Scientists at Lancaster University have been working with the Morecambe Bay Curriculum to empower young people to learn about their local environment. The Morecambe Bay Curriculum is an educator-led movement, focused on embedding environment, sustainability, and the local place into everyday learning. Together, educators and academics have codesigned resources that connect young people to their local environment with additional messages around sustainability, rhythms, and caring for precious natural resources.

Lancaster University researchers were paired up with practitioners in schools, colleges, or pre-schools as part of a co-design process to explore the curriculum areas nominated by the Morecambe Bay Curriculum steering group. Many scientists took part from Lancaster University, and these pairings were based on curriculum specifications and made the most of individual's research and knowledge. Together, they created resources that enable teaching based on Morecambe Bay Curriculum’s key themes of teaching, learning, sustainability, place, and environment whilst also delivering the National Curriculum. These resources are in-depth, yet flexible enough to allow a range of learning experiences. Alongside the paper-based resource, educators have access to a Moodle site with a range of resources including powerpoints and lesson plans.

Dr Marina Bazhydai from the Psychology Department collaborated with Joanne Daly from Lancaster University’s Pre-School Centre on a resource called “Little Bay Explorers: Understanding the world through curiosity and wonder” designed to fit within the curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage: Understanding the World (age 0 to 5). As with all the resources, this can be handed to practitioners in their own pre-school or school setting and adapted by them for their learners.

Marina said: “At the LU’s Babylab and Active Learning Lab, my team and I study how children learn through curiosity and exploration. Working on this practical piece of curriculum was a great opportunity to translate accumulating evidence from psychological science and innovative education. Our aim was to design activities that can broaden children’s understanding of the local natural environment and the impact of sustainability on it, whilst increasing their communication and language skills by fostering curiosity, wonder and creativity. It was truly inspiring to contribute to the MBC’s mission and I hope the educators will in turn be inspired to promote children’s curiosity-driven learning through engagement with nature.” 

Dr Hattie Roberts from Lancaster Environment Centre worked with Emily Fitzherbert from The Lakes School, Windermere, to create a Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14) resource booklet called “Making Plants Pop”. The resource notes that plants are of economic, cultural, historical and environmental importance in Lancashire and Cumbria and goes on to talk about photosynthesis and crop yield. These are important in farming and plant production and like all the resources, are locally relevant.

Hattie said: "Being part of Morecambe Bay Curriculum is incredibly rewarding and timely. Collaborating with local practitioners and educators is crucial in empowering both teachers and students to connect with this unique landscape, particularly in the context of a changing climate. It's inspiring to contribute to an initiative that highlights these values." 

Carys Nelkon, Partnership Development Manager for Morecambe Bay Curriculum said: “It has been a joy to bring together inspiring academic colleagues from across the institution and introduce them to our brilliant educator colleagues from across the Bay. We hoped that the collaboration would result in research enhanced teaching materials, with a focus on sustainability in place, but in reality, what has happened is much bigger than that. The resources are ambitious and wide-ranging and the relationships and connections between all of those involved continue to grow! This feels like the start of a new phase for the Morecambe Bay Curriculum.”