The Big Student Meet up was held at the OU Walton Hall campus in Milton Keynes on Saturday 5 July. A range of stalls and sessions were organised in the Hub Lecture Theatre, Juniper and Medlar Suite and on the Mulberry Lawn. We were so pleased to welcome around 120 students with their friends and families to the meet up.
Sessions included; block printing, craft, creative writing, biodiversity tours, walks around the Living Lab and Living Roof, and plant propagation.
Colleagues from across the OU and the Open SU set up stalls to chat to students, introduce them to their work and ask their thoughts and opinions. Stalls included Astrobiology, Centre for Electronic Imaging - Space Cameras, Life and Chemical Sciences, Maths and Statistics, Design, Mindapples, Student insights, The OU Students Shop and Hedgehog Friendly Campus.
Sustainability was front and foremost in the organisation and planning stages; prioritising using what we have, buying second hand and ensuring disposable waste could be composted or recycled.
Students said: "Just a note of thanks - I was at the [big OU Students meet up]. I liked the stalls as it was interesting and motivating to see the different work being done in conjunction with the OU."
General sustainability at the meet-up
- We re-used and re-purposed what we could- using cotton bags we already have for crafting, borrowing equipment rather than buying brand new, and purchasing all games second hand.
- Where we did need to use disposables, we opted for paper plates for crafting and compostable plates for lunch.
- Plant-based food was served for a lower carbon footprint. Leftover pizza was composted.
- Printing was kept to a minimum.
Sustainable workshops
- Workshopping sustainably: we used reusable block prints from sustainably sourced wood in India where the Indian Block Print Company invests in local communities.
- Our gardening workshop reused pots from a local garden centre, compost from campus and will hopefully produce many more plants to absorb carbon in the future!
Raising awareness
- As part of Hedgehog Friendly Campus, we shared printed material with students on how to care for wildlife in their gardens and communities.
- We also used natural materials to build bug hotels. This not only used all natural materials collected from campus and repurposed old plant pots, but will increase habitats for insects once added to students’ gardens.
- iSpot’s nature monitoring also had a stall as well as the Design school who have a keen passion for sustainability in design.
- Campus tours focused on biodiversity and wildlife and OU Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science ran tours of the campus’ Living Lab and Living Roof. The ‘Lab’ monitors insects, plants and mammals, and the Living Roof is trialling carbon capture and water absorption.
