Yesterday, I took part in a session on ‘Innovation in Arctic education and public outreach’ at the 8th UK Arctic Science Conference in Cambridge, organised by the UK Arctic Office and the British Antarctic Survey. In my presentation, I introduced and reported on results from my Scotland Model Arctic Council (SCOTMAC) programme for undergraduate students, including …
Presentation at 3rd Model UN Advisors Conference
It’s been four years, punctuated by one pandemic, since Model UN advisors have been able to meet for a staff training day. MUN advisors are secondary-school teachers who coordinate model diplomacy at their schools, and who mentor their pupils to understand and take part in diplomatic simulations. At its best, model diplomacy like MUN is …
5th Online Mini Model Arctic Council for Trent University
Yesterday, I ran my fifth online ‘mini’ Model Arctic Council (MAC) for students at Trent University, as well as students from other universities and countries studying online with Trent through the UArctic Circumpolar Studies programme. Like my previous mini-MACs, which students seem to have found enjoyable and educational, the online simulation was the capstone project …
Model Arctic Council for sustainable development
I argue that Model Arctic Council (MAC) has a role to play in Arctic sustainable development. Like the better-known Model United Nations (MUN), MAC is a form of simulation pedagogy, an experiential learning process in which secondary-school pupils or university students comprehend the nature and importance of complex issues such as sustainable development by imagining …
Second Lecture to Royal Geographical Society East of England
The Arctic is governed from capitals far away—including Moscow, which oversees half of the region, and which is now locked in a geopolitical struggle with the Western capitals overseeing the other half. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has upended Arctic diplomacy, and one of the most important and fast-changing parts of our warming globe is fractured …
Evidence to UK Parliament Arctic inquiry
Today, I submitted written evidence to an inquiry on the UK and the Arctic environment, which was called by the UK Parliament’s Environmental Sub-Committee on Arctic Research, a select committee of the House of Commons. My evidence focused on the constructive role that the UK could play in supporting the Arctic Council, whose vital diplomatic …
Keynote at Haarlem Model United Nations
Thank you very much to the Secretariat of the Haarlem Model United Nations (HMUN) at Stedelijk Gymnasium Haarlem in the Netherlands—and in particular to the two HMUN Secretaries General, who were outstanding participants in my MAC Bilbao 5 conference earlier this year—for inviting me to speak at HMUN today. I was very pleased to be …
Bringing the Arctic to Abbeygate Sixth-Form College
I’m most grateful to Abby Lord for inviting me into two of her A-Level Geography classes at Abbeygate Sixth-Form College yesterday to speak with students about the Arctic. As with my visit to Ringsfield Primary School, I arrived in the full gear I would wear when ‘on the land’ in the Arctic, so that the …
Keynote at University of Nottingham Model United Nations
Many thanks to the University of Nottingham United Nations Society for inviting me to give a keynote talk at their Nottingham Model United Nations (NOTTSMUN) conference today. I’m proud to say that one of their Secretariat team participated in the second Norwich Model Arctic Council for University last year and, inspired by that experience, selected …
Scotland Model Arctic Council 2
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 …