teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 31 ● Number 3, 2006
Dear Editor
To keep you up to date with the changes taking place
as English Nature is replaced by Natural England you
may be interested to see the press release at
www.defra.gov.uk/news/2006/060426c.htm which
announces the appointment of Board members to
Natural England (the body that will replace English
Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Rural
Development Service in October 2006). Natural
England’s Board is the equivalent of English Nature’s
Council which some of you may be familiar with and
on which Professor Chris Wilson and most recently
Professor Malcolm Hart have sat and which has
played a key role development of high level strategy
and priority setting.
Dr Colin Prosser
Head of Geology
English Nature
01733 455213
Sir Martin Doughty, the Chair Designate of Natural
England said: “I am delighted that we have a Board with
such a wealth of expertise, experience and knowledge. Among
its members are leading ecologists, lawyers, upland and
lowland farmers, recreation and access experts and academics.
I believe that we have an excellent team to drive forward
Natural England’s purpose, ensuring that the natural
environment is conserved, enhanced and managed for the
benefit of people now and in the future.”
Dear Editor
Whilst I don’t intend to add to the “howler” debate
again, I offer this as an indication of the need for
better geoscience education in the media.
Holy misunderstood!
“... As far as we know, this is the only planet that sustains life
and yet we’re beginning to understand that we live on a
dangerous planet. We build homes and cities on rock plates
that shift and collide as they float on molten magma...”
(Quote from The Rt. Rev. Tom Butler. Radio 4
“Thought for the Day”, 11th October 2005)
Pete Loader
Email: peteloader@yahoo.co.uk
From the Primary Committee
Geographical Association Conference
Primary Committee Report
For many years the Primary team have delivered workshops at the ASE
annual conferences, relating to minerals, rocks, soils etc. Although part
of the Earth science content of the primary National Curriculum is
found within Science there is also much within Geography.
Over recent years the Primary team have been fostering their relationship
with the Geographical Association and this resulted in the
team facilitating a very successful Rivers workshop at the Geographical
Association conference last year. This year we were invited to repeat a
similar workshop at their conference in Manchester in April. Three
members of the Primary team facilitated, offering a practical and very
“hands on” session. Participants were given an initial example of how
the evolution of a river might be demonstrated in a classroom, using
everyday equipment (rather than specialist resources). They then
worked in groups, each aided by one of the team. They were provided
with a variety of equipment and asked to work together to investigate
how they might do this within their own school environments –
depending on the facilities they might have. Finally, the groups demonstrated
their own ideas to each other, and discussed the different methods
that had been devised.
The workshop usually uses running water to provide the “river”,
however none was available. We were able to overcome the potential
difficulties of this thanks to the ingenuity of the facilitators, together
with other colleagues present, and indeed also to the participants. We
incorporated the lack of running water into the activities, giving them
an extra dimension and the participants a further task to solve. We feel
it was so successful that in future this will be incorporated into the
Rivers workshop, and not all groups will use running water.
The workshop was fully booked and was very well received by the
participants, who expressed the feeling that it was much better to actually
do something rather than sit and listen. We were aided in the facilitation
of the workshop within a different situation from normal, by
the fact that we have built up a good relationship with the Geographical
Association and its staff, who went out of their way to enable its
smooth running.
In order to continue and to build on this successful liaison, we have
one team member who is now on the Geographical Association Early
Years and Primary Phase Committee, and involved in the Geographical
Association branch in their region.
Two photographs of the workshop have been included in the latest GA
Magazine, and can be seen on their website under Conference 2006
www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_Conf06PhotoSupplement.pdf page 17.
Niki Whitburn
ESTA Primary Co-ordinator
Senior Lecturer, Bishop Grosseteste College.
Email: farfalle@btinternet.com
www.esta-uk.org
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