The end of the winter for the learning department this year involved a lot of outreach work – leaving the visitor centre and meeting young learners out and about, in their schools and local green spaces, getting in touch with the nature that surrounds them every day. We’ve piloted a new programme we’re hoping to introduce with the Trinity Primary P7 outdoor learning group, who came out with us three times to explore their local area, the newly renovated Coalie Park, as well as the wooded area of St Mark’s Park. Students litter picked, engaged in invertebrate surveys, learned how to conduct a plant survey, and discovered the local history of the area surrounding their school. As well as Trinity, we went on three walks with Pilrig Park School and had a look at the kinds of nature we can find in our urban areas, particularly the river birds of Leith and the mayfly nymphs. Pilrig students also helped us keep the area beautiful with potentially one of the most thorough student litter picks of the academic year.
We also welcomed Leo, a placement student from Moray House School of Education and Sport and a primary school teacher from Chile, who came along on our outreach trips and helped us host a fair few school visits to the centre too! Leo helped us deliver food chain-related activities to Pentland Primary, helped us take Pentland Nursery on an exploration of the plants and animals on the Water of Leith – and even created some new resources for us that we will continue to use even after we’ve said goodbye.
Looking forward to spring and summer, we’re excited to continue taking students out into the Craiglockhart Dells and the river for some well-earned, warmer-weather river dipping, tree and woodland explorations, and to begin planning our upcoming children’s events.