75th anniversary of the Field Studies Council
Linnean Society of London
I really enjoyed the first talk by Professor Pete Higgins on 'why learning outdoors matters'. He referenced a number of people I've read and appreciated over the years including Patrick Geddes.
I spent a little time following up some of the work that he has done. Worth watching again on the video of the sessions (see an earlier blog post for the links)
Much of his work is also available on Open Access.
Gill Miller, the current GA President, gave a geographer’s perspective on the importance of taking risks with fieldwork - not those sort of risks, but ones which draw out the benefits of
3rd December 2019
This was a rather nice event that I was invited to a couple of weeks ago, down at Burlington House, near the Royal Academy. Here are a few thoughts on the day, which took the form of a series of presentations held in a historic space, overlooked by portraits of Darwin and other luminaries.
Dr Olwen Grace, VP of the Linnean Society welcomed us to the society, which had hosted the first readings of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin’s papers on theories of evolution. She referenced the great scientific advances which grew out of fieldwork and field science and how they had influenced others across the decades. Des Thompson from the FSC outlined the day.
Image from the @CIEEMnet Twitter feed.
The President of the FSC: Tim Burt talked about the work done by the FSC and trailed the publication of a new book in the new year called 'Curious about Nature: a passion for Fieldwork'. Tim was my tutor when I did my degree at Huddersfield Polytechnic, and he was starting his career in academia which later took him to Cambridge and Durham. He mentioned several former GA Presidents including J A Steers.
Andrew Goudie, a former GA President, explored the legacy of the past as well, referencing the work of Agassiz, and some other key figures in field studies. He also mentioned a number of former GA Presidents who have their entries on the GA Presidents blog (or will do shortly) and provided further information on them.
We then heard from two academic ecologists on their fieldwork practice.
Rob Marrs talked about a lifetime working on longer term studies, and the value of these compared to shorter terms.
He suggested that Robert Burns was the first real ecologist in print, and quoted some of his poetry.
I had earlier chatted to Ben Sykes of the Ecological Continuity Trust about the importance of their work.
Silviu Petrovan from the University of Cambridge explored a fairly ‘niche’ area of mammal movements through culverts, using AI and cameras to identify movements through the tunnels. His main argument was that we need to do fieldwork using technology, and also be mindful that we should be ready to be proved wrong.
Sally Hayns gave a nice talk on what it meant to be professional in the field, and outlined some thoughts on a professional framework for what we do.
The first of three sessions ended with Roger Crofts, who I have met quite a few times over the years through his association with the SAGT. He has had a fascinating and varied career as a civil servant and this has taken him into different arenas of discussions with ministers and other stakeholders. He is always an engaging speaker, who draws on his experiences, and this was a nice way to take us up to lunch.
After lunch in the library of the Linnean Society, and an interesting discussion on the recent Danny Dorling paper (see separate blog post) and chat to Iain Stewart it was into the second session.
This was a rather nice event that I was invited to a couple of weeks ago, down at Burlington House, near the Royal Academy. Here are a few thoughts on the day, which took the form of a series of presentations held in a historic space, overlooked by portraits of Darwin and other luminaries.
Dr Olwen Grace, VP of the Linnean Society welcomed us to the society, which had hosted the first readings of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin’s papers on theories of evolution. She referenced the great scientific advances which grew out of fieldwork and field science and how they had influenced others across the decades. Des Thompson from the FSC outlined the day.
Image from the @CIEEMnet Twitter feed.
The President of the FSC: Tim Burt talked about the work done by the FSC and trailed the publication of a new book in the new year called 'Curious about Nature: a passion for Fieldwork'. Tim was my tutor when I did my degree at Huddersfield Polytechnic, and he was starting his career in academia which later took him to Cambridge and Durham. He mentioned several former GA Presidents including J A Steers.
Andrew Goudie, a former GA President, explored the legacy of the past as well, referencing the work of Agassiz, and some other key figures in field studies. He also mentioned a number of former GA Presidents who have their entries on the GA Presidents blog (or will do shortly) and provided further information on them.
We then heard from two academic ecologists on their fieldwork practice.
Rob Marrs talked about a lifetime working on longer term studies, and the value of these compared to shorter terms.
He suggested that Robert Burns was the first real ecologist in print, and quoted some of his poetry.
I had earlier chatted to Ben Sykes of the Ecological Continuity Trust about the importance of their work.
Silviu Petrovan from the University of Cambridge explored a fairly ‘niche’ area of mammal movements through culverts, using AI and cameras to identify movements through the tunnels. His main argument was that we need to do fieldwork using technology, and also be mindful that we should be ready to be proved wrong.
Sally Hayns gave a nice talk on what it meant to be professional in the field, and outlined some thoughts on a professional framework for what we do.
The first of three sessions ended with Roger Crofts, who I have met quite a few times over the years through his association with the SAGT. He has had a fascinating and varied career as a civil servant and this has taken him into different arenas of discussions with ministers and other stakeholders. He is always an engaging speaker, who draws on his experiences, and this was a nice way to take us up to lunch.
After lunch in the library of the Linnean Society, and an interesting discussion on the recent Danny Dorling paper (see separate blog post) and chat to Iain Stewart it was into the second session.
I really enjoyed the first talk by Professor Pete Higgins on 'why learning outdoors matters'. He referenced a number of people I've read and appreciated over the years including Patrick Geddes.
I spent a little time following up some of the work that he has done. Worth watching again on the video of the sessions (see an earlier blog post for the links)
Much of his work is also available on Open Access.
Gill Miller, the current GA President, gave a geographer’s perspective on the importance of taking risks with fieldwork - not those sort of risks, but ones which draw out the benefits of
She provided some valuable thoughts on why we need to take young people outside, and how to make the most of the experiences.
Sue Townsend works for the FSC and described some of the work and future priorities with an eye on field skills.
I liked the talk by Emi Husband, too focussing on her progress as a young researcher from fairly uninspiring school fieldtrips to working at the University of Exeter and who has also written for Geography Review.
Christina Ravinet from the British Ecological Society let some students do the talking. The Society has worked with schools in London to offer grants to people who might not normally be able to afford
The second session ended with Professor Iain Stewart who is very comfortable with the idea of communicating the value of science. It is worth catching what he had to say on the live stream I mentioned earlier and re-watching his talk.
One key thing from him was the importance of creating STORIES to engage people.
This keeps recurring.
You may remember I spoke at the Practical Pedagogies event in November 2018 in Cologne on the 'Narrative Led Curriculum' and repeated the session at the GA Conference in 2019.
I will return to this with the two ERASMUS projects I am involved with over the next couple of years: D3 - Developing Digital Data Literacy and GI Pedagogy.
After a break for tea and biscuits there were a few final sections drawing together the thinking from the day, chaired by Professor Tim Burt.
Mary Colwell, who has written a book on curlews amongst other things shared her idea for a GCSE to be added to the curriculum. She has consulted with education-related politicians and an awarding body, and wants to produce a GCSE in Natural History.
This will help students explore the cultural links with nature, and make connections with the recent surge of new nature writing by people like Robert MacFarlane. This was an interesting session and idea.
Mark Castle presented the FSCs vision for the next few years. I chatted to him at the start of the day.
After the day had ended, we moved upstairs to the library for drinks and some more interesting conversations, before thanking the FSC for the invitation and heading home through the late night shoppers and workers of London. A really interesting day.
Sue Townsend works for the FSC and described some of the work and future priorities with an eye on field skills.
I liked the talk by Emi Husband, too focussing on her progress as a young researcher from fairly uninspiring school fieldtrips to working at the University of Exeter and who has also written for Geography Review.
Christina Ravinet from the British Ecological Society let some students do the talking. The Society has worked with schools in London to offer grants to people who might not normally be able to afford
The second session ended with Professor Iain Stewart who is very comfortable with the idea of communicating the value of science. It is worth catching what he had to say on the live stream I mentioned earlier and re-watching his talk.
One key thing from him was the importance of creating STORIES to engage people.
This keeps recurring.
You may remember I spoke at the Practical Pedagogies event in November 2018 in Cologne on the 'Narrative Led Curriculum' and repeated the session at the GA Conference in 2019.
I will return to this with the two ERASMUS projects I am involved with over the next couple of years: D3 - Developing Digital Data Literacy and GI Pedagogy.
After a break for tea and biscuits there were a few final sections drawing together the thinking from the day, chaired by Professor Tim Burt.
Mary Colwell, who has written a book on curlews amongst other things shared her idea for a GCSE to be added to the curriculum. She has consulted with education-related politicians and an awarding body, and wants to produce a GCSE in Natural History.
This will help students explore the cultural links with nature, and make connections with the recent surge of new nature writing by people like Robert MacFarlane. This was an interesting session and idea.
Mark Castle presented the FSCs vision for the next few years. I chatted to him at the start of the day.
After the day had ended, we moved upstairs to the library for drinks and some more interesting conversations, before thanking the FSC for the invitation and heading home through the late night shoppers and workers of London. A really interesting day.
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