It’s all go here at ARKive Education recently. What with the preparations for National Science and Engineering week and our trip to the Big Bang, as well as becoming accredited to the CREST Star Investigators scheme, 2012 has been a great year so far.

Our resources are as popular as ever, with downloads on the up – we are thrilled to think how many students the ARKive content and conservation message is reaching! As well as making all our education resources free to download direct from our education section of our website, we also list them on a variety of external platforms, including the TES (Times Educational Supplement) website here in the UK.

What does the TES website offer?

TES Resources provides a platform for teachers, publishers and a variety of organisations to share free learning materials including lesson plans, activities, videos, teaching ideas and worksheets. There are currently over 1.9 million members on TES from 196 countries, who have contributed over 300,000 teaching resources.

TES allows teachers to search their enormous database for resources to suite a particular age group, or to cover a specific topic. All the resources are linked to the curriculum and we hope it allows ARKive Education to reach a whole new pool of teachers, and judging by our download stats it seems to be working!

We were therefore particularly pleased to be approached by TES about becoming an official content partner.

“The TES Resource team are always looking for content partners with amazing resources that are freely available, to help grow the number of high-quality resources on TES which inspire teachers, save them time, and help to raise standards in teaching.

“ARKive’s wildlife video clips and fun materials make a great addition to the offering of biology resources available on the site. The resource ‘Marvellous Mini-Beasts – Design a Species’ – which teaches students about how different invertebrate species have adapted to survive in particular habitats – has been particularly popular.”

Charlie Patterson, TES Resources Partnership Co-ordinator

Find out more

For anyone interested in finding out more about ARKive Education you can visit our education section, send us an email education@wildscreen.org.uk, or come along to the TES Resources North conference taking place later this week at Manchester Central (stand C42) where we will be exhibiting from the 20^th - 21^st April.

Find out more about becoming a Content Partner on TES.

Laura Sutherland, ARKive Education Officer

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It’s that time of year again (arguably our favorite time of year) when ARKive staff in the US have the chance to talk to thousands of science teachers from across the country and even abroad. Of course, we’re talking about the National Science Teachers Association, where nearly 10,000 science educators came to Indianapolis to celebrate all things science!

What did we do?

Over the course of three days, we spoke to over 500 teachers who told us stories about everyday life in their science classrooms and the different ways they plan on using ARKive in the future. One elementary teacher said she’d like to use the convenient, short video clips during transitions from rowdy outdoor recess to quiet and focused indoor learning. A college professor liked that many species pages include links to organizations that are working to save species from extinction and was brainstorming a conservation project for her students requiring them to reach out to an organization to identify an action that students can take today, in their hometown, to help save species.

We also hosted a session called “ARKive.org: Creating virtual learning experiences within conservation education” that was attended by a variety of educators who taught different age groups and disciplines.  As an introduction to the 30+ ARKive Education resources, participants put on their thinking caps and imagined all sorts of new mini-beasts as part of the Marvellous Mini-beasts – Design a Species lesson. One imagined species was a beetle with legs poking out all around its center making it “able to scurry in any direction with the blink of an eye!”

Our Creative Climate Change Twitter Challenge

During NSTA, ARKive was hosting the Creative Climate Change Challenge, encouraging young people around the world to come up with a unique way to spread the word about climate change, from rapping to poetry and more. We took a tech-savvy spin on this at our conference booth and asked teachers with Twitter accounts to come up with their best creative caption for the images below. By tweeting their caption, they were entered into a draw for a signed copy of Jane Goodall’s “Hope for Animals and Their World”.

Some of our favorite tweets included:

Polar bear: “Man, this iceberg used to be a whole lot bigger!”

Woodland jumping mouse: “Oh no, where has all the snow gone? Thanks a lot, climate change!”

Emperor penguin: “Last one in is a frozen egg!”

We’re already making big plans for NSTA next year including the unveiling of a whole new ARKive Education program. However, we can’t spill the beans just yet, but be sure to stay up-to-date with ARKive in the coming weeks to find out more!

Liana Vitali, ARKive Science, Education and Outreach Officer, Wildscreen USA

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National Science and Engineering Week celebrated in the UK last week, was rather busy for ARKive’s STEM Ambassadors, with the team running a myriad of activities at 9 different schools throughout Bristol and Somerset.

To add to our hectic schedule, last week also saw the NEC in Birmingham host The Big Bang Fair 2012 – the largest celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths for young people in the UK. The fair is a chance for kids (and adults!) to get hands on with lots of practical and fun activities; from welding with chocolate, driving and commanding virtual tanks, controlling robots – and, of course, playing ARKive’s ‘Web of Wildlife’!

What were we doing?

We spent our time at The Big Bang talking to school children, college students, teachers, educators and a whole host of other organisations from the worlds of science, technology, engineering and maths. It was hard keeping track of exactly how many people we spoke to, but with nearly 50,000 people expected over the three days of the event, we imagine it was a lot!

Engaging the next generation

The Big Bang was a fantastic opportunity for us to enthuse some of the future scientists of tomorrow, and to teach them about how films and photographs are an invaluable tool in promoting appreciation of the natural world. We also had fun explaining all about ARKive and how it can be used in coursework, projects and in the classroom.

We had an amazing response from all of the people we spoke to over the three days of the fair. Teachers were really interested to hear about our education resources, while kids and adults alike loved playing on the website, our Survival app, and our ‘Web of Wildlife’ activity.

ARKive’s next ‘superfan’?

No summary of ARKive’s time at The Big Bang Fair would be complete without mentioning one of our most enthusiastic young fans who, at just 6 years old, ran circles around the team at our own activities! Having unlocked and gained three stars for all of the characters on our Survival app, Arun eagerly proceeded to beat us at our own game and managed to complete all four food webs on our Web of Wildlife activity – in just 46 seconds!

Our favourite quotes from The Big Bang Fair 2012…

“I don’t have a favourite species, I like them all! And you can’t really have one because new ones are being discovered all the time”.

School student

“I love ARKive; I use it all the time! I used it to teach reproduction to Year 7’s by using examples of external and internal fertilisation.”

Teacher – Shenley Brook End School (Milton Keynes)

“We use ARKive as our go-to resource for looking up our ‘animal of the week’ for younger students”.

A Level Student – Rugby College

“I love ARKive, I follow you on twitter and Facebook and I have your app on my phone!”

Teacher – John Cabot Academy (Bristol)

Missed out on The Big Bang Fair this year? We’ll be back at London’s ExCeL centre in 2013 – we hope to see you there!

The ARKive STEM team

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With National Science and Engineering week officially upon us it is all go here in the ARKive office, and this year looks set to be our busiest (and best) NSEW yet!

We have 9 visits to schools scheduled over the next week and a half, from Bristol to Glastonbury, and Bath to Midsomer Norton, where we’ll be aiming to engage and inspire over 850 bright new minds!

Our STEM Ambassadors are busy putting the finishing touches to our new resources; including ‘The Power of Plastic’, a module examining the impact of human activity on the environment, and ‘Adaptation to Movement’ which explores how and why animals move and the extraordinary variety of ways in which they do so – and ties in neatly with this years NSEW theme ‘Our World in Motion’.

As if all that wasn’t enough, half of our STEM team will be travelling up to the NEC Birmingham for ‘The Big Bang Fair’ – the largest educational fair of its kind in the UK. Last year the event drew crowds of over 29,000 people during the three days, and this years event promises to be even larger. Our stand is in the ‘Go Global‘ Zone (GA13), so do please pop along and say hello if you’re attending the Big Bang later this week.

Do you know which sharks can be found lurking in British Seas? Or which tree has seeds known as helicopters? Well, come along to our stand to tell us the answer or to find out for yourself. We’ll be running another brand new activity at the Big Bang – ‘ARKive’s Web of Wildlife’. We need your help to build our four food webs – whether you fancy trying to assemble the British Woodland or the African Savannah there are lots of fascinating facts to learn along the way.

We’ll also be testing your skills on ‘Survival’ – our awesome endangered species app – how long will you survive?

Whatever you’re doing to celebrate National Science and Engineering Week we hope you have a brilliant time – we certainly can’t wait to get stuck in. Let us know what you’re up to, whether it’s at school or with friends and family.

Why not enter our Creative Climate Change Challenge and combine your scientific and creative skills by coming up with a unique way to communicate the problem of climate change and inspire change.

National Science and Engineering week runs from the 9th -18th March. The Big Bang fair is taking place at the NEC, Birmingham from 15th-17th March. Search for events in your area on the British Science Association website.

Laura Sutherland, ARKive Education Officer

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Next week, the United Arab Emirates and ARKive’s principal sponsor, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) will welcome global leaders, innovators and decision-makers from across the world to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), where they will address the issue of providing greater access to environmental and social data to all of those who need it.

What is Eye on Earth?

A global meeting held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, the Eye on Earth Summit and Exhibition will act to draw attention to the gap that exists between the need for better information about the environment and the efforts that are being made to address this issue.

Ensuring effective access to environmental and societal data is critical in making informed environmental decisions; however, much of this data is currently absent, inaccessible or hidden. This is particularly evident in developing countries that do not have the means to acquire or generate data to make informed decisions.

Delegates at the Summit will therefore ‘convene, converge and collaborate’ to strengthen existing efforts and inspire a search for unified, global solutions to the issues that are preventing this important data from being readily accessible.

Who will be attending?

The Summit will host approximately 750 invited delegates ranging from current and former heads of state to international academic organisations and scientists. A dynamic blend of prominent speakers from the worlds of business, government and environmental protection will be present, including Dr. Sylvia A. Earle, Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, Julia Marton-Lefèvre and President Bill Clinton.

Abu Dhabi hosts between 450 and 500 terrestrial plant species and close to half the world’s Arabian Oryx population

Running alongside the Summit will be the Eye on Earth Exhibition, which is open to the general public and will showcase the very best from around the world in the field of data access and analysis. Wildscreen’s ARKive project will be among the multi-media mix of informational and educational products on show at the Exhibition.

The Abu Dhabi Pavilion at the Eye on Earth Abu Dhabi 2011 Exhibition will showcase themes such as the Capital’s progress towards sustainable urban development

What will be the outcome of the Summit?

A key outcome of the Summit will be the adoption of the Eye on Earth Summit Declaration, which will provide input to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012 (Rio+20). Through this Declaration, attending ministers, representatives of government and other participants will commit to facilitate the work required to make quality data and information available to those who need it, especially in emerging economies. The public is invited to sign the declaration at the Exhibition.

The Eye on Earth Summit and Exhibition is taking place in Abu Dhabi, 12th – 15th December 2011.

The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) is supporting ARKive to audio-visually profile the great diversity of UAE wildlife, as well as the world’s most endangered species. We look forward to working with them next week at the Eye on Earth Summit and Exhibition.

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