Year 12 students show how psychology can help tackle climate change

Year 12 students from across Wales and England competed to answer one of the biggest questions of our time and tackle climate change through psychology.

The students from 23 schools and colleges took over Cardiff University’s Hadyn Ellis Building for a national competition - The Big Psychology Challenge 2026. Run jointly by Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, the Welsh Branch of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and SEREN Academy, the competition brought together teams of Year 12 students to explore how understanding human minds can help tackle climate change.

The students submitted short video abstracts showing how psychological theory can be applied to real-world climate problems, before presenting their research posters in person on the day. Every entry was assessed by a judging panel of professors, lecturers and doctoral researchers.

Alongside the poster competition, students toured the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), one of Europe’s leading brain imaging facilities. They also took part in interactive brain games and attended talks on topics ranging from eye-tracking in sports psychology to how babies see the world. The day closed with a live careers Q&A with the Welsh Branch of the BPS.

Beca Brown MS, Member of the Senedd for Gwynedd Maldwyn, supported the event and presented the prizes at the awards ceremony.

Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr (Swansea) was awarded the gold prize for their poster, which investigated the link between creativity and pro-environmental behaviour. The team designed and ran their own experiment, measuring creativity by asking participants to think of as many alternative uses as possible for everyday objects, and measuring pro-environmental intentions through a questionnaire item asking how likely people would be to reuse common household items. The Gold-winning team was the only team to submit its poster in the medium of Welsh.

Silver was awarded to Ysgol Bro Hyddgen (Machynlleth) and Bronze to Olchfa School (Swansea). Each pupil in the winning teams received a cash prize of £25, £20 or £10 respectively, sponsored by the Welsh Branch of the BPS.

Student Choice Awards, voted for by the competitors themselves, went to Cardiff High School, Ysgol Bro Hyddgen and Monmouth Comprehensive School.

All entrants have also been invited to present their posters at the Welsh Branch BPS conference in Cardiff in October, with the three winning teams offered the opportunity to give presentations.

Jñānadāsa Marc Buehner, professor of Psychology at Cardiff University, who organised the event, said: “The standard of the work submitted by the young people was remarkable. These students took psychological theory out of the classroom and applied it to one of the defining problems of our time, and they did it with creativity and rigour. Designing and running your own experiment before you’ve even left school is no small feat.”

“These young people presented their research to working scientists, and they did so with real confidence. Being taken seriously by professional psychologists does something powerful for a Year 12 student’s self-belief, and you could see it grow over the course of the day. For some of them, this may well have been their first time setting foot on a university campus. If the Challenge helps even a few of them see that university is a place where they belong, then it has done its job. We very much hope to be able to run it again.”

Eleri Williams, Head of the Psychology Department at Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr, said: “The Big Psychology Challenge 2026 was, without question, one of the most inspiring and academically enriching opportunities our A Level Psychology students have experienced.

“The opportunity to present within a world-renowned research environment transformed the experience from an academic competition into something genuinely inspirational. For many, this was the first opportunity to experience cutting-edge psychological and neuroscientific research firsthand, and it proved both motivating and aspirational.

“I have no doubt that the impact on our students will be profound and enduring. The competition strengthened their research skills, developed their confidence in presenting complex ideas, and encouraged them to view themselves as emerging psychologists capable of contributing meaningfully to contemporary debates.”

Dr Sharon Davies, Chair of the Welsh Branch of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and Senior Lecturer at the Open University, said: “The careers talks and discussion session had an overwhelmingly positive response with high levels of enthusiasm, demonstrating that Wales has a great future in Psychology being driven forward by our future generations.”