Supporting inspirational learning about plants and their importance
Supporting inspirational learning about plants and their importance
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Welcome
to the fourth issue of E-fronds, March 2008.
This issue we have exciting previews of fantastic training opportunities including
our AGM and Annual Conference, a report from the Back to Basics training day
and variety of other botanical news and resources. As ever, if you have any
news, views, ideas or comments you would like to contribute to the next issue,
or to the BGEN website, contact us at fronds@bgen.co.uk
Back issues
of e-fronds can be viewed here:
Issue 1, May 2007,
Issue 2, August 2007
Issue
3, November 2007
BGEN Training and events
BGCI’s 7th International
Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens
Being held in Durban Botanical Garden 1st-6th November 2009.
The title of the conference is ‘Action learning: places, spaces and partnerships
for biodiversity and human well-being.’
There are four conference themes:
• Achieving the GSPC and MDGs through education
• Ways of learning towards environmental justice
• Climate change and botanic gardens: interpretation for action
• The Decade of ESD: plants, sustainability, education & culture
More information to come – make sure you include it in your budgets for
2009!
Report on BGEN's Back
to Basics training course: Running a Schools Education Programme
by Cath Armstrong, Bedgebury National Pinetum.
"We have been running a schools programme at Bedgebury for a number of
years, but I was hoping that going ‘back to basics’ on this course
would give us some useful ideas that we had missed as well as encouragement
that we were getting some things right. Fortunately, that’s exactly what
I got.
Louise Allen’s session about ‘10 steps to setting up a Schools Education Programme’ made me realise that ‘provoke, relate, reveal’ is more than just a mantra for interpretation; it should be a guiding principle for schools programmes too. Amongst lots of good advice the following items stood out for me: play to your strengths; use outreach as a marketing device to target those schools who are not currently visiting; and use your local advisory teachers and frequent school visitors as sources of advice.
Michael Holland showed us some great practical ideas from his primary programmes at Chelsea Physic Garden, including his ‘shelf life’ idea of growing plants in their related food packaging. Then Susan Allan took us through the secondary programmes they run at Wakehurst Place, looking at ecology and applied science. In both cases I discovered good ideas I had not come across, or useful alternative ways of doing things.
After lunch and a tour of the venue (a windswept RHS Hyde Hall) it was Louise’s turn to take us through her ten steps for marketing to schools and tips for funding. My notes were rapidly filling with little stars marking good ideas. Going to teachers meetings at school and advertising ‘limited availability’ programmes had two particularly big stars by them. I left armed with plenty of ideas and techniques as well as a renewed enthusiasm for making our schools programme as good as it can be."
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Growing Schools
Update
Following BGEN’s appointment to work with Growing Schools last
autumn (reported in efronds Edition 3) for
the last 5 months we have been developing and supporting a number of initiatives.
We are currently in the middle of coordinating 4 twilight CPD sessions for teachers
– each being held in a BGEN member site. On 10th March, the first session
was held at Durham University Botanic Garden – there were many exhibitors
from sites that offer an ‘environmental’ experience that support
‘growing school’ and LOtC activities including such venues as the
local Science Centre North-East, the Wildlife and Wetlands Trust, Beamish Museum,
Bede’s World, RSPB, Natural England, FACE, local farms, NCCPG and of course
BGEN. The free programme included the ‘market stalls’ for visiting
teachers, garden tours, workshop style activities and cake and coffee!! Over
100 teachers attended the event and, judging by the evaluation forms, all were
bowled over by the great local resources, fabulous programmes and exciting contact
opportunities – both those of teachers to venues and Growing School partners
to other partners. An excellent day for all concerned. Other venues include
Sussex on the 11th March with the West Country and Essex following in the next
2 weeks.
BGEN has also been working on the major Growing Schools teacher conference that is being held on Monday April 7th at the BGEN venue of Birmingham Botanical Gardens - currently over 100 teachers have signed up, but we are aiming for 200 - so please advertise this to all your contact schoolteachers! The information can be found on the Growing schools web site at http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/Growingschools/.
For further details please contact either Mischa (M.Kitschke@kew.org) or Gail G.Bromley@kew.org.
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Placements for trainee teachers
Would you like to help trainee teachers to develop their understanding of partnership
working, learning outside the classroom and creativity? Could you offer placements
to trainee teachers in your setting? Currently the Teaching outside the Classroom
is looking for settings across England to develop partnerships with teacher
training providers to offer diverse placements for trainee teachers. To sign
up and find out more at www.teachingoutsidetheclassroom.com
Science and Plants at School
(SAPS) Announcement by Anne Bebbington
Following an extended review of SAPS activities,
the SAPS Trustees have announced a refocusing of its support for plant science
education in the UK. The Trustees have become very concerned about the dilution
of the plant science content of post-16 courses and regard changes to future
course specifications as the top priority of SAPS. The refocused programme will
continue to be directed from Cambridge, although there will be changes in personnel
over the coming year.
The decision to refocus the SAPS programme was taken in the context of a reassessment of the Gatsby Plant Science programme funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, which is the major funder of SAPS. The principal aim of the Gatsby Plant Science programme is to ensure a flow of young people through the school and university system into plant science research. Deficiencies in post-16 plant science education are seen as a major impediment to the aims of the programme.
The End
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