A key element in the 360 Vision is education, with the academic partnerships that could bring, offering the opportunity to learn about climate change in a visionary, creative and educational way.
And how might that look? What sort of educational model might fit with the aspirations of the 360 Centre? Taking the exceptional University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) as an example –
- Dispersed learning with colleges and learning centres across the Highlands and beyond.
- Accommodation ranging from a well-equipped room, to a full college with library, hi-tech learning suites, conference hall.
- Offering basic learning and literacy, complementary courses for local high schools, training facilities for local industry or degree level education.
- In person and online learning as well as in person & video conference study support groups.
- Training facilities & courses tailored to suit specific requirements and geographic areas.
UHI’s Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) is a facility focused on specific areas of learning. Its 150 staff cover all areas of marine research from basic education to post-doctoral research and engage with both local communities and further afield.
SAMS has incorporated the arts as a part of their research with projects including map making, soundscapes, storytelling and the collecting of local images – having also recognised the importance of bringing art into its traditionally science based research facility. Visionary, creative and educational.
Our 360 Vision documents set out that a visionary, creative and educational 360 Climate Change Centre would –
- focus on all aspects of climate change being open and relevant to our communities;
- provide much needed public engagement with the capacity to deliver training opportunities for industry;
- encourage the academic community to deliver courses and lectures in person or at a distance;
- collect & catalogue material related to the most up-to-date research on climate change;
- provide an academic setting for discussions on climate change & offer an interface with the public;
- offer an actual and online library of resources for every level of education.
In summary, our 360 Climate Change Centre would be the place to remove the overwhelming, helpless feeling that accompanies discussions on climate change through learning, understanding and discussion. Visionary, creative and educational learning would include –
- cutting edge technology, producing displays, exhibitions and virtual reality;
- a planetarium – virtual or actual – would inform on our place in the Universe and help to identify the changes we need to make;
- arts, culture and heritage would combine to deliver an urgent visionary, creative and educational climate message to change perspectives and make the difference.
Our 360 Climate Change Centre would be job-creating, economy-enhancing and opportunity-providing to enable our policy makers to engage in addressing the biggest existential threat of our times.
Our visionary, creative and educational 360 National Climate Change Centre would form academic partnerships – combining education with entertainment, engagement, public awareness, industry training, university learning, policy making. The right place. The right idea. The right time.
The 360 steering group met earlier in the week and enjoyed yet another spectacular sunset from our meeting space. There was much discussion and agreement
- Date with ELC confirmed & attendees
- To forward final documents from feasibility consultants to ELC
- To forward Dr Kennedy’s documents to PSC
- To sign off feasibility study & request payment
- To circulate full feasibility docs & review docs & list created
- To write to Scottish Government post ELCAN meeting
- To write to ELC planning re continued non-registering of planning application
- To consider appeal to Scottish Government re non-registering of planning application
- To attend EL Energy Conference on 26/05/23
Early afternoon (Friday 26/05/23) notification arrived from ELC that they will not be registering our Planning Permission in Principle application and will be returning our fee. We will need to take time to consider this and – while that news could be disheartening – emails from new 360 supporters arrive with even more suggestions and giving encouragement and hope ‘it would be great to see the space flourish as a community space with the planet and people at its heart’ and ‘National and international conferences & Internships’. So we keep on.