The Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) develops opportunities for secondary students and post-16s from all backgrounds to participate in authentic research in school and make valuable, recognised contributions to the scientific community.
Each year, IRIS works with over 1,000 students at almost 100 UK schools, including some of those also working with Villiers Park. The project-based nature of our Leadership Challenge lends itself to the IRIS framework and timescale, and Future Leaders have been undertaking IRIS projects since 2018.
With climate change and the nature crisis at the forefront of everyone’s minds, there has naturally been an interest from Future Leaders in using the IRIS research methodology to make a meaningful contribution to the debate.
In 2018-19, students from Abbey Park School and Lydiard Park Academy in Swindon took part in MELT, a partnership project between IRIS and the UK Space Agency, charting the impacts of the polar ice cap melting. A total of six groups of students undertook a range of projects, from mapping the school’s carbon footprint to discovering how much carbon a single tree on site could capture.
