#23: The Loch Arkaig Osprey Cams

Operated by the Woodland Trust.

This is one of several web cams which it would be useful to direct students towards so that they can see some wildlife live during the lesson.

This will be active at certain times of year in particular of course, and one might discuss with students the likely times of year when there is more activity generally.

Which other wildlife webcams are you aware of?

#22: OCR Survey - what are your thoughts?

On the GA Facebook page earlier today. A request for some thoughts. Please give your views as it will help shape the final specification and the support.

As it says on the survey's start page:
We have been working hard to prepare for the launch of our new GCSE in Natural History.

We would like to ask you some questions about the support that you would like to see in place ahead of teaching GCSE Natural History. We will be showing you a number of different resources designed to support teachers in delivering this qualification at different stages. We would like you to think about how useful each of these resources is in supporting the delivery of this qualification.

This survey will take you around 10 minutes of your time and you feedback is really appreciated. Your feedback will help to provide the right support package for teachers.

Go to the Survey directly here.

If you choose to complete the survey you will also get some clues as to some of the proposed support package and the thinking around who will teach this.

The support package questionnaire makes several mentions of different support for geography teachers and biology teachers suggesting that they think this may be a qualification taught jointly between those two departments.

#21: Make your own Wardian Case

Via SISI - Alien Detectives

A Wardian Case is a small enclosed ecosystem which can be created within a box or bottle. It can also be called a Terrarium.

This is a small experiment which can be undertaken to see how they work with a small plant inside a plastic bottle. It may be a good plan to create these at the relevant stage in the course, and track the success of the plants within them for a period of time.

It will be interesting to see what practical activities are suggested for students to complete as part of the draft specification to make the connection with the life sciences.

The Wardian case was created to try to keep plant speciments alive on the long journey back from plant hunting trips, or to send specimens long distances on board ships.

The first time they were used was an experiment. It took place in 1829, when the surgeon and amateur naturalist Nathanial Bagshaw Ward accidentally discovered that plants enclosed in airtight glass cases can survive for long periods without watering.

If you look outside of your window many of the plants that you see in the gardens are actually imports from other parts of the world. 

How natural are they really?

Wardian Case (1870 ) Copyright: Economic Botany Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

This Kew Gardens piece looks at the importance of these portable greenhouses.

The new glass cases could be kept on deck allowing the plants to receive sunlight. The specially designed cases also protected plants from salt water, but allowed condensed moisture to reach the plants. With time and testing these cases were further developed to better protect the plants. This included the addition of crossed battens to hold the plants in place on rough crossings, and ventilation holes covered in perforated zinc to keep out rodents.

This Conversation piece looks at the impact of the Wardian case on Australia, which was of course affected by the tyranny of distance.

The cases were also used to break trade monopolies.

The invention also opened new opportunities for plants importing, breaking some of the geographic agricultural monopolies. One of the first and most noticeable cases was a Scottish botanist Robert Fortune’s venture: he smuggled tea plants from China in Wardian cases to start a new plantation in Assam, India, in the 1840s. 

The cases were also used in transportation of cinchona (quinine) plants from South Africa and rubber trees from Brazil.

This Linda Hall piece provides more detail on these cases.

There is potential here to use this as a context for exploring the movement of crops around the world, and how they connect with colonisation and some present day food brands and companies who benefited from the land grabs of the time.

#OTD 1855 a scientific meeting at the @ApothecariesLDN was hosted by Fellow of the @LinneanSociety Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward; he is seen standing next to his vivarium, the original 'Wardian case'. pic.twitter.com/1cruBsIIjE

— Glenn Benson (@talloaksfrom) April 11, 2023

#20: People's Plan for Nature

The People's Plan for Nature is worth a look I think as we get closer to the development of resources.

Great to see the #1 theme in an imagined future is a closer relationship with nature - and an honour to be part of the #PeoplesPlanforNature process. Download the full report here: https://t.co/KSKs28g3x5 pic.twitter.com/dCPeZ8r65o

— Miles Richardson (@findingnature) March 23, 2023

There is a PDF download to the full report - 99 pages.  (PDF download)

This was the number one response from people:

The three most urgent actions the People want to see are:

• To put nature at the centre of decision-making
• Farming subsidy systems to prioritise sustainable and nature-friendly farming
• Greater government accountability through a permanent Assembly for Nature

#19: Natural History Reading List #1 - Sustainability Education - A Classroom Guide

The plan is to feature books on the blog that may end up in a reading list for departmental library of Natural History books for those departments offering the new specification.

These may be current books which may be purchased new, or classics which can perhaps be obtained second hand, or at reduced price. 

There will be some cross-references here to my GeoLibrary blog.

I would imagine that the final draft specification will also include a suggested list of additional reading, which won't be confined to books of course.

Thanks very much to Stephen Scoffham and Steve Rawlinson for giving me a copy of their book in April last year at the GA Conference 2022, and for the generous inscription they wrote inside it too.

There are many contributions in the book from familiar names and plenty to encourage teachers to consider their practice and how it connects with encouraging students to look after the planet and encouraging teachers to look at their lessons through the lens of sustainability. There are overlaps with some aspects of the suggested specification consultation, which will inform the final product that emerges.

As the title suggests this is definitely aimed at informing classroom practice.

It's a book to explore when considering where to strengthen the sustainability element of your school curriculum in whatever phase you work.

There are some familiar names contributing chapters to the book including:

Sharon Witt and Helen Clarke on our Watery Planet; 

Elena Lengthorn on Weather and Climate; 

Paula Owens on Special Places and 

Ben Ballin on our Unequal World.

My copy was a first edition, published by Bloomsbury.

Paperback, 278pp

ISBN: 978-1-350-26207-2

#18: Jo Sale - 'Schools Week' - July 22

A piece in SchoolsWeek by Jo Sale back in July 2022 suggested that we need rather more work than just a new GCSE in Natural History to tackle the need for change.

She said that the curriculum reforms in response to climate change are not enough. Read the piece and see what you think. She also suggests that waiting to 2025 to even start the new courses is also a delay that we do not need if the new qualification is to achieve some of its desired goals over time.

#17: Hedging their bets

More news of mistakes by government recently, this time referring to hedgerow planting as part of the new plans for supporting wildlife in the countryside. 

Hedgerows are an important habitat for a wide range of species, and are really important for biodiversity. Some are hundreds of years old - those in Devon which are an important feature of the landscape are over 800 years old.

There was apparently a typo in the document that was previously published...

CPRE is 'the Countryside Charity' and has a particular focus on hedgerows.

Their hedgerows campaign is calling for #40by50. 

But what does this mean?

From the CPRE website:

The government loves talking about tree planting and peatland restoration, but it seems to have forgotten our hedgerows. 

We’re campaigning for them to commit to a target for planting and restoring thousands of miles of hedgerows across the country.

'We need a 40% increase by 2050 at the latest.'

40: We want to see the hedgerow network increase by 40%. This number was recommended by the independent Climate Change Committee and is equivalent to about 120,000 miles in Britain – half way to the moon!

50: This is the time frame. We need a 40% increase by 2050 at the latest. This requires adding over 4,000 miles of new and restored hedgerows per year, starting now.

For those in need of a definition of hedges, here's a useful one:

A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties.

Top image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license - a hedge in Norfolk - love your local hedges...