This autumn, our schools learning team will welcome more than 40 high school field study classes in biology, environmental science and geography. For many pupils, it will be their first experience of field studies beyond the school grounds. Field studies now make up almost half (49%) of our school classes, and that figure continues to grow.
Taking learning outside can make a surprising difference. In the Dells, pupils explore ecological terms they will need for their exams and find real examples around them: a community of jackdaws nesting overhead, competition between species, or the effect of wind speed on a blustery day. Somehow, outside, it all makes a little more sense.
Our partnership research also helps show how fieldwork skills are used in the real world. Through our long-term work with University of Stirling Environmental Science students, we monitor water chemistry at locations along the river. Pupils can interpret results from previous years, investigating whether pollution might come from a particular source or from diffuse pollution, and what changes in mayfly numbers can tell us about river health.
In the river, biology and environmental science classes carry out freshwater invertebrate surveys using Riverfly Partnership techniques – the same methods used by our volunteers. There is no better way to learn about indicator species than pulling on a pair of wellies, getting stuck into the river and sorting the fascinating creatures you find into trays before examining them under a microscope.
This autumn, Advanced Higher Biology pupils will also take part in pollinator surveys at Bog’s Mill meadow, building on research led by ecologist Professor Graham Stone. By surveying neighbouring unmodified grassland, pupils will help provide valuable comparative data while learning how ecologists measure species diversity and pollinator populations.
These activities help pupils understand the concepts and terminology they need for their exams, but field studies offer something more too. They show young people what environmental science, ecology, hydrology and conservation actually look like in practice.
For pupils who care deeply about the natural world, that can be hugely inspiring. A flood map can turn a geography lesson into a glimpse of a future career in hydrology. A transect across a meadow can show what an ecologist actually does. Field studies don’t just take learning outside – they can help young people imagine where that learning might take them next.
