University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum
Friday 27 November 2015
Wednesday 29 April 2015
Taste of University…
On a warm, sunny day the Botanic Garden and Ruskin
School of Art ran a Taster Day workshop for Year 5 pupils of St Barnabas
Primary School, Oxford.
These are
designed to give and exciting insight as to what it might be
like to study a subject at a higher level in
a university setting and encourage interest in Higher Education generally.
Pupils spent their time studying the human form and making observational drawings of their own hands and feet and from models of the human skeleton. They worked alongside artist / student Tara Benjamin- Morgan finding out what it is like to work in a studio setting.
In March pupils from other schools had a taste of what it can be like to be a plant scientist. These sessions coincided specifically with British Science Week. Pupils had a taste of lab work (pulling plants apart), field work (exploring the Glasshouses) and ethnobotany (By seeing what was in their packed lunches). The sessions were led by the Education team at the Garden but also ran with help from DPhil researchers from the Dept. of Plant Sciences.
This was a chance for the researchers to work with
a different type of audience, part of their module ‘Getting the Public Excited
about Your Research’. The team of researchers have spent time working with
families, general public and secondary school pupils, learning how to engage
with different audiences and explain their work in an engaging way without the use of technical
jargon!
Emma Willliams, Education Officer
Emma Willliams, Education Officer
Wednesday 4 March 2015
Arboretum Outreach and Teacher Training
This year we have two new outreach sessions
designed for primary schools. The
outreach programme runs from January to Easter and enables children across
Oxfordshire to engage with the Arboretum collection without leaving their
schools.
“Spectacular Seeds”, the new outreach session
for Key Stage 2, is divided into three sections. In the first section, the children examine a
range of different seeds to decide how they are dispersed. This hands on activity encourages the children
to explore the properties of each seed to determine whether it might travel on
the wind, be carried by animals or self-disperse. In the second section, the children have the
opportunity to handle a range of exciting seeds from the Botanic Garden and
Arboretum handling collection. This
year, the cone from the Bristlecone fir (Abies
bracteata) and the seed pod from the Magnolia
campbellii are proving to be the most popular and are capturing the
imagination of children all across the county.
The final section of this exciting session is the Oak Life Cycle game,
where the children all start the game as acorns, then must gain all the
resources necessary for germination.
Those that succeed become seedlings, while those that do not become
soil. In order for the seedlings to
become saplings, they must gain all the resources necessary for
photosynthesis. Those that succeed move
to the next stage of their life cycle while the rest join the soil team. Then finally the saplings must
photosynthesise in order to become mature trees, so there is one more mad dash
for resources to see who will survive.
This game has proved an excellent way for the children to consider the
obstacles facing a seed as it tries to grow into a mature tree, while also
helping them to understand why most plants produce so many seeds.
Cone from a Bristlecone Fir |
“What is a tree?” is the new outreach session
designed for Foundation and Key Stage 1.
By using our specially designed giant felt crab apple tree, the children
have the opportunity to introduce seasonal changes by adding spring leaves and
blossom to our tree, swapping the blossom for apples as the flowers are
pollinated in summer, then exchanging green leaves for orange, yellow and brown
leaves as summer gives way to autumn. Finally the children take on the role of
the wind as winter approaches and the leaves fall from the tree to leave the
branches bare once more. This leads to a
discussion on the purpose of the apples, and examination of the seeds in a real
apple. We then look closely at a range
of seeds from the Botanic garden and Arboretum handling collection. With this age group, the seed from the coco
de mer is still the one which results in the best reaction although the cone
from the Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri)
is also proving very popular.
Our felt tree through the seasons |
Friday 27th February was our Geography
in the Great Outdoors continuing professional development course for teachers. During the course, we made the most of the
blue sky and sunshine while exploring different ways in which the teachers can
help children to engage with maps and better understand them. Our map-building activity was a great success
with plenty of imagination showing through as we placed road, built bridges and
marked woodland onto our 3D sections of Ordnance Survey maps. A special orienteering course was set up in
the Coppice at the Arboretum so that the teachers could test it and relate the
options to their own school grounds.
Teachers taking part in a map building activity |
Visit Harcourt Arboretum over the Easter
holidays to take part in one of the following:
Shaping up for Spring trail – available
throughout the Easter holidays
Arboretum Easter Egg Hunt – available from
10.30am on Tuesday 31st March
Family friendly afternoon: Shaping up for Spring, Animals – Tuesday 31st
March, 1pm to 4pm
Family friendly afternoon: Shaping up for Spring, Plants – Tuesday 7th
April, 1pm to 4pm
Or visit the Botanic Garden for:
Family friendly fun: Get Gardening! – Wednesday
8th April 11am to 1pm
Backpacks are available to borrow from the
tickets offices at both sites every day of the holidays.
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