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.
Part of a feature in this weekend's Guardian newspaper. There's a range of stories every Saturday which always connect with the likely contents of the specification when it (eventually) appears.
Update
Earthworms won the vote for the best invertebrate...
We are starting to see increasing evidence of what I always taught about when I first started teaching in the 1980s... tipping points being approached or reached where we change some aspect of a physical system into a new state which is irreversible.
This will have a dramatic impact on natural systems, and all life, as our food supply will also be impacted.
The one I always used to talk about was with respect to permafrost, which I used to teach about in the old Cambridge 'A' level, before all the hard physical stuff was taken out...
One might imagine so, but some of the early naturalists including Gilbert White and Charles Darwin understood the vital importance of them for soil health and other factors, including the incorporation of organic material into the soil, aeration and other benefits.
Check out details of the former NHM project called Earthworm Watch. This was a Citizen Science project.
Data collection is now closed, but the results can be viewed.
Hopefully one result of studying the GCSE Natural History will be cohorts of students who appreciate the small things a little more. This is not always about the bigger aspects of Natural History but the smaller elements that contribute to the whole.
My Geographical Association Presidential theme was Everyday Geographies, and this is another example of where small everyday actions can make a large cumulative difference. I'm thinking of developing some support around the idea of "everyday natural history".
“The team found that earthworms are responsible for nearly 7% of global grain harvests, such as rice, wheat, and corn. …In sub-Saharan Africa, where many soils are depleted in nutrients and fertilizer is scarce, earthworms boost grain production by 10%.” https://t.co/hWwt2VHGqi
Previously, permafrost would have precluded the existence of earthworms, which act to mix up soil materials and aerate it. The thawing permafrost is now being colonised by worms, and some of them have been rather long lasting in waiting for this moment...
