Third to sixth class had a fantastic learning experience at a Biodiversity workshop held in our school on Friday the 19th of May. The children were given the opportunity to explore the school diverse biodiversity. An ecologist and an organic farmer facilitated the workshops. The children enjoyed the experience.
See report below by Dylan and Egon/6th Class on the workshop
Biodiversity workshop in Inagh
Sean and Mairead visited our school on the 19th of May to talk to third to sixth
about biodiversity. First they introduced themselves to us and told us who they
are and what they do. Sean is an organic farmer and ecologist from Tipperary
and Mairead is a botanist and ecologist from Donegal. Then they split us in two
groups. Dylan and I were in Sean’s group first. Sean told us all about how he is
an organic farmer and what he does on his farm to keep it organic. Then he told
us all about the tiny creatures we find in the world around us. Then he moved
on and showed us some native Irish animals such as the barn owl, a pine martin
and a badger. These animals had died naturally and had been stuffed by a
taxidermist. He went on to tell us all about the features of the animals. One of
the features of the barn owl is that a barn owl can hear a mouse’s heart beat
from very far away. Then it was time for us to go to Mairead’s workshop.
After we were done at Sean’s station, we moved on to Mairead’s workshop.
Mairead is a botanist and ecologist from Donegal who explained and showed us
the life cycle of bees using a crocheted beehive and bees. We found out that
queen bees only live for one year and that they are most attracted to purple
clovers. Another interesting fact is that the male bees don't have a stinger and
live for one year.
After that we moved onto the trees. Mairead showed us leaves from some of the
trees around us and we had to guess which tree the leaf came from. Some of the
trees we researched were Ash, Willow, Oak and Aspen. We also had a
scavenger hunt in groups where we had to find certain objects from around the
school and the first team to bring back the objects won.
Later that evening Sean and Mairead held a meeting in the school hall about
biodiversity with Inagh’s local community.
Thank you very much to Sean and Mairead for coming to our school and for the
workshop. We really enjoyed it!
By: Dylan and Egon
