Interpreting eco-monitoring data - Increasing Impact and Sustainability
Project Diary
We have visited five of the original 10 Eco-monitoring schools in Bath and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire 30 months after the end of the project, and met with teachers from five of the six Hillingdon schools 12 months after the end of their Eco-monitoring project. Of these 10 schools (representing 63% of the original sample), data-logging is still taking place regularly in seven of them (though not using GPS or specifically linked to environmental themes) and there is an appetite for spreading it more widely. One South Gloucestershire school had subsequently used the monitoring of light levels in the playground to win a grant for a shady pergola; a proposal described by the charitable awarding body as the strongest they had received in 15 years. Three of the schools have used peer-mentoring to initiate data-logging in Key Stage 1, whilst one now designated a Teaching School expressed interest in spreading it throughout the cluster, through the involvement of trainee teachers. All schools felt that it would be helpful to make links with local secondary schools in the use of data-logging, with the Hillingdon group suggesting that this would make a useful focus for a ‘bridging unit’ to smooth transition. The idea of involving pupils who had previously participated in the ecomonitoring projects as peer mentors to support the development of datalogging in their previous and new schools was welcomed, as was the idea of partnering with additional local schools and (through www.participateschools.co.uk ) with more distant schools. We have used this information as the basis for a bid for further funds from AZSTT for a project entitled ‘Data-logging in Key Stages 1 to 3’ and have produced a CPD unit based on the original Eco-monitoring projects for the AZSTT website.
Sep 2012
In February 2012 we visited six schools in Bath and South Gloucestershire from the 2008-09 project, and held a meeting with five Hillingdon teachers from the 2010 project. We found that data-logging is still taking place regularly in seven of the schools (though not using GPS or specifically linked to environmental themes) and that there is an appetite for spreading it more widely. Three of the schools have used peer-mentoring to initiate data-logging in Key Stage 1, whilst one now designated a Teaching School expressed interest in spreading it throughout the cluster, through the involvement of trainee teachers. All schools felt it would be helpful to make links with local secondary schools in the use of data-logging, with the Hillingdon group suggesting that this would make a useful focus for a ‘bridging unit’ to smooth transition from Y6 to Y7.
May 2012
Gallery
Project Summary
The Eco-monitoring at Key Stage 2 project, run in Bath and South Gloucestershire schools in 2008-09, and as a cluster project in Hillingdon schools in 2010, aims to show how datalogging can become an everyday part of science teaching and learning; how it can help children develop their enquiry skills – particularly interpreting data – and how it can contribute to children’s environmental understanding as part of a bid to become an Eco-school. During both projects, teachers and (in the case of Hillingdon) children attended a number of cluster CPD days, introducing them to the equipment and supporting them in planning their own school eco-monitoring projects. After provision of 5 GPS dataloggers per school, they could then purchase additional sensors to resource their project. Staff from the Centre for Research in Early Scientific Learning (CRESL) at Bath Spa University, and Hillingdon LA supported the projects in school. Additional online support and data-sharing was provided by the Participate-Schools website www.participateschools.co.uk and the Science Learning Centre South West portal. In 2012 we received some further funding from AZSTT to re-visit some of the schools and find out whether teachers are still using data-logging to support scientific enquiry and environmental education.
Additional
We have visited five of the original 10 Eco-monitoring schools in Bath
and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire 30 months after the end of
the project, and met with teachers from five of the six Hillingdon schools 12
months after the end of their Eco-monitoring project. Of these 10 schools (representing 63% of the
original sample), data-logging is still taking place regularly in seven of them
(though not using GPS or specifically linked to environmental themes) and there
is an appetite for spreading it more widely. One South Gloucestershire school had
subsequently used the monitoring of light levels in the playground to win a
grant for a shady pergola; a proposal described by the charitable awarding body
as the strongest they had received in 15 years. Three of the schools have used peer-mentoring
to initiate data-logging in Key Stage 1, whilst one now designated a Teaching School expressed interest in spreading
it throughout the cluster, through the involvement of trainee teachers. All schools felt that it would be helpful to make links with
local secondary schools in the use of data-logging, with the Hillingdon group
suggesting that this would make a useful focus for a ‘bridging unit’ to smooth
transition. The idea of involving pupils
who had previously participated in the ecomonitoring projects as peer mentors
to support the development of datalogging in their previous and new schools was
welcomed, as was the idea of partnering with additional local schools and
(through www.participateschools.co.uk ) with more distant schools. We have used this information as the basis for
a bid for further funds from AZSTT for a project entitled ‘Data-logging in Key
Stages 1 to 3’ and have produced a CPD unit based on the original
Eco-monitoring projects for the AZSTT website.