Dr Smriti Safaya
Research Associate
Profile
Biography
Smriti is a Research Associate on the CHILI project examining air quality in schools and their health effects on students, using the SAMHE citizen science platform.
Prior to joining SEI as staff, Smriti was an SEI affiliated researcher and a Croucher Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow focusing on the “Environmental Citizen Science in Schools” project looking at the impact of such environmental education on how U.K. and Hong Kong youth feel, think and act towards the natural environment. This research is an extension of her PhD in Education (University of York) which involved solely Hong Kong schools.
Her interest in experiential education stems from her years teaching in international schools in Hong Kong after her Bachelors of Education (U. of British Columbia), and her fieldwork seasons during her Masters in Earth Science (University of Hong Kong) and her Bachelor of Science in Geology (University of California, Davis). She is keen to support educators with developing more experiential teaching and learning opportunities, be it with students, pre-service and in-service educators in schools and universities.
Smriti has run immersive nature-based experiences for university staff and the public, around the beautiful York campus and the city, to highlight the value of multi-sensory experiential education, including co-organising the York City Nature Challenge.
Contact details
Research
Projects
CHILI - Child and adolescent Health Impacts of Learning Indoor environments under net zero
Publications
Selected publications
Terenzini, J, Safaya, S and Falkenberg, LJ. (2023) Motivations and Barriers to Participation in Citizen Science: The Case Study of the Hong Kong Jellyfish Project. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 8(1): 51, pp. 1–14. https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.618
Safaya, S. (2022) It fuels our craft - co-creating learning through participatory action research with students. Forum magazine 50, p.10-11 https://www.york.ac.uk/staff/teaching/develop/forum/magazine/
Safaya, S. (2022) Pedagogy with purpose. BERA Research Intelligence 150.
Safaya, S., Rines, M.L., Leung, D.S.K., Pang, H.L.T., Yeung, Y., Gobbi, G., Asinas, C., Schaefer, E.A.; Yu, C.K.Y., Lamond, S., Juels, T., Chu, A., Fung, H.C., Chung, C.H.V., Chung, H.L.L., Yung, Z.S., Lun, H.H.M., Ng, C.Y.J. (2021). Listening to youth: how to close the knowledge-action gap in climate change education. School Science Review 103 (383).
Safaya, S., Dunlop, L. & West, S. (2021) Citizen Science for Chemists. Chemistry Review 30 (4).
Teaching
Postgraduate
Supervision of PhD (Education) and MSc (Data Science) students
Other teaching
Guest lectures for Department of Education undergraduate and masters courses
External activities
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Associate
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Editorial duties
Routes Journal Editorial Board