Good news from the Department of Natural Sciences

Dr Theresa Nicholson attended the Higher Education Academy, presenting four papers and delivering an interactive workshop, Dr Kathryn Adamson gave a keynote talk at the OCR A-level curriculum panel, Dr Edward Randviir is highlighted as an outstanding reviewer and Dr Iestyn Barr was a keynote speaker at the Geographical Association Meeting.

Dr Theresa Nicholson attends the Higher Education Academy Annual Conference

Dr Theresa Nicholson attended the Higher Education Academy Annual Conference and sixth international Assessment in Higher Education Conference, both held in Manchester. In all, Theresa presented four papers and delivered an interactive workshop.

Theresa presented one paper on ‘Engaging students in partnership to develop inclusive curricula’, the outcomes of a project exploring the influence of belongingness, self-confidence and inclusion on student engagement in Environmental and Geographical Sciences.

The interactive workshop ‘Diversity Dash! Game-based exploration of student diversity and inclusive curricula,’ was very enthusiastically received. Delegates agreed to take part in further evaluation of the game. A student team from the Department of Computing and Mathematics is now working with Theresa to develop an interactive website for their Live Project scheme and two further workshops were run in October.

Theresa presented (at both conferences) on ‘Enhancing digital literacy and employability through online portfolio assessment’, reporting the outcomes from a phased integration of an online portfolio into a Level Four tutorial-based unit. One paper focused on digital literacy and employability outcomes, while the other explored the implications for student engagement, assessment and feedback.

Theresa also gave a joint paper with Kath Botham on ‘Embedding Reasonable Adjustments in the Curriculum (ERAC): A Faculty-wide approach to inclusive teaching’.

Dr Kathryn Adamson gave a keynote talk at the OCR A-level curriculum panel

Dr Kathryn Adamson gave a keynote talk at the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA (OCR) A-level curriculum panel, which took place in October, on attracting students to Geography at university.

She also spoke at the Royal Geographical Society Institute of British Geographers in London earlier this month on glacial environments in the new A-level curriculum.

Dr Edward Randviir highlighted as an outstanding reviewer

Dr Edward Randviir was highlighted as an oustanding reviewer in the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC's) quarterly "Voice." Ed has reviewed nearly 100 articles across three journals for the RSC and was quoted in the RSC's peer review week feature on their website.

Dr Iestyn Barr invited as keynote speaker at Geographical Association Meeting

Dr Iestyn Barr was a keynote speaker at the Geographical Association meeting in October, where he presented glacial environments and the new schools curriculum.