Royal Institution Youth Summit

Last Friday the Biology Department organised for nine Lower Sixth Biologists and Geographers to attend the Royal Institution Youth Summit with the theme environmental change.

The Royal Institution of Great Britain is an organisation devoted to scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. The summit started with an introductory activity in which we listened to a small talk and then decided which part of a graph we identified most with, this sent us to chats with people with similar opinions. We then heard from Dr Dani Rabotti; we learnt the discovery of climate change at the end of the 1800’s, and the further research that led to our current understanding.

The next activity involved watching three videos based on a possible 2030’s decade (called: grey, green and shiny). These all had pros and cons, varying from healthcare access due to the wealth divide, to control of the environment, economy, food and clothes by the state. We debated these topics and discussed to what level the government should be environment enforcing laws. After debating these topics in length we ordered which issues were most important and after lunch we discussed the top five topics which were:

• Population control
• Political change
• Future technology
• Renewable energy
• Inequality

Finally a person from each group was nominated to summarise the discussions to feedback to the famous Royal Institution Christmas lectures.   Massive thanks to Fleur M for finding out about the event and to Mr Quinton for organising it all and making the day possible. It allowed us to examine environmental possibilities from a range of different perspectives and think about what we can do to change the future.