Developing Creativity in the Theology and Religious Studies Curriculum

This paper reports on a two year project funded through the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies (PRS) and the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning: Collaboration for Creativity (CETL: C4C) based at York St John University. The project aims were: to develop and enhance modules in Theology and Religious Studies which links subject study (teaching and learning) with the disciplines of creative writing, literature and the visual arts; and to also devise assessment modes which provide opportunities for students to submit 'creative assessments' in the form of creative writing and visual artefacts as, potentially, the sole means of assessment. Although separately conceived, the two projects were focussing on the same kinds of challenge and always intended to complement each other; this report deals with them as a connected whole. While the project has highlighted issues and challenges that emerge when giving students the opportunity to do something creative, we are increasingly convinced that the potential for making deeper and more insightful links between religious and theological ideas and personal and cultural domains makes it a worthwhile ris

Pace of shifts in climate regions increases with global temperature

Human-induced climate change causes significant changes in local climates, which in turn lead to changes in regional climate zones. Large shifts in the world distribution of Köppen–Geiger climate classifications by the end of this century have been projected. However, only a few studies have analysed the pace of these shifts in climate zones, and none has analysed whether the pace itself changes with increasing global mean temperature. In this study, pace refers to the rate at which climate zones change as a function of amount of global warming. Here we show that present climate projections suggest that the pace of shifting climate zones increases approximately linearly with increasing global temperature. Using the RCP8.5 emissions pathway, the pace nearly doubles by the end of this century and about 20% of all land area undergoes a change in its original climate. This implies that species will have increasingly less time to adapt to Köppen zone changes in the future, which is expected to increase the risk of extinction