Reflections on informal sustainability learning at Chelmsford Science Fair

Reflections by John Gibson, ARU’s Education for Sustainability Co-ordinator

Illustration showing a bee, the sun, flowers, musical notes, scientific equipment, and Hylands House in Chelmsford

As part of the annual science festival at ARU Chelmsford, Harry Orchard, ARU’s Sustainability Officer, and I teamed up to create an exciting stall for visiting college students. Our goal was to make learning about sustainability fun and engaging, boost students’ knowledge and confidence, inspire them to consider careers in the field and encourage them to reflect on their experiences.

The students’ knowledge about sustainability varied, but seeing how many cared about it was heartening. It certainly felt like they were more aware of its importance than I was at their age. Throughout the activities, we used scaffold and spiral learning techniques to build their confidence, which can be a barrier for some students. The stall allowed us to provide constructive support to promote contemplation on sustainability in the modern world.

The sustainability stall at the Chelmsford Science Fair

The ARU sustainability stall at the Chelmsford Science Fair 2024

The ARU sustainability stall at the Chelmsford Science Fair 2024

We started with a fun, messy activity: making bird feeders from pinecones, vegetable fat, and seeds. Many students had done similar craft activities before, which helped spark their interest. This hands-on task allowed us to ask them questions such as, “Why is this good for local wildlife?” and “How does this help reduce carbon emissions?”. These open-ended questions encouraged students to reflect on their environmental impact and global carbon emissions. Their responses were insightful, with comments like, “We used to see more birds in our garden, but maybe that's because of that new development being built,” and “I never thought about the impact of travel.”

With their hands messy and minds engaged, we moved on to the next activity. We challenged their understanding of carbon emissions with the Carbon Footprinting game “How Bad Are Bananas?”. This quiz-style game added an element of fun while prompting engagement about the varied sources of carbon emissions. Students guessed the carbon footprint of various items and debated their answers, often surprised by the actual values. Comments such as, “I never knew that” and “I’m not doing that anymore” were common.

The final activity allowed them to work individually or as a group. They were given two questions and asked to write their thoughts on blank cards and hang them on washing line-style ropes. Some completed their reflections at the stall, while others took their cards away and returned later, continuing to debate their answers.

The questions we posed to the students were:

Their answers varied widely, from electric cars, better recycling, and vegetarian diets to carbon-free travel and even more profound ideas like societal change and encouraging communities to embrace sustainability.

The students had quite a journey at our stall, moving from the past to the present and then looking into the future. Some students stayed with us for the entire hour, deeply engaged with this critical topic and feeling a personal connection to it. The progression of activities helped develop inquisitive students' knowledge without overloading them with information.

This blend of activities and knowledge from the team provided the students with practical advice relevant to their lives and hopefully filled them with hope for the future. It was a fantastic experience for us, too, and we hope it inspired the students to see sustainability as an integral part of their lives and futures. We hope to see some of these students walking the corridors of Anglia Ruskin University soon, using these initial sustainability experiences to spark an interest in the topic or at least have a few more pinecone bird feeders hanging in their gardens for some years to come.



Please feel free to contact our team if you need help with sustainability initiatives or events at the university or would benefit from collaborating with an outreach project. Email us on [email protected]