#631: Our Broken Planet - now up to ten episodes

The Natural History Museum's Our Broken Planet Podcast has been going for over 2 years now. I posted about it when it had just started, so it's worth revisiting to see what topics have been covered in that time.

The most recent episode looked at what action had been taken about climate change.

Surveys show that most of us are really worried about climate change and we want something to be done. But what?

This series, we’ve explored many ways in which nature is changing in response to human activity and the dangers posed to people and planet as a result. In this final episode, Tori and Khalil explore how people are taking action in the face of the planetary emergency. Along the way, you’ll find out:When has activism been effective?
How do scientists feel about climate change?
One thing everyone can do to start making a positive change

Contributors:Dr Erica McAllister - Senior Curator for Diptera and Siphonaptera (flies and fleas) at the Natural History Museum
Professor Tristram Wyatt - Senior research fellow in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research
Alessandra Korap Munduruku - Member of the Munduruku group of Sawré Muybu, an indigenous territory in northern Brazil, and President of the Pariri Indigenous Association
Dr Rim Saab - Social psychology lecturer at the University of Sussex, who specialises in the psychology of political action

#603: Visions of Nature at the Natural History Museum

I've mentioned this place quite a few times in the past. 

As well as potential visits by students who are completing the course, they also run CPD events. 

There are also exhibitions and activities such as the VR experience: 'Visions of Nature' - only until October 2026 so ending before it will be of use to teachers for the GCSE Natural History.

Discover how our decisions today can influence the natural world a hundred years from now in this interactive, mixed-reality experience.

Put on your headset and be transported a century into the future to meet the virtual plants and animals that are thriving. They’ll scuttle, swim and soar around as you journey across the globe learning about their survival.

Along the way, you’ll experience eight different ecosystems, from harmonious highlands to resilient rainforests, and even down to the depths of the Arctic Ocean. As you interact with the wildlife, you’ll see how human intervention and scientific ingenuity has helped these species and habitats recover.

You’ll leave feeling inspired, knowing that the actions we take today will help build a better tomorrow.

#601: Nature Discovery Week - 29th June - 3rd July

Nature Discovery Week is going to take place at the end of June.

It's organised through the National Education Nature Park.

#369: Back to School for the National Education Nature Park

...for the second year of this project... plenty of things planned during the year ahead...

They have launched a Hidden Nature Challenge to be completed in October, with a chance to win some prizes.

#368: Overhaul for Natural History Museum

A recent report in The Guardian gave some information on the latest developments at the Natural History Museum, which has spent a lot of time and money overhauling its outside spaces recently.

Now it's moving to the inside and exploring how its work is presented.

It has announced plans to overhaul four galleries - including the iconic dinosaur exhibit - as they add a permanent display on “climate messaging”.

The Museum will raise £150 million to revamp their programming and join “a global mission to create 100 million advocates for the planet”.

The new exhibition, Fixing Our Broken Planet, will have the express aim of “nudging” visitors to change their behaviour.

The piece quotes the Director Doug Gurr:

Until recently, Gurr told the Guardian, the museum had seen itself as a “passive observer … our job was to collect, to conserve, to research, to display”.

“[Then] we stepped back a bit and said: ‘Well, hang on, if your subject matter is planet Earth and it’s under that much threat, you’ve got to do something about it. If you want the sporting analogy: how do you get off the sidelines and get on the pitch?”

In 2020 the museum declared a planetary emergency, and Gurr said the redevelopment was part of its continuing response. “The best contribution we can make is to create what we call ‘advocates for the planet’. And what that really means is: how do you inspire people at scale to care about nature and to care enough to want to do something about it?

“Of course, we still want people to have a brilliant, fun family day out. But if you can come out of that being a little bit more interested in nature and a little bit more aware of some of the challenges, you’re a bit more likely to want to do something about it.”

Image: Alan Parkinson, shared on Flickr under CC license

#324: New for Pride Month: A Little Gay Natural History

This is an intriguing books, which can be purchased from the Natural History Museum shop.

🌈It's #Pride Month!🌈

Which means my ✨debut book✨ is now in the wild! A Little Gay Natural History has been a bit of a labour of love, and I hope you'll all enjoy it!

Get your hot little hands on a copy exclusively from the Natural History Museum 👇 https://t.co/0jotz9Pcdf pic.twitter.com/tm5yBZfWgH

— Josh Luke Davis 🏳️‍🌈 (@JoshLukeDavis) June 1, 2024

Packed with colourful imagery and fascinating insight, A Little Gay Natural History celebrates the astonishing diversity of sexual behaviour, biology and reproduction found in nature. Or, as Stephen Fry describes it, ‘A very welcome slap on the wrist for those who claim that same-sex love, intimacy and bonding are “unnatural”. Josh Davis’s splendid book will be a most useful settler of arguments and silencer of bigots.’

Davis considers how, in both animals and plants, sexual reproduction and determination rely on a complex interaction between genes, hormones, environment and chance. Meet turtles whose sex is set by the incubation temperature of their eggs and a butterfly that embodies male and female biological tissue.

He also reveals behaviours in nature that have previously been covered up and explains how same-sex courtship is more widespread than many realise - encouraging readers to rethink any assumptions. Expect to be informed, surprised and entertained.

#316: Climate Change and Natural History

Many museum collections are being revisited to see what they can tell us about the past, and also what they previously neglected to tell us. Collections and their use will be part of the new draft specification, and visits to suitable places are likely to be an important part of the preparation that teachers do for their teaching.

This article looks at the work being done at the Natural History Museum to explore evidence of past climate change.

They have a huge collection, and much work needs to be done to revisit it and reinterpret some of the collections.

#305: The Laboratory with Leaves

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

#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.

#159: Dinosaur Island

The result of the original consultation and published ideas to build subject criteria around was to include life in the early world: the evolution of life and the dinosaurs.

The Isle of Wight is one of the best places to go to find fossils and evidence of dinosaurs in the UK. It would make an excellent location for a fieldtrip with students for those schools that were able to make the journey - by ferry or hovercraft - an extra logistical consideration.

The Natural History Museum has created a useful video on the 'dinosaur island' as it calls it.

The Isle of Wight's tourist board also makes something of their status as the "dinosaur capital" of England.

There's a Dinosaur Isle museum with an impressive collection of fossils in Sandown.

#145: The Big Seaweed Search

The Natural History Museum has a citizen science project called the Big Seaweed Search running.

Home to a particularly high diversity, the UK is a special place for seaweeds, with over 650 species.

Understanding more about them is critical to protecting marine environments. Seaweed creates habitat where fish, invertebrates, birds, and marine mammals find food and shelter.

We know comparatively little about the abundance and distribution of seaweed species. So it is important to record them and monitor how they change over time.

Your observations will give us a better picture of how seaweeds are affected by:rising sea temperature
the arrival and spread of non-native species of seaweed
ocean acidification (the sea becoming more acidic as a result of absorbing carbon dioxide from the air)

#140: Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity

Part of the Natural History Museum is the Angela Marmont Centre for UK Biodiversity.

It carries out important work.

From the description:

One of the centre's key roles is to support the individuals, schemes and societies that record, monitor and protect the UK's biodiversity.
What you can do in the centre:

• get help identifying specimens you've found with the centre's Identification and Advisory Service
• make use of our visitor space which includes microscopes and photo-stacking equipment for photographing specimens
• access our UK biodiversity reference collections of specimens and the London Natural History Society's library
• if you're a member of a natural history organisation, you can book our workshop space and meeting rooms

Check out the ID Facebook page.

#108: National Education Nature Park

📣 Exciting news for educators!

From 4 October, all education settings in England can join the National #EducationNaturePark!

This free programme helps young people boost biodiversity on their learning sites, develop green skills and connect to nature🍃https://t.co/bJYDy4T9bm pic.twitter.com/qprJFMqoxB

— Natural History Museum (@NHM_London) September 12, 2023

After a long period in preparation, the National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Awards site is going to be opening for schools to join in the coming week.

There is a free programme of events which will be provided. This is a programme which is associated with the development of the GCSE Natural History, but has been launched earlier than the draft specification.

An activity has been created to kick off the new resource. Join in on Wednesday the 4th of October.

Calling #teachers prepping for next week📚
Try the #EducationNaturePark Hidden Nature Challenge with your tutor or year group, PSHE, geography or science class, forest school or eco club🔎
Takes <20 mins, suitable for all ages 🧑🏾‍🤝‍🧑🏼
Join in on Wednesday 🗓️https://t.co/6n0dj8g8QI

— Jess Tipton 🌍 (@DrJessT_eco) October 1, 2023

Update 

The park featured on CBBC Newsround a day ago.

#88: Sir Patrick Vallance at the NHM

The Guardian published a lengthy piece on the Natural History Museum and its new Chair of Trustees, Sir Patrick Vallance.

The piece mentions that the writer met a number of people on his visit to the museum to inverview Sir Patrick, and they included someone who was working on the new GCSE Natural History.

The Natural History Museum is a key partner in the development of the National Education Nature Park.

This will all connect up with the new specification, and the NHM will of course be a perfect place to go for a visit.

#47: Natural History Podcasts #2 - Our Broken Planet

A new Natural History Museum Podcast has been made available. There are several episodes currently available.

They might be of interest to those preparing entries for the RGS Young Geographer of the Year competition with its theme of 'A Blueprint for the Future'.

Tune in for stories from the forefront of the planetary emergency. Along the way, we’ll unpack how we got here and discover solutions from science and nature that could help tackle the problems facing our world. Each episode explores one of the challenges facing nature globally, from wildfires to plastic pollution, zoonotic diseases to farming and beyond.

Join your hosts Tori Herridge and Khalil Thirlaway as they transport you around the globe to the front lines of the climate change and biodiversity crises.

Details:

Episode 1
A rising tide: Melting ice sheets and sea level rises

With:

• Selina Leem - Climate activist from the Marshall Islands
• Laura Tenenbaum - Climate expert and former NASA scientist
• Dr Mark Spalding - Senior marine scientist with the Nature Conservancy and mangrove expert
• Dr Bethan Davies - Glaciologist from Newcastle University
• Iris Moeller - Professor of Geography at the University of Dublin

Episode 2
Fire: Life in the New Pyrocene

With:

• Dr Sandy Knapp - Botanist and merit researcher of plants at the Natural History Museum
• Professor David Bowman - Fire researcher, University of Tasmania
• Nerilie Abram - Paleoclimatologist from the Australian National University
• Elizabeth Azzuz - Traditional fire practitioner from California

There are also links to related content, such as an illustrated guide to what we can do to save the planet.

#45: Royal Horticultural Society projects

There have been two projects started by the Royal Horticultural Society relatively recently which may be of interest to schools. 

If I was to teach the new specification I think I would want to make it as active as possible, with students involved in practical actions to help natural history in some way, whether throuth citizen science, or through nature conservation projects.

The first one was from November 2022

It is a partnership with the Natural History Museum and the DfE.

The second was announced recently, and relates to hedges.

This explores their link to greener schools.

This is a two year project.

Image: Alan Parkinson - shared under CC license

#42: Defining Biodiversity

Biodiversity is a key word within the glossary of key terms that will no doubt form part of any set of resources for the new specification. Teachers and students will need to get to grips with the vocabulary around Natural History, where some words may have slightly different meanings or emphases compared to geography or science.

I have put together a list of suggestions for this already as part of the proposed resources that I am working on and compiling in Google Drive. It's already looking quite impressive.

Here's a suggested definition from the Natural History Museum.

One of the likely focuses for the draft specification is likely to be an exploration of global and local trends in biodiversity and in particular biodiversity loss (and protection).

Reports such as those from Dasgupta are showing worrying trends.

There are plenty of other useful resources.

The UN explores biodiversity myths and facts here.

#38: Thought for the Day

These will be added intermittently.

It's also worth using these as provocations for discussions. 

One would hope that as students take part in the course, they will be collecting information such as this as part of their wider reading.

"Biodiversity loss is as catastrophic as climate change and our own research has shown the UK to be one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

Combatting biodiversity loss by supporting children and young people in England to transform their education space for wildlife will be a significant step in addressing the planetary emergency as well as empowering young people to take action, connect with nature and become Advocates for the Planet."

Dr Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum

#35: National Education Nature Park - in development

I've been following the development of the National Education Nature Park, and discovered a few weeks ago that I know someone who is one of the key people involved in delivering on the project, so hoping to get a little more involved as the project develops and moves into the later stages. 

The National Education Nature Park is part of a suite of activities which are aimed at delivering on the promises of the Government's plans to help fight climate change. This is the DfE's Sustainability Strategy.

There is also a Climate Action Award Scheme for schools.

Read more about the project here on the DfE site.

And this video is helpful as an introduction to the key ideas.

Some key information:

The Natural History Museum are leading the delivery of these initiatives, in partnership with the Royal Horticultural Society and supported by Royal Society (RS), Royal Geographical Society (RGS), Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), Learning Through Landscapes (LtL), UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBNT). You can find out more information here: National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Awards Scheme | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk).

The National Education Nature Park and Climate Action Award will launch in the Autumn and education settings will be able to register to participate in May.

Another video:

Children tested innovative activities for the National Education Nature Park last week, at an event at @RHSBridgewater.@esriuk created mobile apps that enabled children to map their emotions along with what they saw, heard and smelt across the gardens👇https://t.co/KBUjEDl0G9 pic.twitter.com/I7Y81bai2R

— Educate Magazine (@EducateMag) May 23, 2023

Details:

• From creating pollinator-friendly habitats, digging ponds and rain gardens, identifying wildlife or planning planting schemes, young people will choose, plan, and implement a range of site improvements and habitat enhancements based on the latest scientific evidence.
• With England’s primary and secondary schools covering an area roughly twice the size of Birmingham, this is an opportunity to empower young people to make a real difference by creating environments across the country where biodiversity thrives.
• School grounds are the most under-recorded urban habitat type in England. The partnership will be working with Esri UK to provide free geospatial mapping tools so children and young people can monitor biodiversity gains on their learning sites and in their local community.
• The partnership will deliver a comprehensive, curriculum-based set of free climate education resources, lesson plans, and schemes of work from Early Years Foundation Stage, through Key Stages 1-5 and Further Education.

#12: GCSE Natural History Supporters

GCSE Natural History Supporters are shown here, taken from the original list. 

An image is also shown below. This is taken from the OCR Hub.

This list may well change as time passes and the specification goes through development with additional organisations being added to the list as they get involved. One would expect some to get involved in the creation of learning resources, whether through their own Education team or by sponsoring the creation of branded material. 

Some of this work may go out to tender and be available for teachers and other organisations to get involved with.

This image is taken from the OCR Hub and the original documentation that was released when the specification was given the approval.

Since then of course, we have cycled through quite a few more Education Secretaries and there has been additional pressure placed on the UK's natural resources.

These are the organisations that could see some benefit of being involved in the new qualification, and who will perhaps be involved in supporting its development in various ways, or think that there would be advantages to young people gaining the knowledge and skills that the new qualification could potentially provide for young people. This could mean a pool of people to draw from to recruit for their future work, and also be advocates for the causes they are leading on.

Representatives have also provided some thoughts in essays here.

They include the Linnean Society - an organisation I will blog about separately - along with many of the names on the list - and also one of the Geographical Association's Strategic Partners: the Field Studies Council.

Some other key names on the list are shown below.

Each of these will be returned to in separate posts.

LEAF Education

RHS: Royal Horticultural Society - they have been involved in a number of education projects

Ocean Conservation Trust - includes some serious work on seagrass meadows which are an important habitat and carbon sink - students are likely to explore the oceans as well as the land

Whole Education

Natural History Museum - there will be a separate post on this location - a perfect field visit for those who can get there

Eden Project - another excellent place to visit, but very remote from most locations in the UK

NBN: National Biodiversity Network

This is a useful website which has some detailed biodiversity data for the UK.

BBC - clearly a large collection of resources.

The Urban Birder - David Lindo

A useful person to follow.

Cambridge Zero

Oxford Museum of Natural History

A splendid place to visit.

Country Trust

NAEE

Ashomolean Museum, Oxford

British Society of Soil Science

Marine Conservation Trust