Mission Statement

Sustainability Physics 

Background 

Melissa Lord (Ogden Trust Consultant) and Phil Furneaux (Lancaster University Teacher Fellow plus IOP teacher coach consultant) met at an IOP NW regional meeting and shared their interest in sustainability. Phil presented the idea of extending his Lancaster Physics Homework Questions project.  After a teacher CPD session, homework questions are developed by him and then posted as a resource on the Lancaster Physics Outreach page. 

Melissa’s interest brought the project into the NW as a whole, included innovative business and industry involved in reducing carbon footprints. Much of the rationale for a low personal carbon footprint is based on simple physics. These principles can influence good teaching practice such as giving Physics a context and as a resource for non-specialist teaching. 

Together they formulated this mission statement. 

Paul Sapple was invited to join the small working party to help the project on direction and implementation plus advise how to bring in the Ogden Trust as a possible funder. 

Mission Statement: 

Physics of Sustainability: Teacher Resource Website 

We aim to produce a website which can be used by teachers in the North West UK to resource their Physics lessons at all levels to increase the awareness of student understanding of sustainability and the research at their local Universities and innovative applications in industry and business. 

The main characteristic of the website would be: 

  • easy to access and navigate 
  • Provide short video feeds for introduction to topics 
  • Provide easy to access information related to the topics 
  • Provide a range of self-assessed homework for students which will link to the research at the local university. 

Through the website we aim to 

  • Show links between the physics principles and sustainability 
  • Inform students how to reduce their carbon footprint 
  • Engage students of the research on sustainability undertaken by NW universities and their partners 
  • Provide a context for physics principles within sustainability applications, especially, but not exclusively, relevant for teachers out of specialism.  
  • Introduce students to careers in low-carbon economy 
  • Have ideas that readily impact schemes of work for delivery to students at all levels.  
  • Engage students in data analysis activities, giving a sense of purpose. 

We aim to have a website to for all of this with clear links to work that is going on in the NW of England and with which the students can easily identify, and with short and engaging video clips.