November 27, 2013, by Nottingham Advantage Award

The Award cares about sustainability

The Nottingham Advantage Award is constantly evolving and adding many new exciting modules and opportunities for students to take “advantage” of to increase their employability and develop their career skills. The Environmental Sustainability Project Management module is one such module that is up and running at the moment. Helen Rutherford, the module convenor, shares a bit more about the aims, activities and assessments built into the curriculum.

“The environmental sustainability project management module is designed provide the participants with many different skills and allow them to gain a broader understanding of sustainability. The module encourage the students to research what their university is doing to reduce its environmental impact and how they can engage with other students to convey this message.

The main activity within the module is the creation and presentation of a short film which highlights an area of sustainability which the participants have decided on and which they believe will resonate with the students and staff of The University of Nottingham and to wider audience.  The students on the module are more likely to know what is important to other students with regards the environment and sustainability and can use this to their advantage and produce a powerful video.

The film and a short reflective essay are the only assessments which are needed to complete the module. The assessment isn’t too taxing, and the essay is more for the students to contemplate the module; what they have learnt, how was working within a team and what aspects need to be improved.

The value of the module is to encourage students who have an interest and a passion for sustainability to create something which will inform and engage with the larger student population. Sustainability is a topic which is now increasing in importance, not only at university but globally as well, this module allows students to complete in depth research into an area of their choosing, which their  academic course may not permit. The Sustainability Team sees great value in the module as the team use the videos on their website to promote the work of the University and have found in the past that peer to peer connection is a more powerful communication tool than a member of staff “preaching” to the students and staff.”

Examples of previous videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRNlMFgtdC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC5uLEdpR1c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE5v-YsBfvQ

If you would like to find out more about the Environmental Sustainability Project Management module you can visit the webpage or you can contact the module convenor, Helen.Rutherford@nottingham.ac.uk . If you would like to find out how you can become part of the Nottingham Advantage Award, we invite you to visit our Getting Started Page or attend an Introductory or Drop-In Session.

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