LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF BIODIVERSITY

July 2011:Section 2- Pilot Project Natural ScientistsAim: To investigate pupils’ responses in a session with access to both a wildlife garden and a natural history collection

Jan 2011: Section 1- Gathering InformationAim: To gather comparable information about the range and content of International Year of Biodiversity (2010) school learning activities in the UK in 2010

Grace Kimblegkimble@ioe.ac.uk

BackgroundMany education programmes were offered to support the International Year of Biodiversity (IYB) in 2010. Working as a School Programme Developer at the Natural History Museum, I wanted to find out more about the nature of activities for school pupils in the UK. School Learning activities about biodiversity relate to a number of themes in education research.

Biodiversity EducationThe undefined scope of the term ‘Biodiversity’ translates to a similar lack of clarity in the precise concepts that would be included in Biodiversity education (Dikmenli, 2010), and this has been a strong focus of research topics in the field. Some see it as a postmodern approach to environmental education, repackaged to encompass modern plurality of viewpoints (Dreyfus et al. 1999). The Convention for Biological Diversity provides resources for teachers that increase pupils’ understanding of democratic processes and campaigning. This reflects teacher perception; Gayford (2000) found that English secondary teachers included political, social and economic considerations as part of Biodiversity education. The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence strand ‘Biodiversity and Interpendence’ includes practical investigation of environmental impact in an agricultural context. Other key themes are globalisation (Ellis, 2002) and the chance to explore values (Farrior, 2005).

It is perhaps the broad cross curricular scope that has resulted in relatively few studies of pedagogy in biodiversity learning. In contrast, the highly inter-related field of Science education has a long established research tradition, clearer goals and definition (Harlen, 2011) and considerable weight of research regarding effective pedagogies (Osborne and Dillon, 2010).

The diagram above shows the relationship between Biodiversity Education and related fields of education research; on the left are methods of teaching and on the right are teaching concepts. This diagram was constructed by considering themes in current literature (Day and Bryce 2011; Stevenson and Dillon 2010, Kahn 2010,Orr 1992) and is not exhaustive, but illustrates the fact that biodiversity learning could encompass many concepts, and that there are few studies of pedagogy as yet.

The graph below shows the occurrence of the term ‘Biodiversity’ linked to associated dates, from google trends. Although some of the concepts included have been studied for over one hundred years (for example Nature study, Hooper-Greenhill 1992), it confirms that the precise term is recent. The importance of biodiversity education is clearly linked to its emergence in International policy, prompted by key meetings at Tiblisi (1977) and crucially Rio De Janeiro (1992), (Kassas, 2002).

MethodA we based survey consisting of quantitative and qualitative questions was by email to IYB partners in the UK. A link was posted on associated social media sites. Questions looked at type of organisation, staffing, programme development, concepts covered, and numbers of participants. Respondents were asked for their opinions about challenges, and recommendations to improve learning. The graph below shows the types of organisations who responded.- 38 in total.

ResultsFull results can be found at ioe.academia.edu/GraceKimbleFour areas chosen relate to how teaching happens; session format, educator recommendations and curriculum content.

England Scientific EnquiryConsidering evidence and evaluatingLife Processes and Living things

Personal, Social and Health education

Developing confidence and responsibility and making the most of their abilities

PE Acquiring and developing skills Art and DesignExploring and developing ideasInvestigating and makingGeographyGeographical enquiry and skills

Knowledge and understanding; places; environmental change and sustainable development

History Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past

NumeracyUsing and applying shape, space and measures

Processing, representing and interpreting data

Literacy and EnglishSpeaking and listening: group discussion and interaction

Writing: composition

Scotland

Science: Planet Earth: Biodiversity and Interdependence Inheritance Biological Systems

Health and well-being Mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing

Expressive Arts Art and design

Social Studies People, place and environment, People, past events and societies

Mathematics Number, money and measure Shape, position and movement

Literacy and English Listening and talking: Understanding, analysing and evaluating.

Writing: Organising and using information

Technologies ICT to enhance learning

Wales

Science Interdependence of organisms

Personal and Social Education Health and emotional well-being

Moral and spiritual development

PE Adventurous activities, Health, fitness and well-being activities

Art and Design Understanding, Investigating and Making

Geography Locating places, environments and pattern, Understanding places, environments and Processes. Investigating, Communicating

History Historical knowledge and understanding

Mathematics Solve mathematical problems, reason and communicate mathematically

English Oracy; Participation in discussion, Expressing opinion, Writing

ICT. Communicating Data handling

Northern IrelandWorld Around Us Strand 1. Interdependence

Strand 2: Movement and energy

Strand 3 Place

Strand 4 Change over time

Personal Development & Mutual Understanding

Self-awareness; Safety

The ArtsArt and Design

Developing pupils as individuals and Contributors to the

Economy and Environment

Mathematics and Numeracy

Measures, Shape and Handling data

Language and literacyTalking and listening

group discussion; use evidence or reason to

justify opinions

ICTFinding things out

Exchanging and sharing information

Greater learning between experienced and not-so experienced organisations

The use of more props during school talks and encounters would be a great benefit, encouraging more interactivity with children and the topic of biodiversity. We ourselves have a great number of props many of which have been donated through customs and we're always striving to develop new ideas and props to use.

In a classroom is never as stimulating as outside and in nature.

We found it difficult to make the subject user friendly for under 11s and to find examples of good practice to copy.

RationaleLiterature shows there is relatively little focus on pedagogy in biodiversity education.Educators advocated authentic experiences for pupils; outdoor learning and use of props. From museum education, there is significant research on object learning, which is not currently well known in the field of environmental education. Historically, museum specimens have been integrated with outdoor experiences in nature education (Palmer, 1952), and several reserves and zoos have access to taxidermy collections.

In Scotland, Tayside Biodiversity partnership reported an example of cross-organisation working for IYB, where young people learnt about specimens at Handling trolleys on trains, as they travelled to locations where the species would be living. In England, informal partnerships between Bristol City Museum and Avon Wildlife Trust have arisen via the Bristol Natural History Consortium, so that pupils could access mammal specimens in real settings. Is there a benefit to pupils handling natural history collections of local specimens together with exploring local habitats?

Hands on education is much more effective and memorable than 'in the classroom'. This is costly and can be complicated to arrange. Funding is very difficult to achieve to deliver again and again to the next years of children and funders don't want to duplicate even if it’s to different children.

Homework activity: prior knowledge

To assess pupils’ basic understanding of local species, they were first asked what they already knew, and to draw a map of their journey to school, showing where there were animals or plants that they recognised.

Teaching sessionA boy and a girl from each group wore microphones in the session to record conversations. Observations were made of behaviour and conversations in groups.

Follow up activity: in schoolPupils had a homework activity to review what they learnt and ask questions about their opinions on outdoor and specimen learning activities. One week later, I visited schools to ask questions about their recommendations for future progranmmes.

Autumn 2011:Section 3: Action research to develop Natural Scientists Aim: To investigate pupils’ responses in a session with access to both a park and a natural history collection (Grant Museum, UCL)

Method Education/Learning Field Concept 1. Session FormatThe London Borough of Bromley, Manchester Museum, Tayside Biodiversity Partnership and the British Science Association offered the highest numbers of new programmes. Over 10% new activities were to support pupils before or after a visit. This may be linked to the emphasis on pre and post visit resources in the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge Criteria in England. Bioblitz, fairs and festivals are an increasingly popular format. What’s the best way to engage a wide range of pupils at one-off events?

2. Educator Recommendations

3. Curriculum Content

Authentic experience

Partnership

38 UK organisations responded

ParticipantsTwo Year 5 classes (30 10 year old pupils in each class) from London took part in sessions at the Natural History Museum. One had access to the Wildlife Garden plus a local natural history collection; the other had access to the wildlife garden only. Both classes took part in evaluation at three stages; before, during and after their visit.

T Section10:3

0Introduction

10:40

Scientist roles

10:50

Museum collection and 'live link'. Relate to Biodiversity Action Plan.

10:55

Explore specimens. Draw one species.

11:10

Sorting

11:20

Observation and gathering data outside

12:30

Lunch

13:00

Review observations. Collecting data.

13:20

Identification using a microscope

13:40

Presenting data, mapping and implications

14:00

Review session

14.15

Depart

Pilot Project Lessons

Pupils, parents and teachers anecdotally see a benefit to accessing both specimens and outdoor settings. Further research is needed beyond this pilot study to assess the impact of this two part experience involving real specimens and real living species.

Methods