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.