What’s up at Upton? Student conference

As part of a final year Geography module, students have been conducting research projects about Upton Meadows.  Upton Meadows is a sustainable urban expansion located on the western outskirts of Northampton.  The development began in 2001, with the aim that it would be an exemplar of sustainable urban growth.  The development includes new homes, a primary school, a country park, and a sustainable urban drainage system.  Staff within the Department for Environmental and Geographical Sciences have been carrying out research at the site from the very beginning, and the students’ projects feed in to our on-going research projects.

Examples of presentation titles from the 'What's Up at Upton' student conference.

 

The student conference is an annual event.  This year ten groups of students gave presentations on their research.  The topics ranged from exploring perceptions of sustainable architecture to evaluating the efficiency of the drainage systems and retention ponds.

Second year physical geography trip to Sywell reservoir, Northamptonshire

On Tuesday 3rd March the annual Physical Geography Practical (module ENV2123) field day to Sywell took place.  The purpose of the field day is to develop skills in surveying and sediment coring. The students managed to collect lots of useful data during the day and will be using this in the associated assignment.  The next field day in this module is to Eydon Brook later in the month.

 Surveying the valley

 Sediment coring

Images of Research

Four members of the Department have photographs featuring in the University of Northampton's Images of Research 2014-2015 exhibition.  

• Prof. Margaret Bates - Impacts of ewaste
• Dr. Naomi Holmes - On 'Finn' ice
• Prof. Ian Livingstone - Sand accumulation in complex terrain
• Prof. Jeff Ollerton - An ecosystem in a cup

The exhibition spent February in the Avenue Gallery.  From 9th - 23rd March it will be located on the ground floor of the Rockingham Library.  After Easter it will be displayed in the Avenue Library entrance.  

All images can be seen in the Images of Research Catalogue and you can vote for your top three here.

Dr Terry Tudor gives talk at Michigan State University

Dr Terry Tudor reports on his visti to Michigan State University...

I was recently invited to a very cold East Lansing, to give a talk at the home of the Spartans, the Michigan State University. The two day seminar which was entitled ‘Delivering global healthcare: from epidemic to innovation’, was hosted by the International Law Review within the University's College of Law.

It was a very interesting event with a range of eminent speakers from all over the world. Including from the USA (e.g. Prof Philip Rosoff – Professor of Paediatrics and Medicine from Duke University; Gary McRay a shareholder in law firm Foster Swift Collins and Smith; Nathan Wilson from the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics; and Gregory Sunshine and Anthony Moulton from the Chronic Diseases Centre (CDC)); South Africa (Prof Adrian Duse, the Academic Head of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases); India (Prof Prashant Mehta – the Executive Director of the Centre for Waste Recycling and Remediation Technologies, at the National Law University); and China (Ms Zhimin Mao – from the Pardee Rand Graduate School).

One of the things that was really impressive was the fact that this annual conference is very much student-led. Indeed the students came up with the theme, identified and approached the speakers, made the venue bookings, etc. It was a pleasure to be there, despite the cold weather.

Director of Planning gives talk about new Waterside Campus

On Tuesday 20^th January 2015 Neil Rowley, Director of Planning at Savills visited the University to talk to third year Geography and Environmental Science students.

Neil Rowley, Dr Janet Jackson, and the students

Savills are the main consultants dealing with the planning application and Neil Rowley’s talk was based around how the planning process operates and how stakeholders are consulted.  Students attending the talk are taking the Sustainable Development: Land Use and Policy module, taught by Dr Janet Jackson.  This third year module covers a range of topics from land degradation, sustainable land use and planning, to Environmental Impact Assessment.  The students are currently working on an assignment related to the planning application for the new University of Northampton Waterside Campus, which is expected to be open in September 2018.  The students took this opportunity to ask Mr Rowley lots of questions related to their assessment.

Wheelchair accessibility audit carried out by first year Geography students

First year Human Geography students have been carrying out fieldwork to evaluate the accessibility of Avenue Campus for wheelchair users. Working in groups of 4 or 5, students completed two activities (wearing the famous Geography fieldwork hi-viz jackets, of course!). Before conducting the exercise, students had the opportunity to interview members of the University's Wheelchair Basketball team, to find out more about the experiences of wheelchair users.

Jack and Laurence auditing wheelchair accessibility at Avenue Campus

• Each group has taken a 30-minute walk with a wheelchair around an everyday route on campus. Everyone has had an opportunity to push, and be pushed in, the wheelchair. During the walk, students made fieldnotes reflecting upon how familiar everyday spaces can look and feel very different from the perspective of a wheelchair user.
•  All students gained experience of using field equipment to measure footpath and corridor widths, kerb heights, and slope gradients. These measurements were compared to Department for Transport Guidance about accessible pedestrian environments.

Each group will prepare an annotated map and summary of their key findings. This exercise is designed to help students engage with recent academic research about geographies of disabilities. The project also provides a wealth of data which is really valued by the University of Northampton, as we seek to make the campus an accessible and inclusive place for all.

Research Excellence in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences

Just before Christmas the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences received an early present with the release of the results of the Research Excellence Framework.  This is a national assessment of research activity carried out by the government in all British universities, and the outcome determines how much core research funding they receive over the next six years.  The Department was very pleased with the result of our submission to the Geography and Environmental Studies panel; over 40% of our research papers were rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent”, with most of the rest being “recognised internationally”.  In addition some of the Human Geography staff working on children’s geographies were entered into the Education unit of assessment, which also did well.  For a young, mainly teaching-focused, non-research-intensive institution such as the University of Northampton, it was an impressive result.  All of this research feeds directly into the student experience, by way of case studies and cutting-edge findings, bringing the subject alive and relevant to the modern world.