48 Media and Climate Change, & Campus Permeability

Clyde Doyle showcased IADT’s practice-based and place-based ESD initiatives, developed through the Public Design Lab and the MA in Design for Change. His projects span cross-faculty teaching, funded collaborations, and campus transformation.

He described the Fernhill Park Experience, an SFI-funded collaboration using augmented reality to teach primary school students about sustainability and energy through role-playing as park rangers. This project demonstrated how technology and play can build environmental literacy and agency in younger learners.

Building on this, Mr Doyle has led development of a cross-faculty Climate Action module, trialled with first-year students. Structured around “Climate Conversations, Climate Connections, and Climate Action,” it builds literacy, resilience, and critical optimism, encouraging students to imagine and design positive futures. Feedback showed that even students not initially interested left with a stronger sense of agency and purpose, a key aim of the programme.

Looking ahead, Mr Doyle presented the creation of a Pocket Forest and Teaching Glade on campus, designed using the Miyawaki method for rapid growth. This outdoor classroom will function as both a biodiversity site and a hybrid learning space, with indigenous planting creating a living laboratory for ESD and community collaboration.

These initiatives reflect a commitment to critical optimism, interdisciplinarity and action-oriented learning as creative pedagogical approaches that can support students to move beyond climate anxiety and engage constructively in meaningful change-making.

About the author

name: Clyde Doyle

institution: Institute of Art, Design and Technology

Clyde Doyle is a Lecturer in Design + Visual Arts at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology.