#313: Lichens and Gravestones

Following a previous post from April.

This Guardian article describes a Church of England project.

It is a Citizen Science project.

The article includes the following really useful information:

Graves are a haven for lichen, with more than 700 of the 2,000 British species having been recorded in English churchyards and cemeteries so far. According to surveys by the church, many sites have well more than 100 species on the stonework, trees and in the grassland.

This summer, the church is running a nature count in burial grounds across the country. 

Between the 8th and the 16th of June, they are asking people to visit their local graveyard, record which species they find and send them in.

A lichen is a complex life form, made up of a stable symbiotic association between a fungus and algae or cyanobacteria. They are very important as habitat for small invertebrates, and they stabilise soil pH as well as carrying out water and nutrient capture and cycling. They play a crucial role in the environment but many of their preferred habitats, including ancient trees, are under threat.

In order to take part:

To submit records during the week, the easiest way is to use a free app called iNaturalist and join the Beautiful Burial Grounds project. This doesn't appear to be ready quite yet.

The app enables you to take a photo and it helps with identification.

I've got this app myself.

See the previous project outcomes.

A useful guide to Lichens has been produced and can be downloaded as a PDF.

Top image: Gravestones in Lexham Churchyard, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license.

#312: Stamp Issue: Mary Anning

Stamps are often given designs which connect with Natural History, as well as historical figures,  A recent issue featured Mary Anning. She will be featured in a forthcoming post as young people deserve to learn about her pioneering work in an area which is likely to feature in the specification.

What other stamp issues have a Natural History theme?

I've previously used stamp design as a creative task. A blank outline of a stamp (although I need to find one with the King rather than the late Queen is a useful template for creative design work.

#311: The i Newspaper - nature in crisis

The front page of yesterday's i newspaper had a large feature on the crisis facing British nature and the lack of political action.

UK species have declined by 19 per cent on average since the 1970s, with one in six species currently at risk of extinction, a landmark report published last year by the Government in collaboration with non-governmental organisations found.

Today's paper has a feature with Chris Packham to follow up the story.

#310: A small 'update' (or mention at least)

I regularly search through a number of media to see if there are any relevant details on the development of the new specification and the need to have another round of consultations on content and assessment models.

Earlier today there was a bit of a mention during a meeting of an all-party Parliamentary group on the Environment...

.@CarolineLucas asked for an update on the consultation for the new Natural History GCSE, which is due to start in Sept 2025.

This is in write round, taking longer than planned, and the 2025 start may be challenging. pic.twitter.com/mIgbDiwzTX

— All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Environment (@EnvironmentAPPG) May 15, 2024

#309: Data Skills course at the RGS-IBG

A new RGS course in association with the Field Studies Council may be of interest. 

We've been exploring the various skills that teachers who are going to be teaching the new specification. Handling natural history may well be involved there.

Do you want to improve your delivery of data skills? If so, we have got a new event for you.

Join our upcoming joint CPD with @fieldstudiesc looking at improving your skills, knowledge and confidence in teaching data analysis and statistics. https://t.co/eEFHEvZmZb pic.twitter.com/5WSkm68y3q

— RGS-IBG Schools (@RGS_IBGschools) May 3, 2024

Image: Questionnaire, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license.

#308: Word of the Day: Depauperate

One aspect of preparing for the new course will be to learn a whole range of new natural history vocabulary.

This may come from a whole range of sources, including an approved textbook which is no doubt taking shape somewhere.

Others may include lectures. A recent GA Tyne and Wear Branch poster featured the word depauperate in the details of a lecture on ecosystems. I'd never heard of it before..

Turns out it will probably be quite useful when describing some urban environments.

#307: David Attenborough Day

"It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living."

I think it would be a suitable idea to call the 8th of May - Sir David Attenborough Day.

It's his birthday and he turned 98 today. Many Happy Returns Sir!

I had the privilege of meeting him at the RGS some years ago. He has inspired so many people to consider the natural world and its beauty and to take steps to protect it where possible.

Image credit / copyright: Ian Salvage

#306: Changing our plastic habits

I have a Google Alert set up for the phrase 'GCSE Natural History'

The qualification will need to make reference to threats to the landscape.

The Manufacturer is a journal for industry.

This article makes reference to one of the suggested content sections in the consultation - whether it makes it to the draft specification is unknown at the moment.

Julian Hoffman's 'Irreplaceable' touches on the plastic threat when he visits the beach in the chapter entitled 'A world within water'.

He describes the discovery of the plastic nurdles which make up a part of any handful of beach sand in most of the world.

A useful quote to use in any use - remove the word plastic, and see whether people can work out what the missing word is...

"For all its unquestionable usefulness for the human race, a convenience that's turned out to be irressistible to us, plastic places an unearthly burden on the rest of the living world."

#305: The Laboratory with Leaves

A documentary on Fenland - part of a series of films.

#304: MerlinID for bird identification

Merlin ID is a rather good new free smartphone app which is ideal for anyone who wants to know what birds they are listening to. Download the app to begin with.

When you are out on a walk, choose SOUND ID and press the green button.

Merlin identifies bird sounds using breakthroughs in machine learning technology to recognize species based on spectrograms—visual representations of sounds. For Merlin to learn to recognize a species by sound, we use audio recordings from the Macaulay Library that include a variety of sounds for each species to “train” Merlin.

Your smartphone's microphone will be used to record sounds in real time, and as the software identifies a match with a bird that is singing, it will appear on the screen, and you can compare the suggestion with what you are hearing.

Here's what it picked up on a walk I took yesterday's evening. 

As the bird's name popped up I heard it's call as separate from the others, which helped me potentially learn it in the future.

Each sound file can be uploaded to help Merlin ID 'learn'.

As the main website says:

Sound ID is currently available for 1,000+ species. You can view a list of all species covered by Sound ID here. Sound ID will be expanded in the future to include species worldwide, but to do that, our team needs a minimum of 150 sound recordings for each species to train Merlin to recognize their sounds. You can help us add new species to Merlin by recording the birds in your area and uploading them with your eBird checklists.

This will be a wonderful app for those who are planning to investigate bird habitats and particular species.

It's currently FREE but I wonder whether there are plans to start charging over time as the app gets more accurate.

#303: National Hedgerow Week 2024

I'm looking forward to reading the new book: 'Hedgelands'.

We are now in National Hedgerow Week as it stands.

Great to see an article on why hedgerows are important in the Big Issue! Don't forget National Hedgerow Week starts next week, get ready! #NHW #NationalHedgerowWeek24 🌳 💚 pic.twitter.com/MCleiuQWY4

— The Tree Council (@TheTreeCouncil) April 29, 2024

The article in The Big Issue is important to catch up with. Why not buy your own copy of the latest issue. 

I try to pick one up from vendors in Ely or Norwich.

There's a great opening to that piece which sums up why hedgerows are important.

The traditional British hedge is the greatest edge habitat on earth. It is a green food bank, a windbreak, a stock fence, a flood defence system, an immense storage unit for excess carbon dioxide and an incomparable haven for wildlife. According to the RSPB, “hedges may support up to 80% of our woodland birds, 50% of our mammals and 30% of our butterflies”.

A hedge provides singing posts for birds, a crucial navigational aid for bats, and a cross-country route for any number of small mammals, safely hidden from predators. Hedgerow shrubs and trees, bathed in sunshine, will also produce far more fruit that in a woodland. You won’t find many juicy blackberries in the heart of a dark oak forest, no matter how many brambles might be trying to grow there. The most generous kind of hedge should include shrubs, trees and bushes, coppiced and/or cut and laid, forming a row.

It's #NationalHedgerowWeek!
Tell us @Hedgelink_UK how you'll be celebrating hedgerows this week! Share your favourite hedge photos with #myfavehedge and spread the word just how great hedges are! pic.twitter.com/m9IwZ1dxPk

— Hedgelink (@Hedgelink_UK) May 6, 2024

I feel very lucky to have access to fields and hedgerows within two minutes walk of my home. They are full of bird life and plants 

#302: Natural History Reading List #18: 'Gathering Moss'

Robin Wall Kimmerer's book on moss is excellent and very readable. 

The author uses some excellent analogies and examples to explain why mosses are so important. This may well be the best book I've read so far in my reading.

Here's Robin Kimmerer on grass:

And on moss:

The book is now available free to listen to for those who have a Spotify Premium account. There are now hundreds of books available to listen to, and I will perhaps aim to create a list of these for those who have access to Audible ultimately.

#301: Festival of Farmland Biodiversity

This is taking place in Ireland.

In May, the festival of #farmlandbiodiversity celebrates native hedgerows that crisscross Ireland's landscape.

To take part: share photos of hedgerows, use the hashtag above, and tag @BioDataCentre.

Check out https://t.co/hJpknO2H5E for resources such as this lovely graphic! pic.twitter.com/DifT7sFXYn

— Hedgerows Ireland (@hedgerows_ie) May 2, 2024

A lovely image for those exploring Hedgerows...

 

#300: Talking Natural History

The 300th post on this blog has an update on the progress on the specification.

Earlier this week I spent an interesting day in Cambridge discussing the GCSE Natural History as a member of OCR's Consultative Forum. This is a group of people who share an interest in the new specification and the subject itself, and are drawn from a whole range of backgrounds. We were given a little window on what has happening to prepare the new subject for first teaching...

There were some familiar faces as well as some new friends to meet. We had some good conversations on our table.

We had an update on the context within which the new specification will be appearing - this was similar to the OCR Geography Forum meeting that I'd attended the month before. 

Time is tight to complete all the required steps for accreditation in time to start teaching the specification in 2025, and it may slip into 2026 - the timeline is very compressed from now on.

We couldn't be told too much about the specification as the content was embargoed ahead of a consultation which will hopefully take place this month.... or be opened this month. 

We saw a few likely sections presented as broad headings, which suggest a slight change in emphasis from the original conception of the course, and were also asked to choose which of the potential example habitats which students might be shown that we liked. I can't share any of this at the moment.

When the consultation does finally appear, we will of course be all over it here. We will be recommending to people with any sort of interest in teaching the course that they respond if they want to have any influence on what is (and isn't) included. More on that as it comes...

We were given a flavour of what might be involved, and also discussed some options for an assessment model. This will be crucial to uptake as the subject will need to find its way into crowded option blocks, and the timing for inclusion in these, and allowing for teaching time is tight. I referred to my previous experience with the OCR Pilot GCSE Geography, and the use of different types of assessment as well, including the possibility of a Pre-release booklet.

Image: A La Ronde, Devon - Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#299: Turns out nature IS worth something

Last Thursday's Guardian newspaper (this is the best paper for these sorts of stories) has an article on a new report by the Green Finance Institute which warns that further breakdown in the UK’s natural environment could lead to a 12% loss of gross domestic product (GDP) by the 2030s.

It explains how our government's current disregard for nature is going to have drastic consequences.

The full report and related documents are here.

I will unpick this report a little more once we find out how this links with the proposed specifications. I hope something on the real value of nature is included.

#298: 'Homecoming'- out in November '24

One useful practice for those wanting to engage with nature is to keep a journal. I'm not a fan of the verb 'to journal', but 'journalling' as an activity is akin to the scrap books I used to create, or the diaries I used to write capturing what I had for tea and other valuable information to the Mass Observation project.

Melissa Harrison, who has written a number of books which have been mentioned here on this blog has been busy putting together a resource which sounds like it might be of value to explore with young people. 

It is a diary and almanac combined.

🌱 NEWS! 🌱 In November @wnbooks will publish HOMECOMING: A GUIDED JOURNAL TO LEAD YOU BACK TO NATURE. It's for you, your kids, your parents, friends and everyone you love; it's as close as I can get to inviting you on 12 relaxed walks with me. Pre-order: https://t.co/owNdVIPonv pic.twitter.com/3Udh6KZHFQ

— Melissa Harrison (@M_Z_Harrison) April 30, 2024

Description:

A year-long course in noticing designed to plug you back into the rhythm of the seasons.

Begin in any month and continue round to the start.

Follow the stories, small and large, unfolding all around you - whether you live in the heart of a city or deepest countryside.

Connect to nature, boost your wellbeing and find your way in the living world.

Establish your own rituals, high points and habits to carry you through the year.

Homecoming includes a monthly bird-by-ear as well as rewarding and inspiring activities from meteor spotting to marking each equinox, citizen science to caring for your nearby wild.