#378: Plop Trumps

An appreciation of animal dung may be one thing that those following the GCSE Natural History have to develop. It is a particularly good method of identifying certain speces of animal. It is also a source of nutrient - in some areas such as the tundra, animal burrows can often be located by looking for clumps of flowers in the short Arctic summers.

The Mammal Society has a useful guide on their website.

Why not get some Plop Trumps to hone your skills... I have the number 2 set...

But the ultimate pocket-sized resource is Plop Trumps. It’s the business! 💩 pic.twitter.com/fC4oOIDSqT

— Head In The Clouds (@leysbiotutor) August 6, 2024

They cost about £6 from a range of places... 

#283: Snufkin - games for nature

 Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley is a game for Nintendo Switch. The trailer is here:

This Geography:Directions blog explores the rise in games which are about restoring nature. 

It was originally posted on The Conversation - a very useful resource to keep an eye on.

Our challenging relationships with nature are becoming more mainstream in social and cultural arenas through video games. There’s a lot of promise in using video games to illuminate and illustrate the complex challenges of our climate and ecological change.

What other games can you think of that work in this way?

Updated - 16th April

The title character of 'Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley' scares cops and destroys park signs in the latest game adaptation of Tove Jansson’s creation. https://t.co/r8hBMitST2

— WIRED Culture (@WIREDCulture) April 16, 2024

#226: Forestry England - free Tree Trumps game download

Forestry England have made a free Top Trumps game available to download featuring UK tree species. This is found in the activities section of their website. May be helpful for those wanting to improve their identification skills.

#10: The Special Species game

The Special Species game is on the Linnean Society website.

It is a fun introduction to the idea of taxonomy and the different elements of the latin names of species and what they mean. 

Mix up some elements of species' names to create your own strange new species of animal and then design what you think it might look like. A useful little activity to introduce the idea of taxonomy, and how plants and animals get their 'proper' names. Knowing these proper names for key species was part of the original idea behind the new specification, with a feeling that young people no longer had that knowledge, and its acquisition was missing from the curriculum.

Combine the various stems and segments of words to produce new animals which match that taxonomic description.

Taxonomy is the science of naming, describing and classifying organisms and includes all plants, animals and microorganisms of the world. Using morphological, behavioural, genetic and biochemical observations, taxonomists identify, describe and arrange species into classifications, including those that are new to science.

The "father of taxonomy" was Carl (Carolus) Linnaeus. His will be a name which will emerge at numerous times during the development of materials.