Raichael Lock, Manchester Environmental Education Network (MEEN) As Maria Puig de le Bellacasa1 argued recently in her plenary at the Royal Geographic Society Conference in London, ‘soil’ is a perfect metaphor for our troubled relationship with the ‘Earth’. So, that means, for urban ES educators, teaching about mud is more important than ever. In Manchester, the…
Emily Munn, Urbanwise.London Urbanwise aims to promote active outdoor learning in the local area, help young people communicate their views and ideas on environmental issues which concern them and bring people together to examine issues around environmental change. Urban ES education is often associated with building social connections, trust and community, also known as social…
Beth Collier, Director of Wild in the City Wild in the City supports the wellbeing of urban residents through relationships with nature in London and beyond. We offer programmes in woodland living skills, natural history, walks and ecotherapy; using the skills of our ancestors to develop a deeper relationship with the natural world and a…
Nicola Simpson, Urban Wildlife Manager at Gloucester Wildlife Trust Gloucestershire is often considered to be a rural county, full of countryside and nature. So many people might be confused to find out that Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust (GWT) has an urban programme of work. The county has two major settlements and only one city, Gloucester, which…
Ann McGuire, Baskerville School, Birmingham This project involved five Birmingham schools: one primary for hearing impaired, two all-age special schools, one secondary autistic specific school and one small group of students from a mainstream secondary boys’ school (44 students in all). We wanted to make Global Learning especially meaningful and practical to our cohort of…
Dr. Philip Ryland & Jim Mitchell write about the power of informal environmental education to create memories. Environmental interpretation is widely accepted as a process of communication which aims to deliver meaningful information in an informal, relaxed way to visitors (Benton, 2009; Brochu, 2003). The type of information provided varies considerably between sites but will…
Feargal Magee is the Head Teacher of Portadown Integrated Nursery and Primary school. He writes here with Rachel White about walking buses. Portadown Integrated Nursery and Primary School is located in the town of Portadown, County Armagh in Northern Ireland, and suffers from bad congestion, making the school run a daily battle for parents, pupils…
Joanna Lindsay is the Conservation Officer for Buglife Scotland; Laura Larkin is a Conservation Officer for Buglife. They write here about the Marvellous Mud Snails project with schools in Cornwall and Scotland. The Pond Mud Snail (Omphiscola glabra) is a modest mollusc, by all standards. With its less-than glamourous name and murky brown shell that rarely…
Lucy Mottram is Waste Education Officer for Devon County Council. She is a trained teacher with experience working in farming, ecology and sustainability in the UK, Greece and Italy. She writes here about her plastic pirates project. “So you’re a rubbish teacher!” said the young son of a dear friend when I described what I did. And,…
Victoria Hackett, an environmental education consultant, explores how environmental education and literacy can be linked in work with children. Step 1: Create signs What is the first thing you see when you walk into an outdoor classroom? Is it a welcome sign? There is nothing more inviting than a welcome sign! A welcome sign is an…