#680: Young people's disconnection from nature

One via my Google Alert for 'GCSE Natural History'.

It's from the Falmouth Packet.

It quotes from a Lost Gardens of Heligan survey of 1000 children aged 11-14, which says that:

• More than half of them had never climbed a tree.
• 60% had never collected conkers
• 70% had never made a daisy chain.

The interesting bit is that 75% of young people want to take the proposed Natural History GCSE – and they want real, practical experience. They are calling for hands-on fieldwork, habitat restoration and practical tools to respond to climate change.

I hunted out the original survey.

Interestingly the Lost Gardens of Heligan has shared the response they made for the consultation, which is now closed.

Lost Gardens of Heligan have submitted a consultation response calling on the Department for Education to name the qualification GCSE Natural Futures, rather than Natural History.

The name matters. 'History' signals fossils and museums; 'Futures' reflects the living planet, environmental stewardship and the critical role this generation will play in protecting it.

The full response can be read here.

The research was conducted online by Walr on behalf of The Lost Gardens of Heligan among 1,004 matched parent-child pairs in England. All participating adults were parents or legal guardians of at least one child aged 11 to 14. Parents and children answered separate sections of the questionnaire, with some questions asked of both audiences to allow comparison.

The sample included respondents from every English region. Fieldwork was conducted in August 2026. Percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number and may not total 100%. For multiple-choice questions, respondents could select more than one answer. The executive summary and underlying data tables are available on request.

#465: Bugs Matter Survey - take part

Until the end of September you can take part in the annual Bugs Matter survey to measure the presence of insects. This uses a smartphone app now, rather than a paper template which used to be the case. Contribute to this citizen science initiative.

The Bugs Matter citizen science survey is an important initiative measuring insect splats on vehicle number plates as a marker of insect abundance. In previous survey years, with the valuable contributions of citizen scientists across the UK, we have made significant strides in understanding the challenges facing our insect populations.

This year, we need your help, once again, to build on our knowledge and make our impact even greater. Sharing the findings from your journeys will help us understand more about our insect populations, as growing evidence highlights their declines on a global scale.

Your participation in this nature survey is vital for us to monitor population trends, address causes of insect loss, halt and reverse them.

This is how the survey works:

 

And here's why it matters...

#258: The Big Plastic Count - starts tomorrow

Citizen Science projects are a good thing to connect students with as the specification is revealed and the content is built around it.

Plastic is a pervasive element of all natural environments, and has negative impacts on natural history - in particular by affecting wildlife which ingests it, or can be affected by its existence.

This starts tomorrow. 

Sign up and get your survey recording form to stick by the bin.

It's the counting that counts.

#199: 2023 Children's People and Nature Survey update - visualisation and full report available

Thanks to the Learning through Landscapes social media team for the tipoff here. 

It links to a 2023 update of a Government report.

Last week, the 2023 Children's #PeopleAndNatureSurvey came out, shining a light on what children and young people in England think about the natural environment 🍃

Let's take a closer look at some of the findings 🧵 pic.twitter.com/fkzXtuGkA3

— Learning through Landscapes (@LtL_News) December 4, 2023

The 2023 Children's #PeopleAndNatureSurvey is out today! Discover what young people aged 8-15 think about access to #nature and the #environment.

Find the full results and latest report here: https://t.co/7Ci98oXdkh pic.twitter.com/agcs3PWe5K

— Connecting People with Nature (@together_nature) November 29, 2023

There are some findings which should come as no surprise to anyone. 

Last week the Government pledged to ‘boost Britain’s access to nature’ and ‘connect the public with the natural world’ to 'ensure that love for the natural world continues into the next generations' - my latest blog: https://t.co/s0ZV0O0Ng5 pic.twitter.com/PQvbaQpouP

— Miles Richardson (@findingnature) December 5, 2023

We also had an announcement yesterday regarding the fact that the Government is a long way from meeting a number of environmental targets - which comes as no surprise to me.

 And an update from COP28:

“We can’t tackle climate change without also halting and reversing nature loss.” 📈 🌍@tonyjuniper delivered a powerful keynote speech at #COP28 today, highlighting the need to work together at pace to put nature at the heart of economic decision-making. pic.twitter.com/V2qH0z7ShJ

— Natural England (@NaturalEngland) December 9, 2023

#49: You're invited to a different kind of 'Stag Do'

One of the resources that I am putting together is something on oppoertunities to get involved in Citizen Science. There are quite a few of these spread through the year, and teachers could perhaps create a 'loyalty card' which allows students to earn points through engagement with them.

Wildlife charity, the People’s Trust for Endangered Species’ (PTES) is looking for volunteers across Britain for its annual ‘Great Stag Hunt’ survey, to discover where endangered stag beetles are living and where they most need help.

Stag beetles were once widespread but due to habitat loss they’re now declining and have even become extinct in some parts of Britain and Western Europe. To prevent that from further happening PTES is calling for nature lovers, families, and individuals to help this summer by recording all sightings of male and female stag beetles, and their larvae (large, white grubs), online at:

  www.ptes.org/gsh

Stag beetles are easy to spot – they’re the UK’s largest land beetles and the males are instantly recognisable with their antler like jaws. From late May into July these iconic insects emerge from the ground in search of mates, and are usually spotted flying around gardens, parks and allotments on warm summer evenings. They can also be seen on walls and warm tarmac surfaces in urban areas, and in other green spaces too such as woodland edges, hedgerows and traditional orchards.

Laura Bower, Conservation Officer at PTES says: “Last year almost 10,000 sightings were recorded by thousands of volunteers, giving us a real insight into where their range is, which is crucial for the species’ long-term survival. More help is always needed though, so whether you’re out in the garden, dog walking in a local park, on the school run or even walking to the pub, keep your eyes peeled for these beautiful beetles and tell us about any you see. You don’t need to be a beetle expert or have taken part before, as PTES has a free ‘beetle ID’ guide to help anyone new to the survey to help them tell the differences between stag beetles and other insects.”

To take part in the Great Stag Hunt 2023, for top tips on creating the perfect log pile, or to find out more about stag beetles, please visit: stagbeetles.ptes.org

#44: Climate Change Insights report from the ONS

The Office for National Statistics produces a quarterly report which provides the results of surveys which they have carried out with a healthy number of respondents. 

One was published in May 2023 which may be of interest and relevance to those who are exploring the impacts of the climate emergency on the natural world. 

Good to see 73% of adults in Great Britain are concerned about the loss of natural habitats or wildlife - above the 64% worried about the impact of climate change in the latest @ONS data. Both matter, but wildlife loss has had much less attention: https://t.co/tTKeGek2zY pic.twitter.com/DhDEVTkxz8

— Miles Richardson (@findingnature) May 12, 2023

Almost two-thirds (64%) of adults in Great Britain said they were worried (somewhat or very) about the impact of climate change in the past 12 months.

Of those who said they were worried, around three-quarters (74%) said that they were concerned about the impact on future generations; this was highest among those aged 70 years and over (83%).

The most recent decade, 2013 to 2022, has seen an increase of 26% in the annual average number of summer days and a 16% decrease in icing days (days where the air temperature does not go above freezing) in the UK compared with the 1991 to 2020 average.

Charts can also be obtained from the report's page.

#27: Irish Biodiversity Maps

I was introduced to this website at the Charney Manor Primary Geography Conference in February 2023.

The base maps are varied and of high quality and can be zoomed into. 

Layers include habitats, geology, bat species and others, and can be added very easily to the base map.

Here's a description from the site itself:

Biodiversity Maps is the data portal and mapping system of the National Biodiversity Data Centre. It provides an overview of the state of knowledge on the distribution of Ireland's biodiversity from empirical observations, collected by organisations and individuals, from both the private and public sectors. It serves both as a portal to access biodiversity data published as open data, and as a shop window to display other existing sources of data on Ireland's biodiversity.

The National Biodiversity Data Centre offers the digitisation, management and display services provided by Biodiversity Maps as a shared service to data publishers, so that data from all sources can be compiled, stored and displayed to build up a comprehensive picture of the distribution of species across the island of Ireland and its marine waters. By so doing, Biodiversity Maps serves as the 'go to' source for up to date information on Ireland's biodiversity to be used by interested individuals, landowners, land managers, environmental professionals, researchers and decision-makers. The overall objective of developing Biodiversity Maps is to build the knowledge base on Ireland's biological diversity and to provide an online facility to aid in its conservation.

Datasets are published through Biodiversity Maps in two ways. First, datasets that are licenced as open data under what is termed a Creative Commons - with attribution (CC-BY) licence, are available to download and use by third parties, provided the data publisher is given due attribution when the data are being used. Second, datasets that are licensed as restricted are available to be mapped and queried online, but it is not permitted to download the dataset. Use of the dataset must be obtained from the data publisher, whose contact are provided in the information about the dataset (what we refer to as 'metadata').

The National Biodiversity Data Centre serves as Ireland's Node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GBIF is an intergovernmental organisation that has created an open-data research infrastructure to enable anyone, anywhere access to data about all types of life on Earth. All of the data published as open data on Biodiversity Maps is also published to the GBIF portal, making it freely available for researcher and policy development across the globe. Biodiversity Maps provides an easy mechanism to ensure that biodiversity data from Ireland is available not just for national, but also international research and policy needs.

All of the data mapped on Biodiversity Maps has been verified and validated, so that it can serve as a trustworthy source of high quality data on Ireland's biodiversity. Despite this, it is inevitable that some errors remain, and where these are identified, they are corrected. The National Biodiversity Data Centre welcomes feedback from any user of Biodiversity Maps pointing out any potential error. These can be sent to info@biodiversityireland.ie.

The system has been developed on behalf of the Heritage Council and National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht.

#22: OCR Survey - what are your thoughts?

On the GA Facebook page earlier today. A request for some thoughts. Please give your views as it will help shape the final specification and the support.

As it says on the survey's start page:
We have been working hard to prepare for the launch of our new GCSE in Natural History.

We would like to ask you some questions about the support that you would like to see in place ahead of teaching GCSE Natural History. We will be showing you a number of different resources designed to support teachers in delivering this qualification at different stages. We would like you to think about how useful each of these resources is in supporting the delivery of this qualification.

This survey will take you around 10 minutes of your time and you feedback is really appreciated. Your feedback will help to provide the right support package for teachers.

Go to the Survey directly here.

If you choose to complete the survey you will also get some clues as to some of the proposed support package and the thinking around who will teach this.

The support package questionnaire makes several mentions of different support for geography teachers and biology teachers suggesting that they think this may be a qualification taught jointly between those two departments.