The Manchester Sustainable City Project Course Unit (SCIN20002)
A Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI) programme
What is it?
- A new cross-faculty 10 credit course unit in which multidisciplinary student teams (5-8/team) work with local organisations on sustainable development projects across Manchester.
- Open to 2nd year undergraduates (with approval from your course director) from semester 2 2010.
Where and when?
The course takes place on Tuesdays, 4.00pm - 6.00pm, starting on 2nd February 2010 at the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (CEEBL), C24 Sackville Street Building.
Jonathan Sadler, MCC - Green City Team
Talks about student projects on environmental sustainability in collaboration with the Green City Team:
“There are an incredible number of projects that we’d like to do, and we see that as a real opportunity to involve local university students who can help us with the work that they’re doing, but to give them something which will hopefully be valuable to their studies and to their CVs ultimately. In a way it’s them acting in a consultancy role in the same way that you get paid consultants working everyday really, offering a real-life project that a student can work with us on...”
Why should you take this course unit?
In this course unit you will be able to:
- apply your knowledge locally and improve your
employability. - work with other students from other backgrounds in small
multidisciplinary teams. - gain valuable teamwork experience, communication and
leadership skills. - learn how to respond constructively to feedback from peers
and project partners. - develop project management, negotiation and problem
solving skills in a real world setting. - improve your employability by working on a real project
with a local business, charity, the city council or a University
department. - follow your research interests by formulating your own
questions and investigating them within the project. - demonstrate and improve your presentation skills by
presenting your findings in a poster presentation event.
What do other students say about working on similar projects?
It’s “more realistic to actual job situations”
It “provided insight into the ways partnership working is carried out”
How does it work?
The small student teams
- are formed based around project interests.
- negotiate and respond to a project brief under the guidance of a facilitator and receive guidance and feedback from their project partner organisation.
- keep an individual reflective portfolio that tracks progress of project work.
- research solutions and work with local community members and/or other stakeholders on the project.
- present a poster of their results to their peers and their project partners – feedback is given to inform a final report.
- submit a final report at the end of the unit (May 2010).
What are the projects?
- Waste Strategy - Research into quantity and variety of wastes,
particularly recyclables, arising from commercial premises in
Manchester. - Environmental Protection - Research project on the industrial
processes in the City since 1990 to examine how industrial
activity in the City and the sources of pollution have changed
over time. - Parks - Bee hives are being installed in parks around the city
from 2009 – how do we measure the benefits of our keeping
bees in parks? - Sustainable Behaviour - Promoting and Assessing Behavioural
Change to Minimise Environmental Impacts in Halls of
Residence at the University of Manchester – Collaboration with
the STARS Carbon Control Competition. - Regeneration - Identify interim uses for transitional land in
New East Manchester.
These are examples of possible projects. A variety of projects will
be available for the course unit.
Manchester Sustainable City Project Leaflet
This course unit is a collaboration between the Sustainable Consumption Institute and the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning.
Facebook Group: The Manchester Sustainable City Project Course Unit (SCIN20002)
