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From Sun Bears to Startups: Designing Interdisciplinary Learning Around Real Conservation Problems

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Knowledge Centre
Friday, September 4, 2026
10:45 AM - 11:15 AM

Overview

This session uses a residential entrepreneurship and conservation programme in Borneo as a case study in interdisciplinary learning design. Participants will examine how entrepreneurship, design thinking, sustainability, and applied problem solving can be structured into a coherent sequence rather than delivered as disconnected activities. The presentation focuses on the pedagogical decisions that shaped the programme. It looks at how design thinking and structured creativity tools were introduced before students engaged with genuine conservation challenges; how field experiences, including visits to wildlife sanctuaries, were positioned as primary research rather than enrichment; and how students moved from problem identification to ideation, prototyping, financial modelling, user-centred design, and final pitch. The session concentrates on the planning decisions and structural choices that made the learning rigorous rather than experiential in name only. Participants will leave with practical principles and design approaches that can be applied in their own schools, with or without a sun bear sanctuary nearby.


Speaker

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Dr Terence McAdams
Chief Education Officer
Global Enrichment Programme

From Sun Bears to Startups: Designing Interdisciplinary Learning Around Real Conservation Problems

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