H owever hard you work to help children learn about plants and animals, nothing beats a hands-on approach at a place where wildlife abounds. Investigating the contents of ponds, watching birds feed and playing nature games catch children’s attention. But to make these experiences work, you need a site full of of plants, birds, animals and educational facilities - somewhere like Whisby Nature Park in Lincolnshire.
No matter what the time of year, there is always something to see and do. Whisby is a former gravel working with lots of shallow and deep lakes. They provide variety in flora and fauna, as do the surrounding heathland, woods and meadows. Hebridean sheep, kingfishers and great spotted woodpeckers can be seen.
Every spring large numbers of migratory birds arrive: swallows, swifts, martins and sea birds like black-billed gulls. Whisby has one of the largest breeding groups of common terns away from the coast. And nightingales can be heard but not seen. Many birds remain for much of the summer. Their young are much in evidence, particularly grebes, coots, moorhens and terns.
Pond dipping is popular with pupils from late spring until early autumn, and special platforms give safe access to the lakes. Apart from studying fresh water invertebrates like water scorpions and water beetles, children enjoy learning about the brilliantly coloured dragonflies and damselflies.
Autumn sees the departure of migratory birds and the arrival of others from further north. Fungi become very noticeable, and butterflies are still around. Now seasonal changes, and how animals and birds adapt to different climates and environments, are rich subjects to study. Leaf print collages and digital images are popular creative activities, with help from Lincolnshire artists.
Winter offers fewer chances to study the wildlife, but does provide good opportunities for art work. Local schools come to observe the winter landscape and the wooded areas. Children look at the comparative forms and shapes of trees without their foliage, set against the winter sky.
“Schools usually come to Whisby for the science element,” says education officer Carolyn Latham. “We try hard to ensure activities are cross-curricular, because we believe it offers major educational benefits. Children find it easier to concentrate if there are lots of activities.”
Typical of this approach are activities to do with the four seasons. Children look at how animals adapt through the seasons, they complete stories and study sound recognition.
Children are fascinated to discover that birds often modify the songs they sing, particularly during the mating season. Finding food in winter is hard for birds, so children are asked to make a bird feeder which they can take home. This brings in materials science.
A study of classification with reception year children might involve games with trees, getting to know a tree, writing a poem about it, finding 10 adjectives to describe it, as well as looking at invertebrates and some simple maths.
The adjacent Natural World Centre has a changing programme of special exhibitions. The current one is Fangs, about venomous tropical creatures. This will be followed by The Ages of Man, from primates to modern man. Schools visiting Whisby can incorporate the exhibition into their activities. Fangs might be followed by a study of domestic equivalents in a temperate climate, and environmental games like predatorprey and animal adaptation.
“We try to link to what teachers need,” says Ms Latham. “We may get the children to collect materials from outside and see how they are changed by weathering. They might use those materials to create a different object. Or collect microscopic life and look at it under microscopes, then manipulate images on the computer to create art.”
Contact Whisby Nature Park, Lincolnshire. Tel: 01522 696926. Web: www.lincstrust.co.uk Cost : pound;3 all day, pound;1.50 half day, with extra for exhibitions.Similar sitesThe Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey. Tel: 01992 767022. Brandon Marsh Centre, Warwickshire. Tel: 02476 302912.
