I’ve just returned from Glasgow, where I ran the second Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC) at the Mary Robinson Centre for Climate Justice at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU). A tremendous experience—easily one of the most intense and rewarding of the two-dozen-plus MACs that I’ve run, with some of the most engaged, energetic and committed student …
Tag: Model Arctic Council
Norwich Model Arctic Council for Schools 7
This weekend, I ran my seventh Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC) for schools, still so far as I know the world’s only stand-alone Model Arctic Council programme for secondary-school pupils. NORMAC 7 involved 20 pupils from two schools and, like at WYCOMAC 3 and MAC Bilbao 5 this year, delegates grappled with the issue of …
Presentation at 25th Arctic Science Summit Week
This past Tuesday, I took part in a session on ‘Educational innovation and pedagogy for the Anthropocene Arctic’ at the 25th Arctic Science Summit Week in Vienna, Austria, organised by the International Arctic Science Committee, the Austrian Polar Research Institute and the University of Vienna. Together with my colleague Dr Sennan Mattar from the Mary Robinson …
Model Arctic Council Bilbao 5
I always look forward to returning each January to the wonderful city of Bilbao, Spain, to run Model Arctic Council Bilbao (MAC Bilbao) at Colegio Ayalde—now in its fifth year. Always my most ‘international’ conference, MAC Bilbao 5 took place last weekend, and it involved 28 secondary-school pupils from ten schools in France, Hungary, the …
Wycombe Model Arctic Council 3
It was a delight to return to Wycombe Abbey last week to run the third Wycombe Model Arctic Council (WYCOMAC) alongside the school’s annual Model United Nations (MUN) conference. WYCOMAC 3 was a small but intense simulation involving 17 pupils from four secondary schools tackling one of the thorniest diplomatic questions that I have yet …
Norwich Model Arctic Council for University 2
The second Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC) for University has been a long time in coming. It was intended to take place in the summer of 2020, a year after the first NORMAC for University. The pandemic scuppered those plans, as well as plans for the summer of 2021. So it was with a keen …
Wycombe Model Arctic Council 2
It was a pleasure to return to the leafy and beautiful school grounds of Wycombe Abbey last weekend for the second Wycombe Model Arctic Council (WYCOMAC), which took place alongside Wycombe Abbey’s Model United Nations conference. Originally scheduled for January, WYCOMAC 2 was postponed to May due to the pandemic, and disruptions to scheduling meant …
Presentation at 7th UK Arctic Science Conference
Yesterday, I took part in a session on ‘Innovation in Arctic education and public outreach’ at the Seventh UK Arctic Science Conference, organised by the UK Arctic Office, the Durham Arctic Research Centre and Durham University. I reported on the launch of the Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC) for undergraduate students, which took place a …
Student remarks on SCOTMAC
I’m most grateful to Erica Zaja, a fourth-year undergraduate student reading Ecological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, for her very positive reflections on the first-ever Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC). Erica took part as a delegate, never having experienced model diplomacy, and she had this to say in her guest post on …
Scotland Model Arctic Council
The faculty, staff and students of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) are rather fortunate of geography. Their institute, the oldest and largest of its kind in Scotland, is surrounded by the sea on three sides, sharing with ancient Dunstaffnage Castle a small promontory at the conjunction of Loch Etive and Loch Linnhe on …