Green City Projects: Collaboration with the Manchester City Council
Sustainable development is a key concept that is increasingly taught throughout the University and is being put into practice in local communities.
The Green City Project initiative seeks to better connect student learning and local community practice by providing opportunities for students from different disciplines to collaborate on enquiry-based learning projects on environment and sustainable development issues for the Manchester City Council and the Green City team (http://www.manchestergreencity.co.uk/ ).
To view a list of projects click here.
Green City Projects is a cross-faculty initiative open to students and staff from all disciplines. The objectives of this initiative are:
1) To enable students to apply their learning to real environmental/sustainable development problems of priority to the City Council and gain experience in a work-like environment.
2) To facilitate cross-disciplinary peer-learning and collaboration and to improve students’ awareness of other disciplines’ ways of working.
Some of the current project areas include: Sustainable Construction, Environmental Health, Sustainable Energy, Regeneration, and Sustainable Events Management
Project organisers from the City Council work with a member of University staff and a student/group of students to draw up a project brief that address the Council’s needs, the dissertation or class requirements and the student’s interests. Where appropriate, students or student groups from different disciplines are brought together to work on different aspects of the same project. Coordination and logistical support is provided by a member of staff at TEAM and two postgraduate assistants. Students are provided with an opportunity to interact, share results and collaborate via an online Blackboard website and participate in a plenary discussion to present the outcome of their projects.
We need the help of interested staff to make this project successful. Do you know, supervise or have contact with students (MSc or BSc/BA) who will undertake dissertation projects who might be interested in these opportunities to work with the City Council? Do you teach a class that broadly relates to the environment or sustainable development that could allow students to work on a project as a component of their assessed work?
Green City Projects is supported by the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning (CEEBL) through a Small Project Grant and by the Sustainable Consumption Institute.
