Super-curricular activities

Watch: BBC Wild Isles 

You’ll never look at British wildlife as “boring” again.

Read: State of Nature 2023

This is basically the UK’s wildlife report card — and the grades are not comfortable reading. 

Read: Wilding by Isabella Tree 

A failed farm becomes one of Britain’s most famous wildlife comeback stories. 

Listen: “What is Rewilding?” with Isabella Tree and Alastair Driver

Hear the people behind rewilding explain why letting nature recover is not the same as doing nothing. 

Watch: Met Office: What is climate? 

A clear way to stop mixing up weather, climate and climate change. 

Read: British Geological Survey: The Carbon Story 

Carbon is not just “in the air” — it is locked in rocks, oceans, soils and living things. 

Read: North Pennines Peatland Restoration Programme 

Peat bogs might look bleak, but they are climate superheroes. 

Listen: BBC World Service: The Climate Question 

Big climate questions answered without pretending the solutions are simple. 

Watch: Dogger Bank Wind Farm video library 

The world’s largest offshore wind farm is being built off the North East coast — this is not a distant issue. 

Read: NESO: Clean Power 2030 

This is the kind of document that shapes the future of UK energy. 

Read/Watch: Net Zero Teesside 

Teesside could become a major test case for carbon capture — right on your doorstep. 

Listen: National Grid: Grid Guide podcast 

Renewable energy is only useful if the grid can actually move it where it’s needed. 

Watch: BBC Panorama: The Truth About Forever Chemicals 

The scariest pollutants are not always the ones you can see. 

Read: Royal Society of Chemistry: What are forever chemicals? 

Your waterproof jacket, frying pan and food packaging might all connect to the same pollution problem. 

Read: Environment Agency: Tees catchment and abandoned metal mine pollution 

Pollution is not just “out there” — some of it is in catchments linked to our region. 

Listen: BBC Radio 4 Toxic!: “A Recipe for Disaster?” 

A detective-style look at how chemicals move from everyday life into bodies and ecosystems. 

Listen: BBC Radio 4: Farming Today  

Food does not just appear in supermarkets — it comes from decisions about soil, water, animals and money. 

Read: Regenesis by George Monbiot 

A provocative book asking whether farming itself needs a redesign.  

Read: Marine Stewardship Council: Sustainable Fishing resources 

That blue fish label on packaging links to a whole debate about oceans, jobs and food security. 

Read/Watch: UK Forestry Standard / Forestry Commission guidance 

Forests are not just “plant trees and leave them” — they are managed ecosystems. 

Read/Watch: Ellen MacArthur Foundation: Circular Economy explained 

What if waste is actually a design failure? 

Read/Explore: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 

The SDGs show that climate, poverty, food, water and biodiversity are all connected. 

Read: Tees Valley Net Zero / regional decarbonisation resources 

Net zero is not just a global target — it could reshape Teesside’s industries and careers.  

Listen: BBC World Service: People Fixing the World 

Instead of just doom-scrolling environmental problems, listen to people testing actual solutions. 

Read/Use: Field Studies Council: Sampling basics, quadrats and transects 

This is the stuff that turns “looking at nature” into actual science. 

Do/Read: Earthwatch: Great UK WaterBlitz 

You can collect real pollution data from a local water body, not just read about it. 

Use/Read: Environment Agency Water Data Explorer 

Real environmental scientists use messy data — this lets you practise with the real thing. 

Watch/Read: Open University: Citizen science and global biodiversity 

Science is not only done by people in lab coats — biodiversity data often comes from the public.