Diary Entry - November 

 

Early in November, staff carried out a ‘site audit’ to consolidate the five chosen locations for seasonal change studies, in particular identifying interesting flora, fauna, indicator species, etc. to which students’ attention could be drawn. This was also an opportunity for staff to carry out any risk assessments for working in these locations with our students.
Some initial filming for the video also took place at this stage.

Students carried out ‘quadrat’ surveys of some of the sites at this stage. It is intended that these be repeated on a regular basis in order to compare plant species-diversity at different times of year.

Our first cross-curricular link was forged in November, when our Art teacher took an interest in the project and students produced some excellent and interesting artwork based on our tree ‘habitat’ in late autumn. This enabled students to convey something of their impressions of the tree in a way that photos and ecological data alone could not. Again, it is hoped to repeat this activity seasonally in order to make comparisons of changes, and some of the resulting work included in displays and included in the video.

Later in the month, we had several science lessons focussing on Astronomy, and considered how aspects of this may be linked environmental changes, for example the seasons and phases of the moon. Discussion also touched on events such as asteroid impacts, and their possible effects on the Earth, and how many of the elements found in living things probably originated in astronomical events such as supernovae.

The end of November provided serendipity: part of a large and long-established badger sett within the hospital grounds was being excavated as the badgers had begun to dig close to buildings and needed to be ‘re-routed’ to prevent them undermining foundations. Staff made use of this rare opportunity and visited the site. We were able to establish some possible links with several wildlife organisations involved in the work, and have been promised a copy of the map of the badger sett when completed. We were also able to photograph soil profiles and obtain some soil samples to study in more detail in the lab.

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