Our John Muir Award Diary: 2015

Thursday 19 November 2015

November Session at the Wetlands

We missed October as the boys' tutor wasn't available which means the award will now finish in February. I have to confess they've not done much in the way of ongoing work for the award in between!

Both boys were in a major sulk about going today and I had to drag them to Arundel in silence this time round, the 2 month gap between sessions not helping. I've told them quitting at this late stage is not an option - I can be quite stubborn like that. We've talked about finding the positives of what they are doing and to realise that it's not exactly difficult, I just hope we arrive at future sessions in a better mood!

Today the boys learnt about the history of the WWT and the construction and make up of the Arundel Wetlands. The second part of the session was a tour of the reed bed area which was formally a large watercress farm. A large area of the reed bed has been cut right back and so it's now possible to see the natural trenches of the original watercress beds.

The last part of the session was for the group to create a video on the history of the WWT in the style of an interview. Considering how little time they had they did a great job. Sadly we'd overrun by half an hour and didn't have time to watch the bloopers; which I'm reliably informed were mostly down to Nath!

Of course by the end of it all they were chatty and full of smiles, yet both reluctant to admit they'd enjoyed it...hey ho!

Bird House for Tawny Owls

Monica showing us the watercress trenches

Thursday 17 September 2015

September Session at the Wetlands

Today's session was all about pond life and sampling various waterways at Arundel's Wetlands.

We arrived late because today's session clashed with Connor's rock-climbing so the boys missed one of their friends carry out their presentation but they arrived just in time to go out and take part in some scientific monitoring and recording of 3 different water ways which included the main entrance waters, the discovery hides and the reed beds.

The kids worked as a team to record and share air temperature, water depth and temperature, weather and surrounding conditions, pond life spotted, ph balance and nitrates present. At each area a bucket of water was selected and the same measurements were taken. It was an interesting task which Connor threw himself in to but as usual it took Nath a lot longer to get into it!

Thankfully it was a beautiful day and warm too, one of the air temperatures recorded was 24 degrees centigrade...much more preferable to last session's rain.

It took time to gather all the data but we managed to squeeze in a very short pond dipping session and the team, working mostly in pairs, discovered a variety of pond life including a blood worm, mayfly nymph, pea mussel, alderfly lava, pond skater (which jumped out of the collecting tray), lesser waterboatman, ramshorn snail, great pond snail and water fleas.

One of the 3 waterways we sampled

Measuring water depth and temperature

Measuring water temperature

Identifying pond life

Hoglouse found only in the Discovery boat safari waters

Pond Skater

Alderfly Lava

Lesser Waterboatman

Tuesday 8 September 2015

Hedgerow Survey

I have to confess we've been neglecting hedgerow monitoring duties. Through the holidays the boys were totally distracted by friends and other activities!

Anyway, today we cycled past our hedgerow so I suggested we make a quick pit stop to see what's changed. We drive past on an almost daily basis and at a quick glance it never looks any different but actually close up it's quite a different story.

Horse Chestnut
Some leaves have orange patches but there are no conkers (no photo)
Hawthorn
An abundance of red berries
Bramble
Plenty of blackberries
Dog Rose
Orange rosehips
Blackthorn
A smattering of sloes (no photo)
Holly
There are green berries
Field Maple
Looks very much the same (no photo)
Dogwood
There were clusters of black berries
Unidentified
Possibly Leycesteria Formosa, known as Himalayan Honeysuckle

Connor immediately spotted this orb web spider in its web

Hawthorn and red berries

Dogwood and black berries

Dog Rose and rosehips

Bramble and blackberries

A hazel nut and shield bug in the hazel tree

Tiny catkin in the hazel tree

Green berries on the holly

Unknown plant possibly himalayan honeysuckle?

Thursday 20 August 2015

August Session at the Wetlands

We had by far the worst weather of all our sessions at Arundel today...IN AUGUST, it poured and the boys didn't have coats! They were prepared in as much as they took gardening gloves and wore long trousers but were soaked to the skin by the time they had finished their outdoor task which was to weed around and monitor the hedgerow saplings they planted back in April.

Armed with secateurs they worked as a single file team to chop away nettles, thistles, bramble, cow parsley, willow herb and dock. Connor stayed the other side of the hedgerow to pile the thrown weeds into tidy piles, he was regularly attacked by flying brambles and nettles!

They noticed that the thistle was thicker away from tree coverage suggesting they grow stronger in more sunlight and through discussion they observed that it was mostly 75/80% thistle followed by cow parsley and dock growing in the area. The weeds had grown exponentially in comparison to the saplings, taking over and strangling their progress.

Monica and the team decided to leave a controlled area at one end of the hedge to let the weeds grow freely to see what impact it has on the growth of the saplings.

During this mission, the younger group were bug hunting and one child enthusiastically came over with a tiny newt inside a spotting jar; a welcome and exciting distraction. Unfortunately I was too slow to get a photo as Monica was keen it was returned to its home as soon as possible being such a young juvenile.

When the weeding was complete, the braver of the group wanted to stay outside for their turn to bug hunt and successfully spotted wood louse, spiders, a millipede and empty snail shells. The rest of the group headed indoors to dry off and took a snack break which for Nath and Connor involved hot chocolate...yes IN AUGUST!!!

Fortunately the remainder of the session was indoors and the team got to handle some captured moths in spotting jars which had been sedated in the fridge, before creating and assembling their own bug hotels to take home and position in the garden. The Wetlands provided dried reeds, tubes, cups, straw, shredded paper etc and of course each child came up with their own unique and individual designs.

Ribboned Wave?

Oak Eggar?

Getting creative

A selection of our posters in the Wetlands cafe area

The boys poster

Thursday 16 July 2015

Overcoming Hurdles

Arundel Wetlands for another session today and the boys finally got to test themselves and make their presentation about their experience of the John Muir Award so far.

We are a much smaller group again as some of their peers have decided to leave and to be honest although it's a shame, the intimacy of the group, suits the boys better...they are shy and self conscious when it comes to a study situation.

However, they both blew me away with their composure this afternoon. They stood in front of their friends and took it in turns to overview the sessions so far, talking about their highs and lows and giving snippets of what they have learnt. I value that they were honest and real. I've copied their presentations on each of their pages on this blog.

It would be unfair if I left out the fact that they were all BRILLIANT. Each one of them was apprehensive about having to perform in front of their friends and us Mums were quietly nervous for them too; but overcoming these hurdles brings a huge sense of achievement for them and will instil confidence for them in the future.

The second part of the session was to create some posters about the award to be displayed in the Wetlands Centre over the summer holidays. Time was very restricted but Nath and Connor worked together - with me poking my nose in every now and then - and put together a humorous collage! I'm not sure it really gets across the message of what the Wetlands wanted them to convey but they liked it.

During the session, Monica flicked through their folders to check their ongoing monitoring work and gave them some more ideas of how to collate their information. I've listed their additional individual work on each of their pages but they worked together on hedgerow weeding and monitoring notes and their nature reserve in the wild garden.

The biggest buzz of the day was seeing Nath get involved. He stood up and talked in front of everyone when just a few short weeks ago he was adamant it was something he couldn't do. He actually wanted to make the poster and remained cheerful and confident throughout. During his presentation he mentioned how difficult he has found some of the sessions because he's been unwell but I felt today he turned a big corner.

Their little sister (the confident one) performed at our local theatre in her end of year 6 production "Hoodwinked" this evening, so they've all had a big day...I'm one proud mumma this evening.

Poster work

We spotted Ratty happily chomping away on our way out

Wednesday 8 July 2015

A Little Hedgerow survey on the way to the Park

Monday 6 July 2015

Lots to do - The reeds 15 weeks on

The amount of ongoing tasks for the John Muir award is building. With each new session comes new monitoring and assignments; so today we had a morning of playing catch up after our week away. The boys will be required to make some kind of 10 minute presentation at their next session (as part of the "share" aspect of the award) which will involve talking about what they have experienced since they started the award in February. In the 3 months leading up to February the boys were involved in 3 general workshops too.

October 2014 - What Lives in this Habitat
November 2014 - How do Birds Fly
January 2015 - Migration

February - 1st Session (we were absent)
Learning about Peter Scott and John Muir

March - 2nd Session
Water Vole survey

April - 3rd Session
Hedgerow Planting and Monitoring

May - 4th Session
Bat Boxes and the Bat Walk

June - 5th Session
Random Sampling and Hedgerow Weeding and Monitoring

Today the boys measured their reeds, updated their graphs and typed out some observations about the changes. The reeds have been placed outside since they last measured them which has caused some visible differences.

Connor's reeds and marsh marigold!

Nath's reeds, one dying invader and another invader about to bud

They followed this with some notes and observations from their last session where they weeded and monitored the hedgelings they planted in the wildllife garden in April.

They made good progress today. They still need to type out the results from the random sampling and explain their reasons for choosing a particular area of the wildlife garden as a nature reserve. They've decided to tackle this after another visit to the Wetlands tomorrow - a little jogging of memory is required and Nath was unwell at the last session so not totally with it!

They also need to start work on their presentations. We talked about focusing on their experiences so far, what they've learnt, enjoyed and disliked. Nath is reluctant to stand and talk in front of others - always has been - so he will work on a powerpoint presentation; but Connor is willing to give it a go.

Thursday 25 June 2015

Re-potting Again - 14 weeks on

Growing reeds has become a bit like "Day of the Triffids" as the growth rate per day has really ramped up and one of Nath's invaders has begun to overtake the reeds in growth!

We decided to re-pot AGAIN this afternoon as we are going away for a week and didn't want there to be any chance of them becoming pot bound. As it was, it was more tricky getting them out of their current pots this time.

Nath's reeds now stand at 62cm tall which means they've grown about 2cm per day since last week and as you can see they are now almost waist height. The invader has developed these thick white roots and when we were at the park earlier in the week we spotted this plant below and we are convinced it's a match as they both have a very similar bud appearing...it's exciting to see what it's going to look like!

Connor's reeds now stand at 32cm tall and his marsh marigold has been looking very healthy this week.

Nath's reeds have started to block out the light in my bedroom so we picked a sunny area of the garden for them to stay outside. We have a friend staying in our house while we are on holiday and one of her jobs will be watering the reeds!

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Hawk Eyes

Thought I'd do a post to collate all our findings out and about. Nath in particular has hawk eyes and I expect most of the sightings will be down to him!