Diary Entry - October 

 

The project and its context were presented to students in Science lessons. Students were then asked to brainstorm what they thought the project might / should involve. This led to some productive discussion, including some new ideas, which teachers had not initially thought of. This also gave students an opportunity to ‘own’ the project.

One of the great pleasures of teaching these sessions was to see our young people engaging and interacting with each other in group activities and pooling both past knowledge and creative thinking. Their summary sheets have been carefully preserved (We will try to include these in the video).

Students were also asked to contribute individual thoughts and quotations about the project in the form of ‘speech bubbles’. We hope to continue this with future cohorts. It should also form a way of recording any spontaneous contributions made as the project progresses.

October also saw a number of ‘field walks’ around the hospital grounds with groups of students. During these, students were encouraged to ‘look more closely’ at their surroundings, and to identify locations which we could revisit order to study seasonal changes, particularly in their ecology. Chosen sites included woodland, meadowland, a site close to a stream, a managed garden area, and an isolated oak tree, which could be studied as a complete ecosystem in its own right.

 

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