How to grow a forest with Dr Robin Hayward

Ecologist and science communicator Dr Robin Hayward visited the Grammar School at Leeds in April 2024 to speak about how tree seeds disperse around the world, and about the Gair Wood research woodland project with the University of Leeds. Their talk included several demonstrations, including a game of guessing which seeds floated and a dramatic show of helicopter seeds falling from the ceiling to replicate seeds in the rainforest. Robin spoke to GSAL Year 5 students and a Year 5 class from St Chad’s Primary School. This talk was also live-streamed to 11 additional schools over 14 classrooms. The recording of this talk has been watched 2 twice. The recording was also shared with Dr Robin, so that he can distribute it amongst other school.

Aims

To share with partner schools an engaging and informative talk from a local scientist who could also speak about how his research related to the local Leeds area. The interactive event involved a talk and demonstrations by Robin, followed by a Q&A session.

To reach the maximum involvement from partnership schools, we needed to offer the following:

1.       An effective workshop facilitator who could inspire and engage pupils in the senior school assembly hall as well as those live-streaming from their classrooms;

2.       A venue, the GSAL assembly hall); and

3.       Technical expertise (Actual Pixels) to deliver a successful live broadcast and recording that could be available afterwards on Vimeo.

Background

When GSAL decided to host a science event for their spring term schools activity, it leveraged its long-standing partnership with Otley Science Festival to help find someone who would be relevant and interesting for a presentation for Y5 students. OSF suggested Dr Robin because they had been popular at their festival, so could be good for GSAL’s activities. So, this was an example of GSAL’s partnerships working together to provide more.

For this event, we invited partner schools to join us either remotely of on-site, and we were able to provide transport for St Chad’s Primary. GSAL started offering life-streamed workshops during lockdown and realised this was a convenient way to reach more pupils with engaging and educational content relevant to their curriculum.

GSAL has been running workshops for primary schools for more than nine years and running live-streamed workshops since 2020.

Resources

A space on site to hold the talk in front of a live audience;

Internet access in schools;

Videographer with multiple cameras (close and wide to maintain interest);

Zoom webinar to field questions and responses from the live virtual audience;

Transport facilities to offer to a school to visit onsite;

Non-teaching staff at GSAL and classroom teacher per class in remote audience;

Talk was offered for free to the partnership schools.

Impact

Quantitative:

Fourteen classrooms from 11 schools live-streamed the event, thereby reaching over 400 children. In addition, the recording has been viewed two more times.

 

Qualitative:

Schools were engaged with the talks and asked many questions during the Q&A session, such as asking about the most common tree in the world (probably the apple tree) and about Robin’s experiences in rainforest.

St. Chad’s Primary teachers were appreciative of the opportunity to visit on site.

Pupil Involvement

Pupils were mostly Y5, though some streaming classes included Y4 pupils.

Robin’s demonstrations were multi-sensory and interactive. The pupils were able to call out suggestions and ask questions. Pupils streaming the sessions were also able to ask questions.

Frequency

GSAL offers workshops with its partnership schools approximately once per term.