A blog providing ideas and resources for those teachers hoping to teach the new GCSE Specification, first announced in April 2022. Draft subject content released for consultation in June 2026 - for first teaching from 2028 or 2029.
Data is at the heart of the conservation decisions we make to protect butterflies and moths and we believe good data is key to their future survival 💚
— Butterfly Conservation (@savebutterflies) October 18, 2023
That’s why we have made over 46 million UK records publicly available online on the @NBNAtlas 👉 https://t.co/hssENVr7Mj pic.twitter.com/JC9AA24swt
Check out the atlas here for all things butterfly...
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.
— RGS-IBG Schools (@RGS_IBGschools) May 3, 2024
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
Image: Questionnaire, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license.
Phenology is the study of the changing dates when natural events happen.
There's Japanese data on cherry tree blossoming stretching back to 812. Some commitment. pic.twitter.com/YdQx4HepYf
— Stefan Schubert (@StefanFSchubert) March 6, 2024
This year's blossom was a warning.
This according to National Geographic writer Ayurella Horn-Muller
latest, written on assignment for @NatGeo:
— Ayurella Horn-Muller (@ayurellahm) March 26, 2024
A 1,200-year record of cherry blossoms shows our current climate is historically unprecedented. “We haven't experienced anything like this...it's a new world that we are heading into.”https://t.co/Z8Fz6u1PCO
Image: Blossom, Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license
Hedges were in the news with a report on the BBC News website by Helen Briggs saying that the length of the UK's hedgerows would go round the world ten times. It's based on some CEH data here.
Of course it used to be many times more, but miles of hedgerows have been lost - grubbed up to make more space, or to make larger fields to make farming more 'efficient'. Hopefully some protections are now put in place, and other new hedgerows can be planted - I noticed some going in on the edge of my Norfolk village last weekend.
The news article was picked up by a few Twitter accounts.
About half of Britain's hedgerows were lost 1940s-1990s, mostly in England - intensive farming & development.
— Rachael Unsworth (@LeedsTours) January 30, 2024
Loss has slowed since 1990s, but neglect, damage & removal remain big threats.
Government promised in 2023 to create/restore 72,000km of hedgerows by 2050. https://t.co/8pXmqgQiRv
There are plenty of overlaps with the potential content of the GCSE Natural History specification. Hedges are a linear habitat. Their existence reveals landscape change and links to the past, including enclosure. They are important for biodiversity, and vary in form in different counties.
Hedgelink has also shared the link to the mapping which has been done by CEH.Amazing hedgerow mapping from @UK_CEH 🌳 Hedgerow height and length has been mapped across England to build up a picture of the state of the nation's hedges. Click here for the data: https://t.co/UFDOQFz22w https://t.co/qlGi5iNDV5
— Hedgelink (@Hedgelink_UK) January 30, 2024
A comment on hedges from Robert MacFarlane to end this post. We will certainly be coming back to consider how we can create a resource related to the changing history of hedges. They need to be conserved and cherished according to this FT piece.
I like the description here by Robert of hedges:
He asked for contributions on the theme of hedges, and here is one that caught the eye, and is worth returning to:Hedgerows are miraculous habitats: skinny wildwoods, bird-larders, carbon stores, species shelters.
— Robert Macfarlane (@RobGMacfarlane) January 30, 2024
Now first full (LIDAR) map of England's vast hedge-network is out.
Laid end to end they'd girdle the Earth ten times.
Let's celebrate hedges! Pics, stories?https://t.co/5Dx8UspiVq
"A bewitched curtain"...
— CeasefireNow (@lucyinnarnia) January 30, 2024
here is the full poem, The Hedge, by @ZaffarKunial from "England's Green" (Faber) pic.twitter.com/Vdwb1sfwmI
Update
Hedgerow schemes were featured on the BBC's Countyfile programme. There are some lovely quotes about the value of hedges in this feature on hedgerow restoration.
The piece explores what makes a good hedge.
They have been part of our landscape since the Bronze Age, but more than half have been lost since the Second World War. Watch from 27 minutes in.
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.
The resources that will be created for the new GCSE Natural History will include a set of weblinks directing teachers and students to organisations which connect with the key themes within the specification.
Natural England is the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England. It helps to protect and restore our natural world and some of its activities and reports connect directly with the likely themes within the specification which is as yet to be revealed.
Natural England is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.
It is worth exploring the links above, to investigate what the site has to offer. There is content on a range of themes linked to landscape and nature.
Here are some sample highlights from the Natural England site.
I had the pleasure of working with Natural England on a booklet called 'The Language of Landscape' which accompanied free Ordnance Survey Maps which were sent to Year 7 students for some years in the early 2000s. The emergence of Digimap for Schools was the end of that project.
Natural England has a number of publications, maps and data.
Natural England also provide information on lanscape and its management.
A new update in the list of visualisations which students should be introduced to. I've previously posted about the Biodiversity Stripes.
The Forest Stripes show the decline in forest species.
Been working on a tree report 💚 V lucky to have worked with team Stripes on a beautiful illustration for it. When we lose forests, we lose forest wildlife & the natural forest systems 1.6 Billion people depend on. https://t.co/iRO1IgHl3Z 🌳💚 ➡️https://t.co/4jkbLdtwOS https://t.co/B4TR2fAYBj
— Mary Gagen (@maryhgagen) October 24, 2023
A cross posting from my Geo Library blog project - what do you mean you haven't visited? There's over 700 books that would be of in...
