Going Wild about Scotland through August 2017

21/09/2017 in RZSS

During the last few weeks of the summer holiday, the Wild about Scotland bus and team were out and about at community events before our school visits started again. We visited Deep Sea World for 3 days and took part in the "Go Wild" event at The Museum of Rural Life, where we had a great day Minibeast hunting at Whitmuir Community Farm. We also took part in "The Big Picnic Event" at Helix Park in Falkirk, engaging over 800 people on the Wild about Scotland bus and our last community event for the month was the "Family Fun Day" at West Calder Community Centre.

August also saw us saying goodbye to our Education Officer Kirsty, who was with the Wild about Scotland team for the past year. We would like to say thank you for all her hard work and we wish her all the best for the future. We also welcomed a new member to our team, Morna, who has taken on the role of Wild about Scotland Education Officer.

Our first week back to school bookings saw us visiting schools in Edinburgh, Brunstane Primary School, Hillwood Primary School, St John's Primary School and Lynburn Primart School in Dunfermline.

Wild about Scotland was invited by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) to take part in beach clean event on Friday 25th August at Musselburgh beach. The event brought together various organisations to run an event for members of the public to raise awareness of the issues surrounding marine pollution and its impact on wildlife. MCS ran a beach clean, WaS bus and team provided the chance for attendees to learn more about local biodiversity and the negative impact of pollution on marine habitats and animals, and the eXXpedition crew sampled the water for plastic pollution. And we were even interviewed live on Sky News as part of the coverage of the event! It was fantastic to be part of an event where people can get involved in an activity which helps to protect wildlife and raises awareness of the issues surrounding pollution.

We finished the month with our first away trip of the new school year, taking part in the Aberdeen Techfest, engaging schools groups from across Aberdeenshire in STEM related activities. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with other outreach organisations, sharing ideas and enthusing school groups about different science career paths.

On another note we took the opportunity to follow up on a top wildlife spotting recommendation and visited Newburgh beach to see Grey seals, Eider ducks, Oystercatchers, Jellyfish, Cormorants and Crabs on a relatively litter free beach!

Events in September to look out for:

• 23^rd Sept: Bang Goes the Borders Event, Melrose
• 30^th Sept: Youth Academy Initiative, Boroughmuir Rugby & Community Sports Club

 

See you next month,

Morna and Rosie

Wild about Scotland Education Officers

 

Top quotes

"Brilliant workshops and very good assembly. A big thank you to Rosie and Morna from all the staff and pupils" - Barbara Headteacher, St John's Primary School

"Thank you so much for your visit. The children really enjoyed your input and we would love to have you back" - Maxine Hayes Deputy Headteacher, Lynburn Primary School

Top tweets

And we're off! Beach clean at Musselburgh with @mcsuk and @eXXpedition has started! If you're in the area, come and join us! pic.twitter.com/CTBJ7gOOis

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) August 25, 2017

 

We're looking forward to being part of the GoWild event tomorrow at the National Museum of Rural Life!#GoWildinSummer #RuralLife #FoodieFarm pic.twitter.com/1pecW1Blwm

— Wild about Scotland (@WildaboutScot) August 2, 2017