ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR ALL

A team from Keele is leading a £200k project funded by the Higher Education Academy to see how environmental education can be embedded more widely in university programmes.

Professor  Pat Bailey, pictured, Dr Zoe Robinson, Professor Mark Ormerod, Dr Peter Knight (Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics) and Dr Stephen Bostock (Research Institute for Social Sciences) constitute the Keele "team", with Manchester and Staffordshire universities, collaborating in the project entitled "Hybrid PBL: a scalable approach to sustainability education?". 

The three universities will be exploring ways in which real or imaginary scenarios can be used as vehicles for students to learn about environmental issues (so called "problem based learning" or PBL), and blending this with other approaches to learning, in order to improve participation.

Pat, Zoe and Stephen are also part of a Green Academy team from Keele, which has been chosen to work with seven other universities in exploring ways of  'greening the curriculum'; the other team members from Keele are Dr Phil Catney, Dr Sharon George and Cheryl Ripley.

STRATEGIC PLAN REVIEW

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, held the second of two open meetings with staff to discuss the review of the University's Strategic Plan 2010-15, being undertaken in response to the changing external environment of higher education.

The Vice- Chancellor's presentation provided an overview of the review process and summarised proposals made so far in relation to the structure, format and content of the Strategic Plan, including proposals to include a statement of Vision, to revise the Mission Statement and to expand upon the shared Values of the University. Staff had the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback on the proposals and discuss directly with the Vice-Chancellor their views on the University's future direction.
 
The presentation was simultaneously streamed via video link to the UG Medical School on the Hospital campus to enable staff there to contribute directly to the meeting.

All staff are encouraged to be part of the consultation process.  Those staff who were unable to attend the two meetings but would like to contribute to the consultation are invited to provide their comments on the Strategic Plan via an online survey.

The online survey together with a copy of the presentation slides and film of the open meeting can all be found at http://www.keele.ac.uk/strategicplansurvey.  Responses to the survey, which ends on 28 February, will be fed directly into the review.

Alternatively, you may wish to provide your comments and views to the Vice- Chancellor directly via his email at: emailthevc@vco.keele.ac.uk.

RESEARCHER ATTRACTED TO MAGNETIC FACILITIES IN FRANCE

Dr Ying Yang, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine/ Reader in Biomaterials, has been granted a secondment during 2011 to the EuroMagNetII facilities at Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses in Grenoble, France. 

EuroMagNetII co-ordinates the four major facilities in Europe for research in high magnetic fields and supports secondments through the Seventh Framework Programme.  Dr Yang's work at the facility will focus on the generation of orthogonally aligned natural fibres in hybrid hydrogels. This research aims to create biomimetic materials from which corneal tissue can be regenerated to combat several medical conditions leading to blindness. It is a continuation of her previous work of uniaxial aligned collagen fibres, which are also fabricated under high magnetic fields up to 12 Teslas.

RESEARCH NETWORK GRANT SUCCESS

The Emerging Securities Research Unit has won part of a major research network grant to sustain the four-year Espace et Territoire, an international and interdisciplinary network of projects between universities in France, UK, Belgium, Brazil, and Spain, worth 210,000 Euros and funded by the Agence Nationale De La Recherche.

Leading the UK node of the project with a team of anthropologists and designers at Cresson in Grenoble, Dr Peter Adey, pictured, and Dr Luis Lobo-Guerrero, Research Institute for Social Sciences, will work on the Spatial Enigmas theme, worth around 32,000 Euros. Focusing on public mobility infrastructures, the team will use experimental site-visits to examine the experience of everyday security and surveillance practices and techniques, threats and risks. The exchange of PhD students and possible research student funding will also be allocated from the project.

INTERNATIONAL SONG AND DANCE

Hawthorns Halls Council and International Student Support hosted the first International Song and Dance Showcase at the Lindsay Cafe Bar.

Undergraduate, postgraduate and exchange students from overseas and the UK danced, sang, played music and read poetry in a competition for prizes. 

The event filled the Cafe Bar with crowds of students attending to support their friends, providing a very lively atmosphere.

From the 11 acts taking part, the £100 first prize went to Salsa and Bhangra dance partners Takshima Seth and Mithila Wanasinghe. Selina Yang won 2nd prize of £50 for performing a traditional Chinese song and singing piano and guitar duo, Tim Bartley and Aleksander Sedgwick-Wilde, took the £25 3rd prize. Due to the success of the event there are plans for an annual International Song and Dance Showcase.

LECTURER HEADS TO KENYA FOR CHARITY WORK

Senior lecturer Dr Diego Garro, Music Technology, is heading to Kenya to help with construction work on a charity project. He will join a team of volunteers with ActionAid UK to build a classroom for a primary school in Marafa, near the coastal town of Malindi.

Diego, who recently completed a triathlon to help reach his £3,000 fundraising target, said: "I began supporting ActionAid 11 years ago. Having sponsored seven children in Tanzania, Gambia and Kenya, I decided to go there myself, to those communities, to those people I have so far helped only financially."

To support Diego, visit his website at: www.myactionaid.org.uk/diegogoestokenya/diegogoestokenya.

KEELE SCIENTIST HOPES TO WIN STUDENTS' VOTES

Dr Jamie Pringle, a lecturer in Engineering and Environmental Geosciences, is one of 30 scientists chosen from more than 200 applicants to take part in an online science outreach event, I'm a Scientist, Get me out of Here, next month.

The award-winning project, funded by the Wellcome Trust, sees teenagers from Years 9 to 13 posing questions online to real scientists from across the UK and learning about how science affects their daily lives. The students vote for the scientist they think deserve the £500 prize and those with the fewest votes are evicted until only the winners remain.

Jamie, who will be answering questions within the Forensic Science zone, said: "I'm looking forward to taking part and talking about science to students across the UK. I'm just hoping I don't get voted out at an early stage!"

For more information about the event see http://imascientist.org.uk/

KEELE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL THIS WEEK…..

A Japanese Film screening – 'Twilight Samurai' in room CBA1.076, Monday, 21 February, from 4:00pm – 6:30pm; all are welcome to attend.

This week also sees the start of 'Shifting Landscapes': a five day set of workshops for invited participants from Stoke-on-Trent's refugee and asylum seeker community.

It is being supported through the National Student Volunteering Week and Becky Wardell (VE at Keele). Finally, to round off the week, the KPA Clubhouse is hosting a World Music Night on Saturday, 26 February from 7:00pm.

Further details about the festival and how to be involved can be found at www.keele.ac.uk/internationalfestival/

PRO VICE-CHANCELLOR APPOINTED

Professor Mark Ormerod, currently Head of the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, has, subject to formal approval by Senate and Council, been appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise).

Professor Ormerod was appointed as a Lecturer in Physical and Inorganic Chemistry at Keele in 1992, having previously held the Oppenheimer Research Fellowship and a College Research Fellowship at Cambridge University for three years. In 1997 he was awarded a five year EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship and was promoted to Professor. He was appointed Head of the newly formed School of Physical and Geographical Sciences in August 2005.

STUDENT OF THE YEAR AWARD

The prestigious Neil and Gina Smith Student of the Year Award 2011, which offers a £5,000 prize to a final year, full-time undergraduate student at Keele, was launched this week.

The award is presented to the student who demonstrates a combination of outstanding academic excellence/ achievement, together with outstanding achievement/ contribution as an individual to student life and/or the University.

Students can apply for the award, or can be nominated by their Head of School or Dean of Faculty. The closing date is 1 April.

For further information email: studentoftheyear @keele.ac.uk.

BRITISH ACADEMY AWARD

SPIRE lecturer, Naveed Sheikh, has been awarded an Overseas Conference Grant by the British Academy to enable him to be one of a select few foreign guest speakers at a conference on Islam and International Relations, hosted by the University of Guilan in Rasht, Iran.

This week, Naveed, Research Institute for Social Sciences, pictured above, was part of a national panel on Career Development in Islamic Studies, convened by the Higher Education Academy at Aston Business School.

GATES SCHOLAR STUDIED AT KEELE

A recent study abroad student at Keele, Margaret Carpenter, has won a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship to return to England to study for a MMus in Choral Studies. 

Margaret Carpenter, University of North Carolina, studied at Keele last spring when she was a student conductor of the Keele Bach Choir and the Keele Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir. She is the first Gates Cambridge Scholar to have studied at Keele.

WORLD SERVICE INTERVIEW

Dr Emma Dawson, Learning Development Unit, was interviewd on the BBC World Service last weekend about her new book promoting new Kenyan writers.

Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya is the fourth in CCC Press's series of World Englishes Literature Fiction, which aims to promote emerging writers unknown in the West. The 15 stories in the collection tackle themes such as politics, reality tv, love, family, identity and money.

The interview can be found here. Scroll down to 'chapter 3': 'African Writing'.

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENT

The following academic appointment commenced in post this week:

School of Life Sciences

Mr David Hulse, Teaching Fellow in Animal Physiology, who was previously a Senior Lecturer in Animal Management at Reaseheath College.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Forty-five years ago -

Amongst the grants announced by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation of Lisbon, Keele received £3,000 towards the cost of the Resident Fellowship in the Creative Arts. 25 February 1966.