25 March 2024 – Education for Sustainability and the European GreenComp Framework was the theme of the closing event of the Erasmus+ co-funded project NEMOS – A new educational model for acquisition of sustainability competences through service-learning.
Organised on 14 March 2024 by the Technological University of Dublin’s Sustainability Education Unit and Faculty of Sciences and Health Sustainability committee, in collaboration with the NEMOS consortium, the event offered an overview of the NEMOS approach and the results achieved by the project, highlighted industry and community perspectives for education for sustainability, and hosted a practical workshop.
Following an opening speech by Lily Lee from the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) of the Government of Ireland, the audience had the chance to attend online keynote address by Dr. Guia Bianchi, researcher at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Seville, author of Sustainability competences and co-author of GreenComp – The European sustainability competence framework. She illustrated the process that led to the development of the European sustainability competence framework and the creation of the Scaffold cards, explaining how these can be used by teachers to design any kind of learning activities.
Moderated by Julie Dunne, Head of the School of Food Science and Environmental Health (TU Dublin), the event continued with presentations by all university partners involved in the NEMOS consortium, reporting about the activities carried out to embed the development of sustainability competences into food degrees curricula through service-learning.
Coordinator of the NEMOS project and professor at the Public University of Navarra, Iosune Cantalejo outlined the NEMOS project’s aims and results, with a special focus on the NEMOS Methodological Handbook, that will soon be published as an open resource in all of the languages of the consortium (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) on the NEMOS website and the Erasmus+ programme platform. Aimed at providing a general framework of guidance to adopt service-learning as a tool for strengthening the sustainability competences of students, the Methodological Handbook will also include examples and best practices implemented by the different universities concerned.
The following case studies were then presented by the NEMOS partners and fellows:
Sustainability focused, competency based learning through work placement by Michelle Giltrap, Lecturer in Environmental Health at TU Dublin and NEMOS fellow,
focused on the introduction of a new sustainability element into students’ work placement, including food businesses and social enterprises. After receiving training in different sustainability domains (e.g. sustainability strategy, packaging, air pollution, energy use) students were called to find solutions to existing sustainability-related challenges in the workplace and then reflect on their experience. In general, through service-based learning, students demonstrated a better understanding of sustainability practices in the workplace, and students’ competences such as problem-solving were greatly enhanced.
Safety and Sustainability Placement Action Plan (SSPAP) by Sara Boyd, Lecturer in Environmental Health Risk Management at TU Dublin and NEMOS fellow, reported about the experience of a group of Food Science students who went into work placements in the brewing and distilling sector, with the main objective of developing a safety and sustainability placement action plan and suggesting possible solutions for existing challenges. The students appreciated the exercise as a “transformative learning experience” and felt they had developed a stronger sense of responsibility towards ensuring sustainability on the workplace.
Final Year Project – Valorisation of Brewers’ spent grain for feed applications by Azza Silotry Naik, Assistant Lecturer in Food Science and Environmental Health at TU Dublin and NEMOS fellow, presented a case study whereby students worked with two community partners to improve the composition and rumen digestibility of cow feed based on brewers’ spent grain. The experience was successful in achieving specific sustainability-related learning outcomes: to search, access and ethically use information; and to demonstrate an ability to think globally and consider issues and knowledge from a variety of perspectives.
Implementing food sustainability through service learning: the UNIPI experience by Sabrina Tomani and Annapia Ferrara, post-doctoral researchers at the Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the University of Pisa, explained the initiative Quanto ne sai di sostenibilità? (How much do you know about sustainability?) aimed at challenging students to find sustainable, original, innovative and viable solutions for local stakeholders in the agrifood sector. By means of pre- and post-experience assessment tools, such as surveys, reflective journals and rubrics, the team of UNIPI demonstrated that the service-learning activities generated a significant improvement of the participating students’ sustainability competences.
Acquisition of food sustainability competence through service learning by Sami Ghnimi, Associate Professor in Food Process Engineering and Coordinator of the MSc Sustainable Food Systems at ISARA Lyon, focused on the service-learning activities developed at ISARA and the assessment actions carried out to evaluate the enhancement of students’ sustainability competences. Service-learning experiences included helping local farmers achieve a sustainable animal production system; active projects involving an associative, civic or environmental community engagement; as well as projects on improving sustainable development in the food industries.
Teaching in Sustainability through Service-Learning: A Case Study by Iosune Cantalejo, Professor at the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) and Coordinator of the NEMOS project reported about practical experiences at UPNA aimed at enhancing the capacity of students to give sustainable solutions to real-world problems. Among them, the designing of paper-based sustainable packaging solutions for bread in collaboration with a social printing block employing people at risk of social exclusion. The experience turned out to be very positive for both the workers and the students, who were involved in active, hands-on learning, fostering community engagement, critical thinking and the development of leadership, project management and communication skills.
Implementation of Sustainability in the Curriculum at TU Graz by Michael Murkovic, Professor at the Institute of Biochemistry of TU Graz, focused on the activities carried out to integrate service-learning in TU Graz’s master programme in Biotechnology, in collaboration with the public waste water treatment plant. The objective was to improve the students’ technical knowledge of waste water, especially through laboratory work, as well as encourage them to interact with the plant’s staff about the technology and the implications of the laboratory results, with the ultimate aim of designing possible upgrades of the purification plant. In general, students were satisfied with the interaction of the staff and especially with the practical implications of their lab training.
Finally, Annapia Ferrara Ph.D and Sabrina Tomasi Ph.D successfully led a workshop involving teachers from TU Dublin, as well as local stakeholders, who were called to design learning activities using the Scaffold cards with the support of the NEMOS partners.
About the NEMOS Project
The NEMOS project acknowledges sustainability as an increasingly crucial skill for graduate and post-graduate students to tackle important global challenges such as climate change, food waste and the loss of biodiversity in their professional future. Therefore, the project aims to define a new educational model to integrate sustainability competences in the curricula of food-related degrees by means of service learning.
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the NEMOS project is led by the Public University of Navarra and includes the following consortium partners: Technological University Dublin (Ireland); Technological University Graz (Austria); Rhône-Alpes Higher Institute of Agriculture (France); University of Pisa (Italy); and IGCAT.
More information at www.nemosproject.com
