Last week, 26 pupils from 11 secondary schools gathered at Colegio Ayalde in Bilbao, Spain, for the second annual Model Arctic Council Bilbao (MAC Bilbao). They came from schools in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the USA, and they also represented China and Turkey as home countries. As at MAC Bilbao 2018, pupils attending this year’s conference played …
Category: Teaching
Presentation at 2nd UArctic Congress
It was a pleasure to attend the 2018 UArctic Congress last week, co-hosted by the University of Oulu and the University of Helsinki in Finland. The conference was UArctic’s second large-scale meeting of scholars and other professionals dedicated to Arctic studies. I heard many interesting presentations, especially in the area of Arctic education, one of …
Norwich Model Arctic Council 3
The third annual Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC) convened over the weekend of 23rd to 25th February at Norwich School in the UK. A larger event that NORMAC 2017, this year’s conference involved 46 pupils from 8 secondary schools in the UK and Spain. Two of the schools involved were UK international schools, and participating …
Model Arctic Council Bilbao
Just over a week ago, 28 pupils from seven secondary schools in Italy, the Netherlands, Saudia Arabia, Spain and the United Kingdom gathered at Colegio Ayalde in Bilbao, Spain, for the inaugural Model Arctic Council Bilbao (MAC Bilbao). Over the course of three days, from 25th to 28th January, they played the roles of …
Panel discussion at 9th International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences
Last weekend, I visited Umeå University in northern Sweden, where I had the honour of co-chairing a panel discussion about a pair of recent Model Arctic Council conferences at the Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences. My co-chair, Mr Jeff Kormos of the University of Northern British Columbia, and three other panellists first considered …
Norwich Model Arctic Council 2
Over the weekend of 21st to 23rd April, 35 pupils from six secondary schools gathered at Norwich School in the UK for the second annual Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC). So far as I know, NORMAC is the only secondary-school level Model Arctic Council in the world today. Like the better-known Model United Nations, NORMAC …
Launching the Norwich Model Arctic Council
In July 2016, a group of secondary-school pupils convened in Norwich, UK, for the inaugural Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC). An educational initiative of Polar Aspect, in collaboration with and hosted by Norwich School, NORMAC is intended to raise awareness of the Arctic; to inspire pupils to learn more about the region, its peoples and its challenges; and …
Presentation at 1st UArctic Congress
Last week, I had the privilege to attend the 2016 UArctic Congress, hosted by St Petersburg University in the strikingly handsome city of St Petersburg, Russia. UArctic is a consortium of universities conducting research on the circumpolar North, and the conference involved delegates from many countries. It was the first such conference organised by UArctic—and …
Norwich Model Arctic Council
Earlier this month, a group of secondary-school pupils from Norwich School gathered together for the first Norwich Model Arctic Council (NORMAC), an educational initiative I’ve recently developed to raise awareness and understanding of the Arctic amongst youth. Whilst there have been a number of Model Arctic Councils at postgraduate level, NORMAC is so far as …
Guest teaching at Oxford University
On Thursday, November 28, I’ll be at the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, where I’ll make a guest appearance in the “Northlands: Peoples and Politics” undergraduate course convened by Dr Richard Powell and Professor Judy Pallot. Dr Powell plans to discuss the economic geography of the Arctic in the …