Resources
Resources for our bay: place, sustainability, environment and hope
Designed to support educators to feel more confident embedding climate-change, sustainability and nature into day to day teaching.
Co-designed by local educators and Lancaster University academics, these resources weave place, environment, sustainability and hope into the curriculum.
Time and time again, our educator working groups discussed the importance of having relevant, relatable and reliable environmental knowledge when discussing climate, sustainability and nature. It can be hard to find hopeful, sustainability-focused knowledge that we need to weave these themes into day-to-day teaching. Discussing climate change in the classroom can be anxiety-inducing for pupils and teachers. We designed these materials in the hope that they will support educators to feel more confident addressing these challenges. We hope that they are useful and can act as further inspiration for those wanting to embed these themes into their teaching.
You can read more about the origins of this project, the co-design process and the underpinning pedagogy by downloading the Resources for our Bay Booklet.
If you enjoy the teaching resources below and feel inspired to weave them into your practice, you will be glad to hear each subject has additional teaching resources available for you to download on the MBC Moodle (Virtual Learning Environment) which you can access for free as an MBC member. Sign up is quick and easy and you will be sent access to the Moodle within a week!
Sign up as an MBC member here!
Little Bay Explorers: Understanding the world through curiosity and wonder
Early Years Foundation Stage: Understanding the World
MBC dog, Baxter. He wants to take you and your learners on an exploration of local natural environments and blue and green spaces in the Bay. Whilst you enrich and widen children’s vocabulary, you’ll also be fostering positive connections to nature and pride in place. Whilst exploring coastal habitats, you’ll meet animals and local communities, experience local ecology and learn about tidal changes.
Near and Far, High and Tiny: Looking and Listening in our Bay
Early Years Foundation Stage: Expressive Arts and Design
Why not go on a journey to discover our natural world through the perspectives of others? In this resource you will enable your learners to think in “more-than-human”ways. Delve into art and nature to help make meaningful connections with the world around them.
Allow your learners to discuss and respond to diverse art to inspire their thinking and creativity. Children will make personal connections with their locality whilst engaging in expressive art practice that promotes kinship with their environment.
A Day at the Beach: Present and Future
Primary Geography
This resource helps you take trips to the beach, exploring the present and imagining the hopeful future. This resource fosters great connections between you, your class and the environment. There are fantastic opportunities for children to ask questions and for classes to learn together. These beach visits help secure the learners’ knowledge of marine ecology whilst encouraging care and responsibility for their local beach.
The King’s Guide to the Sands
Primary History
The sands of Morecambe Bay are rich with stories. The acquisition of landscape literacy, like alphabetic literacy, can nurture students intellectually and imaginatively. As your learners develop their understanding of the King’s Guide’s role, they will recognise local landscapes, historical monarchs, industry and infrastructure.
Your learners will uncover our connection to people and places by viewing, reading and listening to accounts of people from Morecambe Bay through history.
Rhythms of the Bay: Living Things and Their Habitats
Primary Science
Dive into this resource rooted in the planetary and natural rhythms of Morecambe Bay to explore how the moon affects our tides.
By observing, identifying and naming local flora and fauna and cycles of local habitats, your learners will explore the Bay’s natural classroom!
The Birds of Morecambe Bay: Teaching Science Through Art in Year 4
Primary Art
Did you know that Morecambe Bay is one of the top three UK sites for overwintering birds? Its mudflats, salt marshes and sands are internationally important habitats.
This resource focuses on twelve birds and their beaks, feet, habitats, food sources, migration and birdsong. Featuring sound waves, migration and representations of nature, learners will strengthen their emotional connection to local wildlife.
Wellbeing and Blue Spaces: Using creative methods to explore connections to blue spaces and build resilience
Key Stage 3: Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE)
Spending time outdoors and near water can help with enhancing wellbeing and resilience. This foundational PSHE series explores the research behind blue spaces ensuring that your learners are in a better position to understand more fully the positive impacts which nature can have on their lives.
Flight Investigations: Curlews vs the Airbus Air380-800
Key Stage 3: Design and Technology
This resource offers a comparison between the Eurasian Curlew, Britain’s highest conservation priority bird species, and the Airbus A380-800, the world’s largest commercial airliner.
Explore biomimicry, the principles of flight and the sustainability of aircraft design, to understand how humans can create solutions that care for our planet.
Making Plants Pop: Weaving Local Plant Knowledge into your Teaching
Key Stage 3: Science
Teachers can empower students by informing them of their local environmental heritage and bridging the plant awareness gap. This resource helps us notice the plant life around us, expanding ecological knowledge in our learners. It also brings careers in botany, ecology, and environmental management to the fore.
What have Colonialism and Empire got to do with Sustainability and Development?
Key Stage 3: History
This resource will engage with the contemporary debates in the UK around reparations, loss and damage, repatriation of Indigenous artefacts and apologies for past imperial and colonial actions. By reflecting on the past, we can teach a generation to build meaningful bridges between communities and move forward to face the climate crisis together.
Colonialism and Empire: Sustainability and Development Overview
Energy Generation or Energy Conservation? Which method is the future for Morecambe Bay?
Key Stage 3: Geography
The Morecambe Bay Tidal Barrage is described as a ‘vital step in getting us closer to a greener, safer, fairer future’ but is it the best solution for our community?
Your learners will be challenged to synthesise research on two pathways – the tidal barrage proposal and retro-fitting energy saving solutions. The resource challenges common assumptions through the lens of fairness and equity.
Sustainable Construction and Biomimicry
Further Education: Construction
Biomimicry can be used as a framework for learning and applying construction skills. This interdisciplinary approach ties together local nature with sustainable building practices.
As they study Common Orb Spiders and Reed Warblers, your learners will gain practical skills and foster a sense of place, purpose and pride.
Understanding the Impact of Food Choices: Investigating Carbon and Water Footprints
Further Education: Agriculture
How can consumers better understand the environmental impact of their food choices?
Scientific knowledge underpins the research learners undertake, enabling them to consider other people, animals and nature when making decisions.
Eco Tourism: A Comparative Study of Local, National and Global Tourist Locations
Further Education: Tourism
This resource takes you to Eden Project Morecambe, Penzance and Bwindi, Uganda.
As you metaphorically fly off to these destinations you will gain insight into how tourism can enhance and damage the locality, both socially and environmentally. Your learners will identify and develop the values they wish to promote and explore how their behaviours impact the environment.
Flood risk in sports turf: climate change adaptation (measures) and mitigation (action)
Further Education Sports Turf: Level 3
Flooding is impacting college grounds, resulting in sports postponements and cancellations. How can we mitigate this, adapt our grounds and be more prepared?
By creating real-life risk assessments, learners are encouraged to be solution focused when tackling the symptoms of climate change.
Special Educational Needs (SEND): adapting the resources for all learners
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Environmental and place-based learning is for everyone and we are committed to ensuring that all learners from around the Bay can access this. Find out more about the importance of inclusion and gain some practical advice about how to adapt your plans to the needs of all students.
University of Cumbria: Primary Digital Resource Library
Since the Morecambe Bay Curriculum’s inception, the University of Cumbria has been at the forefront of supporting primary teaching that incorporates the vision and values of the project.
University of Cumbria have developed a number of teaching modules and resources connected to the Morecambe Bay Curriculum which sit in their Digital Resource Library including:
- The Adventures of Eden Bear Books
- Made by the Moon by Emily Hennessey
- Place-Based Best Practice, Primary Geography Teaching Materials
Lancaster University Resources
Since the Morecambe Bay Curriculum’s inception, Lancaster University has been at the forefront of supporting primary teaching that incorporates the vision and values of the project. Lancaster University have developed a number of Engineering resources connected to the Morecambe Bay Curriculum which sit on the MBC Moodle.
Join the Morecambe Bay Curriculum
Grow Up! and Grab It! Resources: Engineering x MBC
Creative problem solving inspired by the nature of the Bay
KS2 Science, Design and Technology
The two activities, Grab It and Grow Up! link the engineering thinking process with exploration and observation of the biodiversity of plants and birds found in the habitats of Morecambe Bay.
Grab It! Engineering challenge is based on solving a problem of reaching to pick something up, taking inspiration from the Bay's birds, to design and create an extendable grabber.
Grow Up! Engineering challenge is based on the need for creative ways to grow more food in a small space. Structures and 3D shapes are tested for stability and strength. Plants are observed as inspiration for designing and creating a vertical growing farm.
Helpful Educational Resources
Loving where we live
- Cumbria Archive Service provide support for educators interested in their locality.
- The Lancashire Archives help teachers and young people explore their local history.
- Morecambe Bay Partnership have collated an archive of historical information connected to specifically to the Bay.
- The Bay: A Blueprint for Recovery is a nature and wellbeing programme, offering people living in Morecambe Bay the opportunity to get outdoors and connect with nature.
- Food Futures is North Lancashire’s sustainable food network
- Facing the Past provides resources including a digital map that brings greater awareness to Lancaster's historical involvement in trans-Atlantic slavery.
- Energy Sparks help schools become more energy efficient and fight climate change
- The Morecambe Bay Podcast
- Morecambe Bay Coastal habitats information – more information about the habitat and saltmarshes of the area
- RSPB Morecambe Bay Conservation Project
- Lancaster Green Spaces is a great way to see an overview of greenspace in the district
Loving our planet
- Free resources and lesson plans by the Eden Project Education Team
- The UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Positive News shares positive stories with a focus on the environment and how everyday people make a difference.
- Dynamic Earth have developed sustainability themed resources.
- Little Chatters provides free green resources for teachers and parents alongside their consultancy
- Glossary of Green Words helps us understand the eco-terminology that can sometimes be confusing.
- Tiny Wonders Trail - CBeebies programme with interactive map for schools to upload and tag photos to identify 'Tiny Wonders' of interest.
- Oxfam have developed climate crisis teaching resources aimed at ages 17-14, connected to the Science, English and Geography curriculum.
- The Field Studies Council provide outdoor teaching resources connected to the curriculum.
- Outdoor learning educational resources by Learning through Landscapes.
- The Nature Connection Handbook: a guide to increasing people's connection to nature by the University of Derby.
- Learning for a Sustainable Future is a free CPD course offered by Edinburgh University.
- The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) offer supportive resources for schools developing gardens at the School Gardening Awards.
- Thoughtbox Education produce resources that focus on personal, social and environmental wellbeing.
- This Wakelet features links to projects and resources looking at COP 26 and Climate Change as a context for learning and teaching.
- '50 things to do before you are 11 and 3/4' from the National Trust.
Climate literacy: an MBC teacher resource
We’ll be regularly providing a word of the month. Let's empower our pupils through language. Why not use as a double-sided printable starter or display on your board?
The editable format with all of the MBC glossary words can be found on our Moodle.
Download