Case Study of BES Grant-supported project

The Dane Court Grammar School Thanet Coast Project

by Jeremy Butt

The following is a case study of a project supported by the BES, which is an example of a project suitable for support by the Coalbourn Education Grant.

The Seacology Centre project is part of a community-based scheme to build an imaginative visitor centre to focus attention on the ecology and related features of the Thanet Coast to rejuvenate the local tourist industry and to focus the attention of the local community on their own environment. In July of 1997, 45 year 12 A Level Biology students of Dane Court Grammar School , with the guidance of English Nature and on behalf of the Thanet District Council 'Regeneration Team', mapped, according to community, a 2km length of the Thanet coastline from Walpole Bay to Palm Bay in Margate.

The mapping was carried out using the concept of 'Benthic marine Biotropes' - i.e. seashore and seabed habitats and their associated communities - as developed by the M.N.C.R. (Foster-Smith, R.L. and Bunker,F Field guide for phase I seashore mapping, ISBN 186533 7).

Primarily, the project was undertaken in order to provide up-to-date information about the coastline in the vicinity of the proposed 'Seacology Centre' which, if the necessary funds are provided by the Lottery Heritage Fund, should start construction next year. The information provided by the Dane Court team would form part of an exhibit in the centre. Whether or not the construction gets the go ahead, the Biology department intends to use the data as a base-line for long-term monitoring as part of a 'Schools Curriculum in Industry Project' (SCIP). The experience of being involved in a research project has been very useful and, although not designed as a field course, has provided useful stimulus and starting points for project work.

We would like to thank the BES for its support and encouragement, especially Dr Slingsby, not only in the work itself but in enabling us to attend the BES conference in Warwick. I thought our presentation was ideally placed in the morning session and I think that it really did emphasise that despite the general consensus that not enough field-based ecology was going on in schools, some, like ourselves, are working hard to maintain the prominence of field work in the Biology Curriculum. The team of students that presented the Seacology project made myself and my colleagues very proud of them and we were delighted that the presentation was so well received. The trip also provided an invaluble insight into the University lifestyle, and the world of Higher Education, and this gave the team their first hand experiences of the pressures and rewards associated with Academia. It was an experience that the four year 12 students, Polly Evans, Michelle, Johns, Jonathan Day and Richard Baker will never forget.

Source: TEGnews, issue 23, pp7-8