#192: CEH: Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

The UK's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has been around for decades. 

I remember their work when completing my degree.

The UKCEH Countryside Survey has collected data for more than 40 years to show how our water, land and air, and the animals and plants that depend on them, are changing over time.

Data from nature, for nature 💚

See more: https://t.co/VXjZZE4IL9#DataNature @AngusGarbutt pic.twitter.com/vA1yUlaL6u

— UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (@UK_CEH) November 25, 2023

In addition to their datasets, I had a look for other material that might be of use for the new GCSE Natural History potentially.

The site has a section entitled 'Factsheets'.

There is one on Saltmarshes and one on Peatland.

 

#191: Countryfile magazine article

Another post from June 2022's Countryfile magazine by Sara Maitland which mentioned the importance of the new GCSE, although she lives in Scotland...
https://www.countryfile.com/.../sara-maitland-a-new-gcse.../


Declining plant awareness is the theme of the article.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ece3.9019
A BBC article shared by Mary Colwell too
https://www.theguardian.com/.../humans-value-nature...

A feature on p.10-11 of 'Make the Future Yours' magazine - read it online

https://www.makethefutureyours.uk/latest-issue

#190: 'Local'

Out in January 2024, the latest book from Al Humphreys will be published.

After years of expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year exploring the detailed local map around his home.

Can this unassuming landscape, marked by the glow of city lights and the hum of busy roads, hold any surprises for the world traveller or satisfy his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration?

Discovering more about the natural world than in all his years in remote environments, he learns the value of truly getting to know his neighbourhood.

An ode to slowing down, Local is a celebration of curiosity and time spent outdoors, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep.

This sounds like it might have some good connections with the ideas in the GCSE Natural History.

Why not get out your own local OS sheet?

Mine is OS Explorer 238. 

There's certainly plenty of interest on that map sheet alone that could keep you going. An Explorer sheet covers an area of hundreds of square kilometres which would certainly take more than a year to thoroughly explore.

Available from Al's own website.

You can find out about Al's methodology and thinking around his local exploration here.

This is an area I may return to myself.

I have my copy and can confirm it's a really good read and have already made a few notes and downloaded a few apps that Al recomments, some of which will appear on this blog.

#189: The Harmony Project

 Check out the Harmony Project.

The Harmony Project aims to transform education to ensure it is fit for purpose in preparing young people to engage with the environmental and social challenges we face, not just to pass exams. We work with educators to develop learning that is based upon a deep understanding of, and connection to, the natural world – learning that will equip students with the skills they need to live more sustainably.

The booklet they've created has been designed for primary teachers rather than GCSE students, but the ideas could easily be adapted, and that goes for much of the other resource library on the site.

We've created a booklet for #primaryteachers and #schoolleaders which outlines children's progression in expertise and skills from Reception to Year 6 across six key #sustainability themes. It's free to download from our website: https://t.co/WzA14VDmqB #climatechange #SDGs pic.twitter.com/JEfD2dYtC9

— The Harmony Project (@HarmonyOrgUK) November 8, 2023

Visiting the website revealed a whole range of other resources that would be of value to those preparing to teach the new GCSE but also existing subjects including Geography but also English and PSHE.

For example, there's a 90 page pack on Antarctica which has links to videos and other aspects of life on the frozen (for now) continent. This explores our connections with the continent.

Our Natural History is being impacted by change taking place in distant areas.

 

#188: Fred Ingrams' Flat Earth

One of my favourite contemporary landscape artists is Fred Ingrams.

He has painted hundreds of colourful representations of The Fens over the years, and others of the Flowlands of Scotland, around Caithness.

The Fens is an area that I will certainly look to write about for any resources that emerge, as an example of a landscape with a particular natural history, which has been shaped in recent centuries by the actions of people.

He has now created a book called Flat Earth. Fred says:

I have been painting the Fens for over a decade, producing around 500 paintings in that period. In some ways I suppose this book can be considered a retrospective. 

I’ve chosen a collection of paintings that I feel have passed the test of time – a showreel of my greatest hits. They do not appear in any particular order and are not chronological. It is my hope that looking at this book feels like wandering through an exhibition of my work.

The hard back book measures 23 x 29cm and is 200 pages long, containing over 100 paintings as well as a foreword by Susan Owens and an introduction written by myself.

I have a copy of a catalogue of a previous exhibition of his paintings which has an excellent introduction by Jonathan Meades. 

A film of Fred at work:

#187: i/o

I had the great good fortune to see Peter Gabriel once again playing live this summer - I think for the 7th or 8th time that I've seen him over the years. 

His forthcoming album is called i/O and there is a track on the album with the same name.

Gabriel says in the lyrics to the song:

So we think we really live apart

Because we’ve got two legs, a brain, and a heart

We all belong to everything
To the octopus suckers and the buzzard’s wing
To the elephant’s trunk and buzzing bee’s sting

Another track on the same theme is called Olive Tree.

This includes the following lines:

I’ve got thе cool breeze right on my skin
Bringing every cеll to life
Making all connections live
From one point to another
And we’re all here, just the same
Tryna' make some sense of it

The album as a whole is about how we are all part of something bigger.

Check out the visuals as well...

Image: Alan Parkinson, and shared under CC license

#186: Hedge consultation

The local Byline Times has a piece on a consultation that recently took place regarding hedgerows.

It seems amazing that anyone would consider that hedgerows should be removed.

Hedgerows are a vital part of the English landscape, dating back to times of enclosure, or marking the boundaries of areas of land. They are also a vital habitat for a great many animals - hedgehogs included one imagines.

The government was seeking opinions about the future of hedgerows – their maintenance, the current rules of management, the penalties and what the long term strategy should be. 
Defra states that “Amending the Hedgerows Regulations 1997 to include management measures would impact on all farmers and land managers in England who have hedgerows on their agricultural land, aside from those covered by various exemptions.”

This provides some protections for hedgerows currently.

 

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared under CC license

#185: Origin of Species

Today marks the anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's 'Origin of Species' (shortened version of full title). Cambridge University Library has a large archive of Darwin's papers.

This can be viewed via this link.

There are links from here through to Darwin's correspondence.

#184: Work to do here...

One of the aspects of the GCSE Natural History is that it must ensure that the people who are referenced in the specification are suitably diverse.

This Guardian piece shows the efforts that still need to be made to ensure representation. 

We have a number of young naturalists who should certainly be on a suggested list of people to ensure appropriate diversity.

The Historic England blog makes an interesting read as well.

The British Ecological Society has also provided a useful blog and podcast.

British Ecological Society Journals · Black History Month 2023: Yoseph Araya on Nature, Role Models and Academia

#183: Ordnance Survey survey on mapping and GIS

My hope would be that the new specification will involve an expectation of a deal of mapwork using the Ordnance Survey's mapping, plus ESRI GIS mapping and Survey123 for the collection and visualisation of fieldwork data. They may also need to use the MAGIC map, maps of National Landscapes etc and ensure that location and description of context is an important part when considering the range of habitats and how the landscape and Natural History of the UK has changed over the centuries.

I've been involved with the OS in numerous ways over the years: as a GetOutside Champion, author of support resources for Digimap for Schools and Digimap for Colleges / Mapstream. Also as an author of articles for Mapping News and other support for various campaigns and activities.

For many years Ordnance Survey has delivered support for education to encourage the awareness and use of high-quality geospatial data in the education sector and since 2020 this has been through an Education Plan, funded through the UK Government's Geospatial Commission (GC).
They are keen to gather evidence about how this has so far supported the work of teachers and consider what more they could be doing in this area. 

They would also like to understand what other training tools geography teachers currently access and the barriers that may be in place when using geographic information systems (GIS).

They are asking for 15 minutes (or so) of your time to complete a short survey. 

The survey is open to all geography teachers until Friday 8 December and the findings from it will help them to consider how to develop the Education Plan.

Complete the survey on this link.

#182: AONBs are now called National Landscapes

Those preparing new resources take note... a significant change which many people are not aware of...

From today, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are now called 'National Landscapes'. This is another change which will impact on many printed resources / textbooks / websites and resources that are under construction which focus on landscape management.

This site has a nice interactive map of the 46 areas but currently has the old name.

Check the website for more details.

Welcome to National Landscapes – a new chapter in the story of designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) in England and Wales. Find out more at https://t.co/LZpHYAkvmq 1/5 pic.twitter.com/j4XIkjV0v5

— National Landscapes Association (@NatLandAssoc) November 22, 2023

Some nice graphics on the Twitter feed - check the thread today to kick start the new association and name. 

From the site:

The new name reflects their national importance: the vital contribution they make to protect the nation from the threats of climate change, nature depletion and the wellbeing crisis, whilst also creating greater understanding and awareness for the work that they do.

This is a significant milestone for the UK and the next step in fully realising the National Landscapes’ vision to be the leading exemplars of how thriving, diverse communities can work with and for nature in the UK: restoring ecosystems, providing food, storing carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change, safeguarding against drought and flooding, whilst also nurturing people’s health and wellbeing.

National Landscapes teams have been at the forefront of delivering natural solutions to the main challenges facing the nation for many years. The new brand underscores their commitment to redoubling their efforts and engaging with a wider audience. In 2019, teams set themselves the most ambitious targets for nature in the sector and continue to work to meet them.

By 2030, National Landscapes aim that, within their boundaries: at least 200,000 hectares of the most valuable natural areas (Sites of Special Scientific Interest or SSSIs), which equates to 1 ¼ times the size of London, will be in favourable condition; 100,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat outside of SSSIs will be created or restored, which is roughly nine times the size of Manchester; and 36,000 hectares of woodland, which is a little smaller than the Isle of Wight, will have been planted or allowed to regenerate. National Landscapes Partnerships will also focus on habitat restoration to ensure the protection of some of our most endangered species and increase their work to help more people to enjoy time spent in beautiful places.

There is a list of all the new National Landscapes on the website. This can be viewed as a list or a map.

As I thought, when looking at the graphics, each National Landscape has been given a new visual identity / logo.

I will be spending part of my Christmas holidays in the Norfolk Coast National Landscape.

I can see an activity where a list of the areas is shown and students have to identify the appropriate logo - it takes quite a bit of knowledge of the landscape and local wildlife to identify some of them...

#181: Discovering Galapagos

A sister site to the excellent Discovering Antarctica and Discovering the Arctic.

Discovering Galapagos is put together by the Galapagos Conservation Trust and the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG).

The Galapagos Islands are significant in the development of a number of key theories linked with Natural History.

The site includes a wealth of detail about the islands.

#180: Cynefin

The Geographical Association has produced a very useful resource for those who may want to explore the concept of Cynefin.

It's one of the resources created by the GA's Welsh Special Interest Group.

The idea of cynefin connects with themes of home, or 'habitat'.

Natural History in its various forms is likely to explore different habitats.

How much is the natural landscape around where we live a part of this cynefin? If something in it changes dramatically, our sense of 'home' is likely to be affected.

#179: Chalk Stream Challenge

A cross posting from my LivingGeography blog.

It refers to the latest (at the time of posting) episode of the Geographical Association's GeogPod podcast - hosted by John Lyon. I've posted about that previously. This is the 70th episode of the PODCAST, which is an impressive achievement.

This talks about an opportunity for those living near a Chalk Stream to take part in the Chalk Stream Challenge.

This has been developed with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.

From the website:

The challenge is suitable for Scouts, Guides, and similar groups. It involves activities that can easily be customised to suit different age ranges. There are several set routes to choose from, all of which are 'off-road’ but close to public transport, parking, and places to find refreshments and toilet facilities.

The Chalk Stream Challenge was created by two brilliant volunteers, Hazel and Sarah, as part of the Watercress and Winterbournes Landscape Partnership Scheme. 

The scheme features many projects focused on the Rivers Test and Itchen headwaters, including free education sessions for young people.

This might make a suitable field activity for GCSE Natural History students in time.

I shall post about the Watercress and Winterbournes project separately. There's a whole lot of geography in there too.

The Podcast can be listened to below:

#178: Natural History Podcasts #6: GeogPod

GeogPod is the Geographical Association's Podcast, hosted by John Lyon - my former colleague at the Geographical Association.

He has been presenting this for eleven full seasons. 

The most recent episode, at the time of posting, is the seventieth episode.

In that time, John has spoken to a whole range of people, including me in episode #53. 

Several of these episodes have a connection with some of the likely themes within the new draft specification.

There is also a focus on curriculum in many of them, and how decisions about what and how to teach are made - relevant to the decisions that will need to be made about curriculum time, timetabling, sequencing lessons and how synopticity can be built in to the overall 'narrative' of the new subject. Some interesting decisions still need to be made.

The twelfth season has just started, and starts with an excellent episode on Chalk Streams.... more on that in the next post.

#177: Ladybird love

A nice piece in The Guardian by Helen Sullivan on Ladybirds. 

She describes the link with the Virgin Mary.

Its spots – seven, if you are in Europe – symbolise Mary’s seven sorrows, its red shell the cloak she wears sometimes, when she is feeling passionate or loving, or devoted to her son, or, when she’s in a particularly generous mood, devoted to all of humanity.

When a ladybug lands on you, by thinking about what you’d like to happen, you might increase the chances it’ll come true—like wishing on a star. Maybe it’s just the power of positive thinking.

Unsurprisingly, the reverse of this belief is also commonly held. Squishing a ladybug is thought to bring bad fortune, so you might want to stay away from whacking them.

A guide to ladybirds can be purchased for £4 from this link. It is produced by Watkins and Doncaster.

Source

https://www.birdsandblooms.com/gardening/garden-bugs/ladybug-meaning/

Image: https://www.watdon.co.uk/acatalog/E5475-guide-to-ladybirds-of-the-British-Isles-identification-chart.html

There will be a separate post about Watkins and Doncaster - a firm that sells quite a lot of the equipment that departments will need if they are planning to teach the 

#176: Surtsey - 60 years of succession

What did the crew of the Icelandic trawler Ísleifur II see for the first time?

Sixty years ago today, the sea south of Iceland boiled and a new island was born. The trawler was on the spot when a phreatomagmatic eruption began... 

I have been working on some new resources on the island of Surtsey for the new GCSE Natural History - which may or may not be delayed by recent Cabinet reshuffles. 

There is a focus on topics such as Plant Succession.

Surtsey is just over a month older than me.

It turns out that I didn't really need to do this after all as Discover the World have released a new resource on the island which is really rather good. I'll finish mine anyway as it has a different focus.

On this day 60 years ago, an eruption started in the ocean southwest of the Westman Islands. The eruption lasted almost four years and eventually formed the island of Surtsey. 📷Arctic Images. pic.twitter.com/lDYepkb5rA

— Lava Centre (@LavaCentre) November 14, 2023 

Today marks the 60th anniversary since the famous Surtsey #Eruption. With the current tectonic activity bubbling away in #Iceland, you can use our NEW classroom resource to compare with the current events of the #icelandvolcano and #IcelandEarthquakes https://t.co/HEJwNckVFs

— Discover the World Education (@DTW_Education) November 14, 2023

You can go here to download the resource.

The island is a perfect example of a blank slate on which plant succession can then begin as birds and other processes bring seeds to what is otherwise virgin territory. The island has been off limits to the public for the last sixty years, with monitoring of the species that are arriving. There is quite a bit of information online - and in my resource - on the steady arrival of new species.

The island also has World Heritage Status.

The criteria is Outstanding Universal Value.

Surtsey is a new island formed by volcanic eruptions in 1963-67. It has been legally protected from its birth and provides the world with a pristine natural laboratory. 

Free from human interference, Surtsey has produced long-term information on the colonisation process of new land by plant and animal life.

Criterion

Ongoing biological and ecological processes: Surtsey was born as a new volcanic island in 1963-67 and since that time has played a major role in studies of succession and colonisation. It has been the site of one of the few long term studies worldwide on primary succession, providing a unique scientific record of the process of colonisation of land by plants, animals and marine organisms. 

Not only is it geographically isolated, but it has been legally protected from its birth, providing the world with a pristine natural laboratory, free from human interference. Above all, because of its continuing protection, Surtsey will continue to provide invaluable data on biological colonisation long into the future.

Integrity

The property includes the whole island and an adequate surrounding marine area, and thus all the areas that are essential for the long term conservation of the ecological processes on Surtsey. There is also a relatively small but functional marine buffer zone that is not part of the inscribed property. It is noted that part of the evolution of Surtsey is the process of coastal erosion which has already halved the area of the island and over time is predicted to remove another two thirds leaving only the most resistant core.

Since they began studying the island in 1964, scientists have observed the arrival of seeds carried by ocean currents, the appearance of moulds, bacteria and fungi, followed in 1965 by the first vascular plant, of which there were 10 species by the end of the first decade. By 2004, they numbered 60 together with 75 bryophytes, 71 lichens and 24 fungi. Eighty-nine species of birds have been recorded on Surtsey, 57 of which breed elsewhere in Iceland. The 141 ha island is also home to 335 species of invertebrates.

Here's a video on the eruption:

#175: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

This is a place which should definitely be on a list of places to visit for those who want to explore palaeontology and see a wealth of artefacts from various historical periods. It is next door to the wonderful Pitt Rivers Museum, which is an anthropological treasure house as well, and will have its own post on the blog. If you can get to Oxford, this is well worth a look.

 The Palaeontology page is good. They have artefacts from William Buckland and Mary Anning in their collection. The building is dramatic and impressive and based over several floors. The pillars are made from different rock types, which covers geology as well.

I've visited a few times.

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

Over half a million of the museum's collection of items have now been digitised and can be accessed online.

The museum also offers a range of learning workshops, including some for GCSE. One can imagine that if the new specification offers a suitable structure for these that the museum might develop something specifically for the GCSE Natural History.

#174: Pliny's 'Natural History'

Perhaps the first major book with the theme of 'Natural History' was by Pliny the Elder. It's certainly the earliest to survive - there are many important books lost to events in the past.

You can read about the work here.

The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the Natural History compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work's title, its subject area is not limited to what is today understood by natural history; Pliny himself defines his scope as "the natural world, or life". It is encyclopedic in scope, but its structure is not like that of a modern encyclopedia. It is the only work by Pliny to have survived, and the last that he published. He published the first 10 books in AD 77, but had not made a final revision of the remainder at the time of his death during the AD 79 eruption of Vesuvius. The rest was published posthumously by Pliny's nephew, Pliny the Younger.

The book can be read online in full here.

Image: a 1499 copy of the book

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_(Pliny)#/media/File:Plinius_t_y_Venezia_1499_IMG_3886.JPG

#173: Habitat Explorer

This is connected with the new series Planet Earth III - which will not be so new by the time the new specification gets off the ground.

It's an interactive called Habitat Explorer.

Habitat Explorer lets you bring amazing animal habitats into your own living room. When you've scanned the QR code just choose the habitat you want to explore and point your camera at a flat, horizontal surface. Tap where you want it to appear and start exploring!

You can zoom in, spin it around or even move around the space and get up close to the animals in their environment.

Don't forget to create your own pledge cards and share on social with #OUHabitatExplorer.

#172: Natural History Reading List #13: 'The Making of the British Landscape' - Nicholas Crane

A cross posting from my GeoLibrary blog which has been on the go for over 10 years. The title of this book is a slight extension of the W.G. Hoskins classic 'The Making of the English Landscape'. 

The book is written by geographer Nicholas Crane who has previously been involved in series such as 'Coast' and 'Map Man'.

There is also a book of the same name by the archaeologist and historian Francis Pryor.

My copy is a signed copy from Topping Books in Ely - a recommended stopping off point if you are in the fine city of Ely.

The book takes a chronological view of the British Isles going back ten thousand+ years to the end of the Ice Age, whem we were still connected to Europe, before sea levels rose and Doggerland was drowned. 

Chapters explore a range of different time periods, set across three 'books' and six discrete sections of the book.

The first section covers the period from 10 000 - 4050 BC - from the Ice Age to the separation of the UK from Europe.

There are looks at fields and enclosure, the impact of the Romans and other arrivals, and the rise of urbanisation. Flint mining, industrial revolution, agricultural change, castle building, Fenland drainage, road building and hill figures are amongst the areas which are explored.

It is clearly written and provides a sprawling story ranging over thousands of years and numerous locations. It reminds us that the landscapes we see today have evolved through a range of changes - rivers have changed course, sea levels have risen and fallen, weathering and erosion have done their work, and people have imposed themselves on the landscape in various ways.

This book is inevitably going to be very useful for some aspects of the sections: Life in the Early World, Natural Shaping of the World and Human Shaping of the World.

We are waiting to see how the detail in the original consultation document will be translated into the subject criteria and ultimately the draft specification. The subject criteria will be used by awarding bodies.

#171: 'Two million species at risk of extinction'

... and many of them are insects which form the basis of many food chains...

Number of species at risk of extinction doubles to 2 million, says study https://t.co/3pc4OUMuVW

— Guardian Environment (@guardianeco) November 8, 2023

97% of all animals are invertebrates. Of that group, about 90% are classified as insects. They provide vital ecosystem services: pollinating crops, recycling nutrients into soils, and decomposing waste.

 “Without insects, our planet will not be able to survive.”

This is further worrying news in a week of worrying reports. And all the while, the government just rearranges the deckchairs on the Titanic...

Image: Leaf Hopper, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#170: Representations of the natural world: cave paintings

Humans have represented the natural world in many different ways over the centuries, dating back to cave paintings through a whole range of other art forms: literature, poetry, art, pottery, gardening etc.

The original ideas in the consultation on the specification included a reference to cave paintings. This may form part of a topic called 'Life in the Early World' or more likely 'Representations of the Natural World'.

There are some famous locations where cave paintings have been discovered, which represent the flora and fauna of the time. The drawings capture creatures which are no longer native to the countries where the images are found. The paintings were also made with dyes / paints made from natural sources as well.

A few key locations which would be worth referencing:

1. Lascaux Caves

Source:https://www.flickr.com/photos/centredessciencesdemontreal/13763665525/sizes/l/

This is perhaps one of the best known locations.

The problem with the caves is that visitors change the atmosphere within the caves, due to their respiration adding heat and moisture to the otherwise cool and relatively dry interior of the caves (which was why people lived there).

There is also a good story starter for a mystery which links with Robot the Dog, who disappeared down a hole and helped to discover the cave system.

Visitors are now directed to a replica of the cave which was recreated following 3D scanning of the original spaces to ensure that they are not damaged further.

2. Chauvet Cave

The Chauvet cave, in the Ardeche region of southern France, contains some of the oldest and most remarkable cave drawings ever found - yet it has been sealed shut since its discovery to preserve this precious art.

The cave is the subject of an early film by Werner Herzog.

It is called 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams'.

In this BBC Sounds broadcast he describes the moment. He describes it as being transported to a separate reality.

What other examples of cave paintings could be added to this list of locations?

This article suggests 7 key locations.

#169: A Disappearing Planet

A nice data visualisation. Scroll down to reveal the not-so-nice story.

#168: Nature ID Guides

The Natural History Museum offers a range of ID guides.

These are downloadable and can usefully support the use of the FSC ID guides which we have blogged about previously. They are not always as detailed as the FSC guides, and focus on some specific areas, and fewer of them.

They are free of charge however, which will be useful for those who would like to offer the new specification but have limited budgets to introduce it. It will be important that guidance is given on how to reduce the cost of introducing the new specification, which could prove costly given the range of different areas that students will need to be introduced to, and which teachers will need to be upskilled on.

It would be useful to have some sort of library of ID guides for students to access, and perhaps a company will be paired up with certain aspects of the course to sponsor some resources that will be provided to schools offering the specification.

The companies that are involved will need to be carefully chosen however. One can imagine an oil company offering to sponsor the resources - it would not be the first time they have sponsored school resources - often making them free of charge, but with prominent branding.

#167: The Great Fen Project

A piece in The Guardian - which seems to be the paper with the best reporting on the environment and nature - on the Great Fen project. It's described as 'a gamechanger'.

The Great Fen project is organised by Wildlife Trust conservationists.

The project has already cost £10m and its price tag could reach £30m by the time it is completed.

The money – which has included an £8m donation from the National Lottery Heritage Fund – is being used to buy large sections of farmland to create a 9,000-acre site around two nature reserves – one at Holme Fen and the other at Woodwalton Fen, the latter being one of the very first wildlife refuges created in the UK . The land will then be transformed by allowing water to return to previously drained fields.

The Great Fen projects hopes to attract rare bird species such as bitterns. Photograph: FLPA/Alamy

A project to follow, and a place to visit perhaps for those schools close to the area. I've been to Holme Fen previously to see the post that was driven into the ground and now stands well proud of it.

#166: Dudley Stamp's maps revisited

Cross-posting from my GA Presidents blog. Dudley Stamp was a former President of the GA.

Thanks to Steve Brace for the link to a new research project making use of Dudley Stamp's Land Utilisation Survey UK project. This involved thousands of school students mapping the area around their school and home.

We scanned Dudley Stamp maps & compared them with modern satellite data to record the extent of land-use change across Britain in mid-20thC. Our map outlines land conversion for every 10km x 10km sq. @andysuggitt & @AGAuffret#geographyteachers #NEA https://t.co/UIEk3Sw9Lj

— Steve Brace (@SteveBraceGeog) November 5, 2023

The full piece in 'The Conversation' explores a new project. 

The outcomes are reported in this research paper. (Open Access at the time of posting).

We estimate that roughly 90% of lowland meadow and pasture has been lost. Land was converted either to arable farmland, which saw a 22% increase, or to agriculturally improved grassland, which now occupies 27% of Britain’s land area.

Urbanisation saw the nation’s built area expand from 4% to 5%. And woodland cover doubled from 6% to 12%, largely due to a concerted effort to increase the country’s reserve of timber. For better or worse, the nation’s land use became less mixed and more consolidated.

All of this environmental change is thought to have had a profound effect on biodiversity. According to the recent State of Nature Report, the abundance of UK species has declined by an average of 19% since 1970. Some 1,500 species (or 16% of those analysed) are now threatened with national extinction.

The full piece outlines further changes affecting particular species and how the data can help to identify species at particular risk from climate change.

All the maps are available for free download.

#165: Politics

It's going to be interesting to see the political dimensions of the new curriculum and how particular topics are framed, and guidance given to teachers in terms of how they approach the teaching of particular areas of Natural History linked with the management of landscapes and environments. 

At the moment, the ideas and results of the original consultation are sitting with an Education Minister who has not responded in enough time to keep to the original timetable for first teaching from 2025.

A group of people as yet unknown have been working on draft subject criteria for the new specification which are long awaited, and there is no sign as yet of when we might expect some sort of action with few updates being provided despite the need to get cracking if all the support material that is needed to teach an entire specification is going to be produced in anything less than a great big rush.

One can imagine the ministers who see the document wanting to ensure that particular elements of the course are looked at for their potential political implications. The particular dogma that political parties in government follow are not always sympathetic to the environment. We have also seen lots of broken promises on the benefits of Brexit for farmers, none of which have been seen, and the end result has been a lot of food producers going out of business or deciding to sell up due to the economics of farming. It would be difficult to teach some of the proposed topics without referencing a lack of action, removal of funding or some other outcome which is the result of years of the same party in Government.

The Government has made a number of decisions on topics which will have a direct impact on the economy, including the use of chemicals which are harmful to bees in order to protect sugar beet crops.

They appointed Therese Coffey to the vital role of Environment Secretary. She has little understanding of the key topics such as nutrient neutrality. Her recent comments on the impacts of Storm Ciaran and the fact that the wind was coming from an unfamiliar direction drew rightful criticism. The state of our rivers, including local chalk streams has also been the subject of campaigning by Feargal Sharkey and others. Protections are being removed and legislation watered down. None of this is in doubt. The Government also recently said that species reintroductions were not a priority.

“The UK is officially cited as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world. A major study recently found that a shocking one in six species is now at risk of extinction – and the huge decline in abundance of most species bodes very badly for us all – whether through the lack of pollinators for crops or thriving habitats to filter water and store carbon. Nature’s buzz and song is disappearing from our lives and so are the huge range of other benefits that nature brings us. The UK Government has recognised the need for urgent action and it has made big commitments – but has failed to keep them. That’s why we’re publishing a list of this Government’s broken promises – it’s a wake-up call to us all.”

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts website features ten broken promises. Many of them are directly relevant to the GCSE Natural History development in some way.

Today, The Wildlife Trusts publish a list of 10 broken promises by the UK Government on nature and our environment.

We hope next week’s #kingsspeech will signal a better future for the UK’s struggling natural environment.

Read more 📜👉https://t.co/t2MuwS4UBF

— The Wildlife Trusts (@WildlifeTrusts) November 3, 2023

The ninth of these references the Natural History GCSE directly:

#164: Dr. Margaret Bradshaw - wildflower advocate

I hope that students will be introduced to a diverse range of people who have worked in the field of natural history - specialising in discrete aspects of the various sub-disciplines - and not just the usual suspects of dead white men.

Margaret Bradshaw is a legend in the field of wildlfower research.

The Guardian has profiled Margaret, who has spent many decades researching the flowers in Teesdale in North Yorkshire. At 97, she has just had a book published outlining the results of her research into the local flowers which developed in a unique mini-ecosystem of Arctic-Alpine flora.

She has also been featured on Countryfile.

This part of the uplands is a seemingly empty landscape, heavily grazed by sheep, but it hides botanical treasures that have been here for more than 10,000 years. Some of the plants can’t be found anywhere else in the UK and – until Bradshaw arrived on the scene – many were unaccounted for.

Bradshaw is the chief caretaker of some of the country’s rarest flowers. She has spent seven decades obsessively studying the unique Arctic-Alpine flora of Teesdale, in the north of England.

We just loved reading this profile of Margaret Bradshaw - deserving winner of our 2023 H. H. Bloomer Award.

Margaret has spent decades studying the plants of Teesdale, and campaigning to preserve them.https://t.co/8stQfR3P4K pic.twitter.com/z6q4ZRNrfC

— The Linnean Society of London (@LinneanSociety) November 3, 2023

On her Countryfile appearance she was asked if it 'mattered' that the flowers were disappearing.

In response, Margarets said: 'Well, does it matter that we have Durham cathedral? Does it matter that we have Stongehenge?'

'What would happen if Durham cathedral was falling down, bit by bit? They'd want to build it up again because it's part of our heritage.

'This is part of our heritage. Much older than Stonehenge. It's 10,000 or 12,000 years old.'

#163: National Education Nature Park's Visual Identity

The National Education Nature Park (NENP) is a nation-wide scheme created to empower children to make a positive impact on nature, part of the suite of support which includes (eventually) the new GCSE in Natural History.

The Natural History Museum (NHM) was appointed by the Department for Education to lead the partnership, working with groups such as the Royal Horticultural Society and Royal Society, and supported by Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), Manchester Metropolitan University, Learning Through Landscapes, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the National Biodiversity Network Trust.

Happy Friday! We're liking this playful new identity for the National Education Nature Park that captures the essence of nature and education. 📘🌳https://t.co/1wsoDx71av

— MeeCreative (@Mee_Creative) November 3, 2023

 Out of Place Studio worked on the new identity.

I really like the graphics and the overall look of the communications forming part of the development of the materials.

#162: World Jellyfish Day 2023

The 3rd of November is World Jellyfish Day. 

Happy #WorldJellyfishDay! 🎉

Which jellyfish have you seen floating through our waters? 💙 https://t.co/JqaZmA5PA9 pic.twitter.com/SjBbkJLF8U

— The Wildlife Trusts (@WildlifeTrusts) November 3, 2023

It's a special day to celebrate the mysterious creatures and think of ways to keep them safe all over the world.

These strange animals are made up of mostly water, have no centralised brains, blood or bones.

Conservationists are hoping to raise awareness of this unique creature for the role they play in the environment and their potential to help medical research or even be a sustainable food source.

And while you may think of the unusual sea creatures as mainly being far away from home, sightings of jellyfish in UK seas and on our beaches have gone up by 32% according to research done by the Marine Conservation Society.

Jellyfish were around before dinosaurs?

They've been around for more than 500 million years - scientists discovered this in 2005 when they found a 505-million-year-old jellyfish fossil.

Source

Their mostly transparent bodies, wiry tentacles, and lack of bodily organs confounded early scientists so much that they couldn’t even classify these guys — back when categories were only plants, animals, and humans. Jellyfish weren’t plants but they didn’t fit the specified mold of animals either. The world simply dubbed (classified) them as ‘incomplete’ and didn’t bother investigating further, at least until the microscope was invented. Many such ‘incomplete’ organisms didn’t neatly fit into any category naturalists created, and they were forced to reexamine their categories and come up with new definitions for each.

However, it wasn’t until Charles Darwin proposed his theory of evolution in 1859 — “all living things show a variation in physical traits over time as a process of natural selection” — that the jellyfish got some recognition.

A Marine Conservation Society guide on how to identify jellyfish.

Report your jellyfish sightings here.