Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes
Lead Research Organisation:
Manchester Metropolitan University
Department Name: Faculty of Education
Abstract
The future of treescapes belongs to children and young people. Yet there is a lack of interdisciplinary research that explores their engagement with treescapes over time. This project aims to re-imagine future treescapes with children and young people, working with local and national partners including Natural England, Forest Research and the Community Forests and Scottish stakeholders. We will identify opportunities and barriers to treescape expansion and pilot innovative child and youth-focused pathways to realising this goal. We will create curricula material which will be disseminated with the support of our project partners, Early Childhood Outdoors and the Chartered College of Teachers.
The aim of this project is to integrate children and young people's knowledge, experiences, and hopes with scientific knowledge of how trees adapt to and mitigate climate change in order to co-produce new approaches to creating and caring for resilient treescapes that benefit the environment and society. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches and in collaboration with stakeholders, the team will produce a 'lexicon of experience' that captures the ecological identities of children and young people. An audit of existing activity in the field of activism and treescapes, with a particular focus on marginalised groups, will inform the project. In particular, the project will produce new material for use by practitioners, educators and policy makers that will inform future treescape planting and will be rolled out nationally, with the help of our project partners. Novel methods for assessing carbon storage in trees and soil will inform a 'tree-twinning' project to enable children and young people to recognise how they can relate to treescapes. Children and young people will draw on the scientific work together with their lived experience to balance their evolving carbon footprint with the changing treescapes they have partnered with. New treescapes will be planted with the help of Community Forests and local authorities. Learning will be enhanced by the scientific project on tree-twinning, embedded within the project, to advance knowledge about the relationship between climate science and urban trees. This research will be carried out with children and young people as co-researchers.
The project will focus on hope as a vital ingredient of future planning and philosophically and practically create a set of actions to look to the future while addressing temporalities, including past archival work on trees. It will work with cohorts of young people across early years, primary, secondary and young people out of school, as well as families and communities, to think about and engage with treescapes, to plan as well as plant new treescapes and to engage in treescape thinking and curricula innovation. Working with Natural England as project partners, a toolkit will be developed to guide this work and a set of resources and outputs to be rolled out nationally that inspire and inform future generations of children and young people to become involved in treescapes, which will re-shape the disciplinary landscape of treescapes research and inform policy and practice. Community forest planners, policy-makers and practitioners will better understand how to engage children and young people in treescapes and how to work with their knowledges to inspire and inform future generations. Innovative approaches to arts and humanities, environmental science and social science will produce a new understanding of how combining disciplines can further treescape research with children and young people. The project will also advance methodological understandings of the relationship between children and young people and treescapes with a focus on co-production and attending to lived experience while conducting environmental scientific research. New knowledge in the fields of environmental and social science will create new disciplinary paradigms and concepts.
The aim of this project is to integrate children and young people's knowledge, experiences, and hopes with scientific knowledge of how trees adapt to and mitigate climate change in order to co-produce new approaches to creating and caring for resilient treescapes that benefit the environment and society. Drawing on interdisciplinary approaches and in collaboration with stakeholders, the team will produce a 'lexicon of experience' that captures the ecological identities of children and young people. An audit of existing activity in the field of activism and treescapes, with a particular focus on marginalised groups, will inform the project. In particular, the project will produce new material for use by practitioners, educators and policy makers that will inform future treescape planting and will be rolled out nationally, with the help of our project partners. Novel methods for assessing carbon storage in trees and soil will inform a 'tree-twinning' project to enable children and young people to recognise how they can relate to treescapes. Children and young people will draw on the scientific work together with their lived experience to balance their evolving carbon footprint with the changing treescapes they have partnered with. New treescapes will be planted with the help of Community Forests and local authorities. Learning will be enhanced by the scientific project on tree-twinning, embedded within the project, to advance knowledge about the relationship between climate science and urban trees. This research will be carried out with children and young people as co-researchers.
The project will focus on hope as a vital ingredient of future planning and philosophically and practically create a set of actions to look to the future while addressing temporalities, including past archival work on trees. It will work with cohorts of young people across early years, primary, secondary and young people out of school, as well as families and communities, to think about and engage with treescapes, to plan as well as plant new treescapes and to engage in treescape thinking and curricula innovation. Working with Natural England as project partners, a toolkit will be developed to guide this work and a set of resources and outputs to be rolled out nationally that inspire and inform future generations of children and young people to become involved in treescapes, which will re-shape the disciplinary landscape of treescapes research and inform policy and practice. Community forest planners, policy-makers and practitioners will better understand how to engage children and young people in treescapes and how to work with their knowledges to inspire and inform future generations. Innovative approaches to arts and humanities, environmental science and social science will produce a new understanding of how combining disciplines can further treescape research with children and young people. The project will also advance methodological understandings of the relationship between children and young people and treescapes with a focus on co-production and attending to lived experience while conducting environmental scientific research. New knowledge in the fields of environmental and social science will create new disciplinary paradigms and concepts.
Organisations
- Manchester Metropolitan University (Lead Research Organisation)
- BOLTON COLLEGE (Collaboration)
- Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (Collaboration)
- Bramhall High School (Project Partner)
- Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Project Partner)
- Natural England (Project Partner)
- Seymour Park Primary School (Project Partner)
- Early Childhood Outdoors (CIC) (Project Partner)
- Aberdeen City Council (Project Partner)
- Whalley Range High School For Girls (Project Partner)
- The Mersey Forest (Project Partner)
- Sheffield & Rotherham Wildlife Trust (Project Partner)
- Wild Rumpus (Project Partner)
- Woodside School (Project Partner)
- Chartered College of Teaching (Project Partner)
- Station House Media Unit (SHMU) (Project Partner)
- Forest Research (Project Partner)
- Bailies of Bennachie (Project Partner)
- Pendleton Sixth Form College (Project Partner)
Publications
Cooper, D
(2022)
North Country: An Anthology of Landscape and Nature
Ambreen S
(2023)
Trees and Us: Learning About/From Trees and Treescapes From Primary School Children in the United Kingdom
in Occasional Paper Series
Ambreen, S
(2023)
Looking beyond the child through a 'presencing methodology': Attending to children's voice as they do trees
in Childhood Studies
Description | DEFRA youth consultation |
Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Preliminary discussions have been held regarding facilitating youth participation in consultations re access and inclusion to DEFRA programmes. |
Collaborator Contribution | DEFRA have agreed to host youth researchers in York and to support understanding of policy processes. |
Impact | Outputs are forthcoming |
Start Year | 2023 |
Description | Lecturing staff at Bolton College |
Organisation | Bolton College |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | N/A |
Collaborator Contribution | Members of staff at Bolton College contributed their time and expertise to help co-create a programme of teaching and learning activities |
Impact | Delivery of programme of activities which are providing the basis for co-authored reflections |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | 'The Story of the Manchester Poplar' CPD Workshop, Science & Industry Museum: 4 July 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 'The Story of the Manchester Poplar' CPD Workshop, Science & Industry Museum: 4 July 2022. External speakers included Alison Crook (Associate Curator, Science & Industry Museum) and Andrew Lickley (Science Museum Group Academy Programme Leader). The event was attended by teachers of Englsih from local secondary schools and members of the public. The outcome of this event was a widening of network of contacts and development of interdisciplinary approaches to thinking about trees within the English curriculum. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | 20-20 access space exhibition |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Over 600 people visited this Visual Arts exhibition in Sheffield, which was open to the pubic for one week. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Co- Designing our own woodland (Blackrod Primary School) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 91 Year 3/4 pupils, attended this activity at Blackrod Primary School centred around co-designing our own woodland, in December 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Creative practice with trees at Forehill Primary School, Aberdeen |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Over 5 days from September - December 2022, Voices of the Future researchers (Elizabeth Curtis and Jo Vergunst) worked with Forehill Primary School, Aberdeen, to develop outdoor learning activities based in creative practice. Following a preparatory meeting in September, we worked with around 150 pupils from P3 to P6 (six classes in total), exploring collaborative methods in story-telling, art, history and craft to learn about trees and woods in the local area of the school. Pupils and teachers were enthusiastic and we will build on these experiences in our research with the School. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Creative writing workshop led by Ruth Awolola at Creative Writing Club, Whalley Range High School: 8 March 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | In this creative writing workshop led by Ruth Awolola, students developed new writing reflecting on trees and identity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Discussion with a Civil Servant from DEFRA Monitoring and Evaluation, Nature for Climate Tree Programme | Natural Environment, Trees and Landscapes Directorate |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We have initiated a series of discussions, begun at the UK Treescapes conference in September 2022, with a civil servant from DEFRA. He is interested in hearing the voices of young people particularly around Equality and Diversity of their monitoring strategy. In their own words (taken from an email d. 18.10.2022): ...'we are responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the programme and whilst many of the key objectives may relate to scientific outputs such as carbon sequestration and improved biodiversity, we also want to measure societal benefits and particularly around (lack of) access to more deprived demographic groups. I wonder whether your project / the children would consider providing some insight into some of the data we should be looking at to ensure we adequately consider that within our evaluation. Following this, plans have been made to visit DEFRA in York in May and to be part of an online evaluation exercise in March/April and do a visit to a school in Manchester, also in May. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Discussion with a civil servant |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | We spend one hour briefing a Civil Servant who is tasked with delivering the National Education Nature Park initiative. We described the Voices of the Future project. We agreed to send the person a 2 page summary of the project to take this discussion forward. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-to-lead-the-way-in-climate-and-sustainability-education |
Description | Ethics as producing potential new worlds: Laser scanning the future |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | A talk presented by Prof Kate Phal and Dr Samyia Ambreen as part of "Grasping the nettle: Ethics in research with children, young people and families" at the Children and Childhood Research Group, Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Festival of the Mind |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a contribution to a regional festival in Sheffield, which consisted of a two-hour presentation and discussion, and engaged with academics and the general public. There were approximately 50 people in the audience at the festival, and the event was also projected online to an audience of approximately 300 viewers |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Knowledge Exchange visit to a Primary school in collaboration with Mersey Forest |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A knowledge exchange visit, in collaboration with Mersey Forest, to Holy Trinity Primary School in Liverpool in March 2023 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Meetings with Charles Nixon, Teacher of English, Stretford Grammar School: 14 & 22 November 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Meetings with Charles Nixon, Teacher of English, Stretford Grammar School: 14 & 22 November 2022 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Meetings with Ivan Wadeson, Executive Director, Manchester City of Literature, 16 February 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | Following these meetings, Manchester City of Literature agreed to promote the work of 'Voices of the Future' and to explore potential international collaborations with other UNESCO cities of literature. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Meetings with Osman Riaz, Teacher of English Literature, Pendleton Sixth Form College, Salford: 18 October & 25 November 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | These two meetings with with Osman Riaz, Teacher of English Literature at Pendleton Sixth Form College were attended by Dr David Cooper and Dr Chris Hanley, and helped to advance curriculum development ideas. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Meetings with Sophie Walker & Krystie Norcliffe, English teachers, Whalley Range High School: 22 October 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | These meetings with Sophie Walker & Krystie Norcliffe, English teachers, Whalley Range High School were attended by Dr Chris Hanley and Dr David Cooper. They resulted in advanced curriculum development ideas & planned programme of activity |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
Description | Participation in 'Voices of the Future' project assembly at Stretford Grammar School, 8 November 2022. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Participation in 'Voices of the Future' project assembly to Year 8 syudents and teachers from multiple departments at Stretford Grammar School. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Presentation at International Association for Research in L1 Education (ARLE) Conference - Hopeful, vulnerable literacies: Disrupting monolingualism and empowering children |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a talk, pressented by Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the ARLE international research conference. This was hosted online, by the University of Nicosia (Cyprus) and attended by academics and policy makers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.ucy.ac.cy/arle2022/ |
Description | Presentation to DEFRA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | This was a formal presentation organised by the UKTreescapes team to DEFRA. Partiicpants included the monitoring and evaluation team (York). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Public Event in Sheffield City Centre |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A 50 minute session at a public event in Sheffield City Centre, in September 2022, which included a 4 minute film |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Reading of 'The Most Mancunian of Trees' at public launch of North Country: An Anthology of Landscape & Nature, The Storey, Lancaster: 24 November 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The reading of 'The Most Mancunian of Trees' at public launch of North Country: An Anthology of Landscape & Nature, The Storey, Lancaster: 24 November 2022 widened awareness of our Voices of the Future Project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Research overview |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A visual document prepared by Prof Abigail Hackett, which was given to the families participating in the research and to the Head of Children's Services. The intention is to present the findings to Children's Services team later in the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Researching in school: messy methodologies in co-production |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a talk by Dr Samyia Ambreen, presented at the Theory and Methodology Research Group, at the Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University in July 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Assembly |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | This was a talk given by a member of the team about the different trees there were in the world to 90 Year 3 children in a Primary School in Old Trafford. The children were interested to understand about different trees and their names. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Assembly on Research ethics |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Year 3 assembly on research ethics, children's voice and consent |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
Description | School Visit - Assembly at Blackrod Primary School to introduce our project to the staff and students |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | School Visit - Assembly at Blackrod Primary School to introduce our project to the staff and students |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Visit: Seymour Park Primary School Manchester: Going Underground |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | School visit to Seymour Park Primary School to run activities with Year 5 children about understanding how much of a tree is underground. Led by Khawla Badwan, Simon Carr, Peter Kraftl (project CoI's). Focus of the activity was particularly on identifying how much the roots of a tree comprise, and how they are important for the health and longevity of the tree. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Visit: Seymour Park Primary School, Manchester, July 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | School visit on 14th July to Seymour Park Primary School, Manchester to talk about trees and carbon. Activities led by Khawla Badwan, Simon Carr, Peter Lawrence, Jennifer Rowntree. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School Visit: Stretford Grammar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | School assembly with all of Year 8 in one of the most socially and ethnically-diverse secondary schools in the UK. Key members of the project team (PI: Kate Pahl, Co-I's Simon Carr, David Cooper, Christopher Hanley, project PDRA Samiya Ambreen and project partner (Katie Jones, City of Trees) introduced the project to explore opportunities to partner with the school in delivering the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | School visits (Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Around 100 P4 and P5 pupils at Woodside Primary School were supported by Voices of the Future researchers in learning about trees and preparing for a new 'Wee Forest' to be grown in their school field. Over four days in March 2022, researchers Ed Schofield, Elizabeth Curtis and Jo Vergunst: - introduced children to soil testing techniques including composition, pH, colour and depth. - engaged with them in tree monitoring on a recently planted hedge - introduced tree rings and dendrochronology - brought in University of Aberdeen microscopes to their school and enabled the children to view, record and learn about seeds and pollen. School teachers reported positive outcomes from pupils in terms of attitudes to science and future jobs as a scientist, as well as their skills in scientific measuring and use of equipment. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Series of 3 Workshops at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | This was a series of 3 workshops run by Dr Clare Rishbeth and Mr Steve Pool, at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground in August 2022. The workshops involved around 30 children, as well as members of the local community and MA students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Series of meetings with Lucy Derby, Head of English, Urmston Grammar School: 19 October 2022; 7 December 2022; 20 February 2023; 6 March 2023. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | This series of meetings established a relationship with Urmston Grammar School, advanced curriculum development ideas & planned programme of activity for 'Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day' |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
Description | Series of meetings with Marion Farnworth (Early Years Lecturer) and Suzanne Toole (Science Lecturer), Bolton College: 23 November 2022; 20 December 2022; 7 February 2023. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | A series of meetings with Marion Farnworth (Early Years Lecturer) and Suzanne Toole (Science Lecturer) at Bolton College, led by Dr Chris Hanley and Dr David Cooper led to an advance in curriculum development ideas and planning of programme of activity. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2022,2023 |
Description | Talk at the Centre for Social Justice and Community Action, Durham. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
Results and Impact | This was a talk about the 'Voices of the Future' project with a focus on Co-production. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/sociology/events/csjca-connecting-communities-for-a-su... |
Description | Talk to Creative Writing Club, Whalley Range High School: 9 March 2022 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | After this talk to 15 year 7-11 students, the students agreed to become participants on the 'Voices of the Future' project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Talk to Early Years students at Bolton College |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Following this talk to early year students at Bolton College, students agreed to become participants in the 'Voices of the Future' project |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Talking head video on Voices of the Future |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 'Talking-Head' video recorded by Treescapes Programme team at Treescapes Conference, London, September 2022 to summarise the Voices of the Future project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLu8JsHub24&list=PLWmemRXt2xL0U80Kx28H-u9cvkwPgnCK9&index=7 |
Description | Thinking about future & Listening to Hopeful Stories (Blackrod Primary School) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 91 children and 5 teachers attended this activity at Blackrod Primary School. The activities focused on thinking about future & listening to hopeful stories. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
Description | Tree planting, monitoring and a field trip with Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Around 100 P2, P5 and P7 pupils at Woodside Primary School, Aberdeen, were supported by Voices of the Future researchers (Elizabeth Curtis, Ed Schofield and Jo Vergunst) in planting and monitoring a new 'Wee Forest', building on previous engagement work carried out with the school. This included working with the Aberdeen City Council Ranger Service. The researchers engaged with the children to plant the trees on 16 March. On 4 May we developed activities around pollen analysis involving identification of pollen grains from images and maths work. On 21 June we took a group of 30 P7 pupils to the forest and hill of Bennachie in Aberdeenshire to look at historic and current uses of trees and forests. On 28 September we worked with the children to identify, measure and record the growth of a sample of trees in the Wee Forest. Teachers reported very good levels of engagement from the pupils which we will develop in future activities with Woodside School. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Trees and Us Activity (Blackrod Primary School) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 91 children in Years 3/4 and 5 class teachers at Blackrod Primary School attended for an activity entitled "Trees and Us" on 11th October 2022. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Treescapes field trip with Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | On December 6 2022 Voices of the Future researchers (Jo Vergunst and consultant Colin Shepherd) organised a field trip for Countryside Management students from Scotland's Rural College (SRUC), visiting Wantonwells Farm in Aberdeenshire. Students had the opportunity to view an example of an integrated 'treescape' and farming business in which growing trees for timber, nature conservation and livestock farming worked together in the landscape. The business owners had the chance to discuss their practices with the students and researchers. This will form the basis for research work with the students and the farm in the coming months. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Treescapes: voices of the future (Poster Presentation) presented at The SES Midsummer Sustainability Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a poster presentation, presented by Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the SES Midsummer Sustainability Festival. This festival was hosted in the Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University on 17th June 2022, and was attended by a range of audiences including community members, policy makers and undergraduate students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.manchesterfoe.org.uk/events/event/action-for-sustainability-a-student-community-staff-mi... |
Description | UK Treescapes conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | This was a national conference, hosted by the UK Treescapes programme. Our team attended together with two refugee-background young people. They gave a talk and we also gave a talk about the project. We held a stall about our project and we were able to talk to stakeholders at lunchtime, including people from DEFRA, the National Forest, the Tree council, Trees for Cities and the Black Engagement Network. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Video for CO26 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | This was a talk recorded by the UKTreescapes team for Cop 2026. It was recorded and sent out and also placed on a number of websites. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OmwK35PqEI |
Description | Video made for the Engage conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | This was a video made about co-production for the ENGAGE 2021 conference in December 2021, by Professor Kate Pahl. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/engage-2021 |
Description | Video produced for COP 26 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | This was a video made by Professor Kate Pahl and Dr Simon Carr about the Voices of the Future project, which was hosted by the UKIR's Cop 26 channel and subseqently placed on the UK Treescapes project page . |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.uktreescapes.org/projects/voices-of-the-future/ |
Description | Visit to Seymour Grove Allotments |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | A team of youth researchers visited community orchard and apiary teams at Seymour Grove Allotment to engage in dialogue about different knowledge and practices. Discussions held re opportunities for further engagement. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Visit to project from Manchester City of Trees |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Visit to project by a member of the Manchester City of Trees team to learn about youth research, followed by discussion of future collaboration opportunities. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | 'Voices of the Future: English Curriculum Day' engaged with year 7 students and the teachers in the English Department of a local school. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Voices of the future: Collaborating with children and young people to re-imagine treescapes - presentation at UK-Consortium on Sustainability Research Symposium on Climate change |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | A talk presented By Prof Kate Pahl and Dr Samyia Ambreen, at the UK-Consortium on Sustainability Research Symposium on Climate change: the contribution of UK universities to addressing climate change from a sustainability perspective. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
Description | Workshops at Pitsmoor adventure playground |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A series of 8 visual arts and music workshops at Pitsmoor Adventure Playground, engaging young people, families and playground users. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |