In this podcast we chat with Rachel about her recent Sir Alistair Pilkington Award and how she has developed her laboratory teaching to ensure it’s active, authentic and supportive.

Dr Rachel Smedley has been a Lecturer in Geography at the University of Liverpool since 2018. She is interested in how the Earth’s climate and environment has changed in the past so we can better understand the future, working on processes in a range of environments from glaciers to coasts to rivers to landslides. She is both a field and laboratory scientist and brings these expertise into her teaching. She is a specialist in a laboratory technique called luminescence dating where we can take a sample of silt, sand or rock and determine how long it has been buried in the ground. Rachel loves being in the laboratory for her experimental research and really enjoys teaching students in the Central Teaching Laboratories at Liverpool where learning is all hands on.

The Academy’s Developing Practice Podcast is produced by The Academy, University of Liverpool. The role of the Academy is to promote and enable organisational excellence through the strategic development of the University’s people and practices. The podcast hosts Matt Davis, Organisational Developer and Alex Owen, Academic Developer are based in the Academy. To find out more about the work of The Academy check out: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/the-academy/

Reading List: https://rl.talis.com/3/liverpool/lists/6FE799AD-B4E5-0EB4-4788-90220A2EA797.html?lang=en-gb&login=1#72b384b9-6bf0-4c0d-8bcf-b0483eada00c

Music & FX: This podcast uses sounds from https://freesound.org/s/417560/ and music from https://www.purple-planet.com