Session 69: Project decolonisation: carbon footprints and compensation payments

Session overview: How can topics related to decolonisation be integrated in the curriculum so that it is relevant and interesting to students? A group of students and lecturers have worked together to develop project-based activities for students in the mathematics programs at LJMU on two exciting real-world challenges related to decolonisation: 1. Calculate your personal carbon footprint and 2. Develop a fair and transparent compensation scheme for the impact of slavery. The activities will consist of three pillars - an analysis component where the students will develop mathematical frameworks for calculating the carbon footprint or a compensation payment for the impact of slavery, a presentation component where each team will present their projects to the class and an evaluation component where the team will reflect how their ideas could be implemented in practice. The decision of asking students to take the drivers' seats in designing the project tasks is to ensure that the tasks are genuinely relevant to future students in the mathematics programs. The interdisciplinary, open-ended activities are much closer to the challenges that mathematics graduates will face in their future workplaces but they are still relatively uncommon in mathematics programs. Key learning points from this session: After this talk, delegates will... • ... take home fresh ideas how new student activities related to decolonisation can be developed. • ... see examples how real-world challenges that go beyond the core of a particular discipline can be integrated into the curriculum. The project activities developed will be implemented in existing modules of the mathematics program. We expect that our approach to designing project-based student activities related to decolonisation can be easily transferred to other disciplines. Project decolonisation: carbon footprints and compensation payments PowerPoint. Only LJMU staff and students have access to this resource.