Going Wild about Scotland through February!

18/03/2016 in RZSS

It's been another jam-packed month for the Wild about Scotland team, visiting schools in East Lothian, West Lothian, Fife, East Dunbartonshire, North Lanarkshire and Clackmannanshire.

We have now welcomed over 20,000 visitors aboard the Wild about Scotland bus since the project began in August 2014. This includes school pupils, teachers, families and other visitors at events across the country.

The pupils at Letham Primary had an especially exciting day celebrating this milestone with a visit from STV Edinburgh. They did a great job sharing their new-found knowledge on beavers and wildcats and got their moment of fame on the Live at Five programme.

On the 11th of February we were delighted to accept an invitation to return to Alexander Peden Primary school for their science day. Three nearby schools were also invited and we ran workshops alongside the Forestry Commission for Scotland, the Field Studies Council and RZSS' very own Sandie Robb from the Beyond the Panda outreach programme. Thanks to all the pupils and staff for a great day.

The team attended the official launch of the Edinburgh International Science Festival at the National Museum of Scotland. We're really excited to be a part of the fantastic programme again this year. For more information on where to find us visit our website.

Our project co-ordinator Ruth got the opportunity to attend an evening at Scottish Parliament at Holyrood as part of ScotLINK's National Environment Week. Many MSPs attended to discuss issues surrounding biodiversity and were interested in the Wild about Scotland programme.

February also saw us attend the RZSS' Conservation Action Team (CAT) at Edinburgh Zoo. CAT are a Saturday morning club for young people interested in learning about and helping to protect local wildlife. The Wild about Scotland bus attended to fit in with their theme of 'beavers'. We were all very impressed with the enthusiasm and knowledge of the CAT team members.

One of our aims this year has been to develop the Wild about Scotland Programme beyond the bus visits. To this end we are very proud to launch the first Wild about Scotland online resources. We hope they will help teachers involved in the programme to continue to inspire their class about local wildlife. Thanks to Clydesdale Bank's continued sponsorship these are available free of charge on the Wild about Scotland resources webpage.

See you next month
Jamie and Lindsay
Wild about Scotland Education Officers