28.03.08John Macadam / Earthwords, geologist & writer
Need some education? ... we all do!
check to see if I am running any trips!
28.03.08
A hands-on event?
I have run these for museums, countryside services,
and even, when I was a teacher, for other schools and parents. A
slimmed-down 'hands-on' was used for The Experimenter series for BBC
Education. It has been shown in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Shot by
Diverse Productions, I worked with kids from Combe Martin primary school in
Devon, and
XP - the Martian! I arrive with all the necessary materials - but helpers
are very welcome: the largest number of visitors was over 200 spread over a mere
6 hours (10-4) at the geological museum in Penzance. The power of local radio!
An educational strategy?
If you are planning a new museum or visitor centre, why not commission me to write an educational strategy? Of course you could also ask me to write the text - for the displays and for the educational packs. I have taught at all levels from primary to undergraduate, as well as teaching teachers. I regularly visit hands-on science centres (and get pretty depressed about the crass mistakes that still get made - with over 600 such centres world-wide you would think a body of expertise would be transferable!) I wrote the educational strategy for the Cornwall Geological Museum, the collection of the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall.
Material for teaching teachers?
In the jargon this is INSET ( In-service Education of Teachers). I was commissioned by the Curriculum Council for Wales (now ACCAC), supported by the Countryside Council for Wales, to work with teachers in Wales to produce INSET Activities for Environmental Education. This was translated into Welsh (Gweithgareddau HMS ar gyfer Addysg Amgylchedd) and was sent to all schools in Wales. It was published in 1993.
An education pack?
For Staffordshire Wildlife Trust Earthwords produced a cross-curricular education pack on CD-Rom to go with their Brown End Quarry nature reserve, but much of the material was usable elsewhere. The pack production involved other educators, artists, photographers, and an IT specialist.
An interpretation school?
With James Carter, I ran Selling Geology to the Public. This was a two-day interpretation school, in the 'Sharing Good Practice' programme of Scottish Natural Heritage. The venue was Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh in March 2000. Course attendants came from all over the UK and Ireland, from ranger services, charities, visitor centres and museums.
I also contribute to the Birkbeck (University of London) MSc on Protected Area Management by having input on interpreting geology sites. This is part of a module on geoconservation.
In 2007 I gave a keynote speech, and a workshop, on Interpreting Earth Heritage at the ProGEO Conference in Ljubljana, funded by the Slovenian environment ministry, Slovenian Geological Survey, and the British Council.
Guided walk, or field trip - from a trip for kids to one for students? Or a tour?
The photos below show a range of the trips and tours I have led - for tour companies, societies, education bodies and private clients. Most recently for a French lycée from Lillebonne (Normandy), looking at the geology and ecology of The Lizard, and West Penwith (an expanded repeat of a trip in 2002). If you are coming to see the Eden Project why not get shown more of Cornwall?
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American tourists (from Wilderness Travel) at Botallack. |
On a joint geology and outdoor pursuits weekend at Kit Hill. |
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Adult group walking down to Rinsey Cove. |
Family party at Gilson's Cove Mine, near Portquin. |
(Botallack, Rinsey Cove and Gilson's Cove are all owned by The National Trust, Kit Hill is a country park owned by Cornwall County Council)
I also teach part-time for the University
of Exeter at Camborne School of Mines (the
photo is of CSM students at Cligga), which is now on the new Tremough Campus
near Penryn and Falmouth. In 2005-06 I taught on the Earth Systems
Science module (to 1st year geologists, biologists, geographers and
environmental scientists - about 130 in all), and 1st and 2nd year fieldwork, in
2006-07 and 2007-08 I'm teaching SPAM (Strat, Palaeo & Maps). For the
Open University I tutored S269 Earth and
Life, the Open University's
second level Earth Systems Science course, from 1999-2006, and previously the science foundation
course (S102), and I have taught at summer schools at Reading, Sussex and Heriot-Watt. Everyone is welcome to view the
S269 material - some of it is relevant to S279.
In 2002-2003 I also taught the geology module on the FdSc in Marine and Aquatic Biology at Cornwall College.
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