as the distribution of infant
mortality in Africa and
Europe was used to plot
graphs and conduct
comparative analysis. The
project was provoked by an
existing scheme of work in
the curriculum, but one that
supported the ESD theme.
The real-world data used
enhanced the learning
experience, engaged
learners and raised
awareness of world issues.
Outcomes
The seven PGCE subject
programmes involved will
make space in the formal
curriculum to enable PGCE
students to engage in issues
around education as
sustainability. The award will
provoke greater awareness,
amongst PGCE students and
University tutors, of
pedagogies for teaching
sustainability, uncertainty
and values in schools and
the challenges of working
with 21st Century skills such
as creativity, collaboration,
critical thinking and
communication.
Hawkey, K., James, J. &
Tidmarsh, C. 2016 “Greening
the curriculum? History joins
‘the usual suspects’ in
teaching climate change”
Teaching History 162 (March
2016) The Historical
Association, p. 32-41
6. 6
Site-Specific and Immersive
Performance
Faculty of Arts - Department of Theatre
Kate Elswit
The award supports the
development of a third-year
option for the BA in Theatre
and Performance Studies:
“Site-Specific and Immersive
Performance.”
Site-specific and immersive
performance strategies are
increasingly prevalent in
contemporary theatre. In this
unit, students encounter
forms of site-specific
performance, such as
environmental responses to
landscape; community-
focused urban interventions;
and the staging of existing
plays within found spaces.
Students develop an
understanding of the role of
space and place with regard
to performance, which inform
their engagement with site-
specific and immersive
performance practices
beyond traditional indoors
theatre venues. These can
range from medieval theatres
in the round to contemporary
installations and flash mobs.
Students consider the ways
in which bodies, in solo and
group forms, can produce
new meanings from sites.
Site-specificity is addressed
through a combination of
historical, theoretical, and
practical approaches, such
as ecofeminist criticism and
heritage interpretation.
This project relates to several
strands of ESD.
Under the strand of cultural
heritage, performance
approaches attend not only
to preservation and
conservation of historical
sites as artefacts, but also to
their realisation and
reanimation in the present,
so that such sites can
maintain a place as a vital
part of our cultural economy.
Under the strand of
environmental limits and
ecological well being,
performance’s work with “site
-specificity” comes from a
long history of ecological
approaches that question
how landscape and
environment are revealed,
imagined, experienced,
contested, and animated in/
by/through performance. The
unit’s focus on found spaces
will shift students’ attention
beyond the indoor theatre
space towards their
attachments to and
responsibility toward the
natural world.
Under the strand of a healthy
and just society,
Performance has a long
history of relationships to non
-violent protest in support of
cultural diversity and
tolerance. The unit’s focus on
urban interventions will push
students to engage with
performance-based activist
acts and social justice within
the Bristol community (local
relevance).
The anchoring of this unit in
historical as well as
contemporary study will
demonstrate to students a
long history of the ways in
which playwrights and other
performance makers have
capitalised on the
connections between human,
society, and habitat in
important environmental and
socially aware ways. This
thus impacts on the strand of
preparing for the future, by
giving students additional
resources of the past on
which to build.
The Green Apple funds cover
professional development for
unit tutors in order to further
their knowledge and thus
student experience in these
areas.
This unit will increase
graduate understanding of
sustainability issues by
means of innovation in the
formal taught curriculum.
This unit will also feed back
into UoB ESD strategies
themselves, by expanding
understandings of the range
of ways in which Theatre and
the arts more generally can
participate in ESD training.
7. 7
A cluster of projects
Faculty of Arts - Department of Archaeology &
Anthropology
Community Engagement,
Ethics and ESD: Students
as Creators of Learning
Dr. Stuart Prior
Aisling Tierney
Following ten years of
research-led teaching at
Berkeley, this project aimed
to create greater dialogue
between the local community
at Berkeley and the
University of Bristol team.
The project asks students to
reflect on broad issues of
ESD and how their
archaeological work affects
the local community. It
provokes enquiry into
sustainable tourism, as the
archaeological excavations
take place within two
commercialised heritage
sites (Berkeley Castle and
the Jenner Museum and
Gardens). In the past,
Berkeley’s river was
navigable but is now
overgrown. By researching
this fact, students begin to
understand climate change
over time and how human
intervention can change the
landscape.
The processes encountered
in the project allow students
to consider future problem
solving and community
problem solving (e.g.
preventing conflicts between
University archaeologists and
the local community). And all
this learning takes place
outside the classroom,
providing a “real-world”
application of their
knowledge and skills.
Student learning and
reflection led to a one-off
event. Members of the public
were invited to attend a
festive engagement session
co-designed and co-lead with
undergraduate students.
Questions were drafted
under broad ESD areas by
students and posed
informally to members of the
public on colourful sheets,
handwritten to add to the
informality. Replies from
locals were captured when
they added their comments
using colourful post-it notes.
The public were able to meet
and chat with students,
learning from their
experiences and enthusiasm,
while our students began to
encounter the unexpected
way their month-long
excursion to Berkeley each
year affects the local society
and its economy.
Embedding Sustainability
Thinking into Fieldwork:
Placing Student Learning
at the Heart of Community
Engagement
Prof. Mark Horton
Aisling Tierney
Charlotte Goudge
In 2015, University of Bristol
(UoB) students and
graduates elected to join this
sustainability education pilot
project run in conjunction
with the Croatoan
Archaeology Society (CAS).
The project was embedded
into existing excavations at
the early contact Native
American site on Hatteras
Island, Outer Banks, North
Carolina run by the
Department of Archaeology
and Anthropology, University
of Bristol.
The sustainability education
project focused on the larger
environment, culture and
ecosystems of the region and
how they were affected by
cultural exchange and the
introduction of new
technologies from the
seventeenth century.
Students designed and
delivered a number of short
interactive learning sessions
for the local community and
school children. The former
was delivered within
community engagement
events co-organised by the
students. The latter shaped
University research learning
for a younger audience, all
within an archaeological
context involving hands-on
learning.
Through learning, reflection
and action students become
co-creators of their own
learning. The project
elevates the students
learning beyond that of a
normal field excavation
opportunity. It develops their
ability to critically reflect, to
engage appropriately with
the public, to utilise local
knowledge effectively and
allows them to explore ways
to transform their learning
into outreach outcomes. This
project serves as an example
of engaged research as it
works with the potential
users of the research, to
generate ideas and research
strategies together.
Any fieldwork, especially that
undertaken abroad, may
suffer from a lack of local
engagement. This project
addresses this problem and
provides solutions that foster
long-term local support
where local knowledge is
valued and incorporated into
academic research. By
valuing local expertise and
inviting participation, public
engagement opportunities
are enhanced.
8. 8
A cluster of projects
Faculty of Arts - Department of Archaeology &
Anthropology
Child-Focused Research
and Empowerment: Putting
Anthropology into Action
Dr. Sarah Winkler Reid
The workshop connected
students with Bristol children
to engage in activities that
allowed them all to explore
issues related to Education
for Sustainable development.
In the process, this would
give students a ‘taster’ of
what participant observation/
ethnographic fieldwork with
children is like in reality
(before it has been shaped
into the academically legible
form we read in the unit), and
an opportunity to apply ‘data’
to theory in the form of
assessed presentations.
Students were asked to read
some methodological
literature as well as Morelli’s
anthropological work on
Matses Children in the
Peruvian Amazon (2014).
The Matses depend on the
river for their livelihood, and
for the children (but not the
adults who prefer the forest),
it is also a source of great
fun. They learn to fish and
canoe on their own from an
early age.
Bristol students learned from
the process of transforming
theory and learning in the
classroom into practice. They
listened to the voices of
children first hand, and had
practical experience of how
particular methods maybe
used to engage with this
group. They developed their
critical thinking, practical
fieldwork, project planning
and reflective skills and
gained an opportunity to
build on this learning for their
subsequent written
assessments. Ultimately,
they experienced ESD as an
integral aspect of the unit.
Interdisciplinary Learning:
Archaeology,
Anthropology and Well-
Being
Professor Alex Bentley
Alberto Acerbi
The project delivered a
series of focused seminars
on sustainability to first-year
undergraduate students
enrolled in the BA
Anthropology unit “Well-
being and society.”
This unit examines concepts
of well-being and livelihood in
both social and global
perspective. The principal
biological and cultural
influences upon well-being
and livelihood are identified
and located in a broader
economic, social and
ecological context.
Methodologically, this unit
relates the traditional
anthropological focus upon
the local community and
small-scale society to the
wider national and
international picture of well-
being in the past as well as in
the present.
Seminar themes covered:
nutrition, environment,
populations, gender,
inequality, migration, and the
Sustainable Development
Goals (U.N.).
All students were required to
write 200-word summaries of
three different articles before
each seminar, for which they
received credit towards their
mark for the unit.
9. 9
A cluster of projects
Faculty of Arts - Department of Archaeology &
Anthropology
Remembrance, Critique
and Memorialisation of
Conflict in the 21st
Century: Fieldtrip and
reflective workshop using
themes of ESD
Dr. Nicholas Saunders
Emily Glass
This 2-day workshop was an
opportunity to develop a
project grounded in the multi-
disciplinary topic of Modern
Conflict Archaeology, which
also related to wider issues
within local and global ESD.
The first day comprised a
fieldtrip to the National
Memorial Arboretum in
Staffordshire which
examined the landscape,
design and context of
memorials. Students
experienced the emotional
and physical ties produced
by conflict enabling them to
gain a deeper and more
nuanced understanding of
the power and possibilities of
contemporary memorialised
spaces and add hitherto
unacknowledged
connections between
ancestors and descendants.
The second day explored
themes of ESD within
Modern Conflict
Archaeology,
Memorialisation, Landscape,
Material Culture, Memory
and Identity through a
reflective classroom critique
where students could
comprehend the subject
within localised and global
contexts.
Primarily, learning-time took
place outside of the
classroom, and as such
provided a real-world
application of their
knowledge and skill. In
addition, the students
benefited from team
discussions which enhanced
their learning and critical
reflection abilities as well as
being a great confidence
booster.
Local Learning:
Sustainability Practice,
Global Links, and Ethics
Dr. Mwenza Blell
Using an existing fieldtrip
within the anthropology
programme, students
travelled to the Exmoor
region to conduct
observational fieldwork.
Students explored places
shaped in different ways by
globalisation over the past
several hundred years to
look at comparable evidence
of sustainability practice.
They mobilised their
anthropology practice on the
ground to ask questions of
their ‘expertness’ and how
they interact with people. Key
topics investigated included
manifestations of rural
poverty versus urban
poverty, and how economic,
social and environmental
justice relate to different
places in different ways.
Following the Exmoor trip,
students visited sites across
Bristol, in the context of the
build up to Bristol European
Green Capital 2015. The
looked at Bristol’s
longstanding and ever-
evolving cultural socio-
economic diversity, taking
their learning back into the
classroom to incorporate it
into class discussions,
presentations and written
assignments.
10. 10
Ethics and Anatomy
Faculty of Biomedical Sciences - Centre for
Comparative and Clinical Anatomy
Sarah Gosling
Jenny McNamara
Margaret Gatumu
The human anatomy units at
the Centre for Comparative
and Clinical Anatomy
(CCCA) equip students with
a broad structural knowledge
of the human body. The
history of body donation,
anatomical exhibition and
past teaching methods are
introduced briefly and early in
the course.
This project aims to explore
these themes further, giving
the students time for
reflection in what is otherwise
a very fact-based unit. The
project will be carried out in
the first couple of weeks of
teaching block 2. At this
point, the students will be
suitably proficient in their
anatomy knowledge to be
able to make sense of the
trip, but will also have time to
apply what they have learnt
to the second half of the
academic year.
Specific emphasis will be
placed on ESD issues
including ethical approaches
to the exhibition of
anatomical specimens and
social responses to
anatomical diversity and
abnormality. Students will
travel to London to visit the
world famous Hunterian
museum. The museum
boasts an extensive
collection of ‘normal’ and
pathological examples
displayed in glass and
perspex pots, including a
vast assemblage of
embryological specimens.
The visit will begin with an
introductory tour of the
museum by the collection’s
curator, after which the
students will be given time to
explore the collection for
themselves. Although we will
be allowing each student a
chance to have their own
individual experience of the
museum, we will provide
them with a series of
questions designed to
stimulate further thought.
These will largely relate to
the ethics of the ESD issues
described above.
At the end of the day,
students will be given the
chance to reflect on their
experience in small groups.
Each group will be asked to
create a short interview-style
video relating to specific
questions on the subjects
discussed above. The videos
will be collated on a google
drive, and then collated into a
‘film’ by a member of staff.
After a few days of reflection,
the students will be invited to
attend an additional session,
where the film will be shown.
It is hoped that this will allow
the students to experience
the different opinions voiced
in just their small cohort. A
whole group discussion
about the experience will
follow.
This exercise in reflection is
an innovative addition to the
human anatomy course, and
will allow the students to gain
experience in public
speaking and group
discussion, skills key to any
future based in anatomy or
beyond.
A field trip of this sort will
provide the students with
essential skills for their future
careers, as well as
stimulating them into deep
thought and discussion of the
ethical issues faced by
anatomists in our modern
society. It will therefore
greatly enhance the impact
of Human Anatomy teaching
at the CCCA.
11. Aisling E. P. Tierney, Research Associate
Academic Quality and Partnerships Office: Academic Registry
Room 2.04, Senate House, Bristol, BS8 1TH
Email a.tierney@bristol.ac.uk
bristol.ac.uk/green/doing/sustainability-courses/