Church Cowley St James Primary School

Holly Burrows of the Roald Dahl Museum was armed with copious amounts of household waste which she and the children of Church Cowley transformed into a dazzling array of mini beasts, bugs and birds.

An enormous red kite had been created from cardboard boxes, enormous earth worms were painted in rainbow colours, clothes moths were displayed that were wearing the clothes they had been nibbling and a large woodlouse (with articulated body) was spread over several desks.
The children’s imaginations ran riot as glittering butterflies and killer ants emerged from the plastic bottles and empty boxes.  A large frog proved a challenge as the children battled with PVA glue to attach its legs and a poisonous spider who didn’t clean his teeth greeted an visitors to the glass.

The Church Cowley menagerie will be displayed on the Ark and shows just how much the children have gained from turning their science field work into arty artefacts.

Year 5 pupils creating a biodiversity poster.

Having spent the previous science workshop searching for wildlife in their school playing field, the pupils of Church Cowley St James were eager to discover how well Jonathan thought they had got on. So when he projected a satellite image of their playing field with nearly 100 dots scattered across it representing creatures the children had found, there were cheers of delight!

Most pupils could identify the dots as places where they had found worms, snails and a host of other wildlife. They were able to open up the images and the information they had recorded on their hand-held computers. Jonathan was hugely impressed by the amount of information the pupils had captured, and how accurately it represented the eco-systems and food webs in the school’s surrounding area.

In the last part of the workshop, the pupils were divided into groups to design a poster that showed the biodiversity of their school, and what they had learnt in the three science workshops. Everyone was sad to say goodbye to Jonathan, and many children stayed behind at the end of the day to thank him personally for bringing in his collection of mini-beasts, and for teaching them about the wonderful diversity of wildlife in their own school grounds.

Holly Burrows from the Roald Dahl Museum came to the workshop to introduce herself and to explain the to the pupils the art workshops she will be running with them after the Easter break. Using as inspiration their new-found knowledge of mini-beasts, they will make large-scale reproductions of the creatures they have found using recycled materials.

Jonathan Ramsay from Oxford Brookes University was warmly welcomed to Church Cowley St James Primary School by both the pupils and teachers, as was his wonderful array of exotic guests - Hissing Cockroach, Stick Insects, Giant African Land Snails and a Praying Mantis to name only a few.

The workshop started with short power point presentation to introduce the children to the importance of habitat conservation by showing them examples of how particular creatures had developed and adapted to their environment. They were then able to get up close to snake and scorpion skins, and all types of creepy crawlies. The pupils were set the challenge of drawing one of the creatures and labeling all of the unique features they had developed to survive in their habitat. Following this they had the opportunity to play with the hand held computers they will use in their next workshop, when they go out and about in their schools to locate and track wildlife in their playgrounds.

The session ended with each of the pupils taking turns to handle cockcroach and stick insects. And, surprisingly every single pupil seemed happy with the homework Jonathan set them, to search for three types of mini-beasts in their garden or surrounding area, noting where they found them, a brief description and three adaptations they have developed for their environment.