New BSL terms for understanding and communicating environmental themes

A cross-posting from my blog laying the ground for those interested in teaching the GCSE Natural History. 

An interesting story in The Guardian.

This would be an interesting context for an activity, particularly if there was a chance to pair up with a school locally which was providing specialist teaching for hearing impaired students.

Scientists and BSL users from the Royal Society and Scottish Sensory Centre worked together to create signs for common environmental terms. The first 200 signs were themed around biodiversity, ecosystems, pollution and the physical environment.

To sign “greenhouse gases”, for example, BSL users are told to gesture with “both hands in circular shapes [to] represent gases, then put the left hand at the horizontal position and move the right hand, with the index finger pointing, down and back up to the left hand to show the sunlight reflecting on Earth’s surface”.

A full list of terms and subjects can be seen here. The initiative has won a number of awards.

The symbol for albedo is a good example of how the sign links to the term itself.

You can also see the specific geography terms and perhaps use them for an activity - how about a BSL club at school if a colleague has some skills. I did a BSL course some years ago and have a book and other notes from the course, but am very rusty now.