Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre is an educational facility that supports high quality teaching of biodiversity and environmental topics within the Curriculum for Excellence in Scottish schools.
There are various opportunities for teachers and their pupils to engage with the work at Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre, such as curriculum linked workshops and twilight CPD sessions. The fantastic resources at the Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre can be utilised through teacher-led visits, following an in-depth CPD session or through workshops led by Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre staff.
We are continually developing our resources and provision to assist teachers in delivering the Curriculum for Excellence. If you have any suggestions of topics you would like to see addressed, please let us know.
- Support for your own setting
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We would like to help support teaching of science and environment topics in your own settings, whether this is at school or at home.
We are compiling lesson plans, background information, scripts and resources that you may find useful for teaching different topics. This will be added to weekly, but please get in touch if you would like some help with any specific topic.
Resources can be found in panels below.
Minibeasts Minibeasts are a fantastic topic to cover lots of different areas of the CfE. Here we provide possible lesson plans, suggested scripts, and curriculum links. Feel free to download these resources and use them to plan your own lessons.
Although it can be tricky to bring outside resources into schools, we do have a loan box of resources including bug pots and magnifying glasses. If you would like to borrow these, please contact us.
Rainforests Rainforests is an ever popular topic for primary school classes, and it is easy to understand why. The diversity, majesty and mysteriousness of the rainforest and the species that live there, as well as the conservation threat, means its a topic which often captures childrens imaginations and can keep them very engaged.
Everyone is familiar with the idea of tropical rainforests, but there are also temperate rainforets which occur in cooler areas of the world which still have high levels of rainfall. We are very lucky in Scotland to have an area of temerate rainforest on the West Coast, known as the Atlantic Oakwood. Many of the species of trees that occur in the Atlantic Oakwood can be found all over Scotland, so it is possible that children anywhere in Scotland to get up close to a rainforest tree in their local park or green space.
Different Rainforests of the World
There are different areas of rainforest in different parts of the world. Each area of rainforest has its own unique features and wildlife. Here we have included some information about different rainforest regions.
Scottish Rainforest Tree Trail
Scotland has an area of temperate rainforest known as the Atlantic woodland. This occurs on the west coast of Scotland where there are high levels of rainfall, and where ancient woodlands have existed since the last ice age. Many of the species of tree that occur in these rainforests can be found all over Scotland, so you should be able to find at least some of them on a walk in your local green space. Below is a worksheet you can use with your class to ask them to observe some Scottish trees closely, identify them, and link the features they are seeing with seasonality. This activity requires some before class preparation of finding the trees and attaching numbered labels to them.
More information about Scottish Rainforests can be found on the Woodland Trust and Forestry and Land Scotland wesbites.
Rainforest Resources activity
Many items that people have found useful over the centuries originally came from rainforests. Some of them still do. This activity encourages children to look at raw materials that come from tropical rainforests and see if they can match them to the finished products that we take for granted in our everyday lives. We are able to loan out examples of the raw materials, but this activity can also be done with pictures of the raw materials. Info sheets about the raw materials and products are available to download below.
Seasons The changing seasons give us many opportunities to discover the outdoors and experience the world around us. We will post resources here that you can use to help you explore and welcome each season as it arrives.
Spring
The alternative Easter Egg hunt has you looking for new signs of life in the gardens and green spaces around you.
Summer
There are many different ways you can use summer flowers to engage childrens senses and imagination, and cover different areas of the curriculum in inventive ways. Here are some ideas.
Autumn
- Suggested_activities_with_autumn_leaves
- Using_your_senses_in_Autumn_and_Winter
- Other_craft_ideas_with_autumn_and_winter_natural_resources
Winter
COP26 and Climate change Introduction
During and after COP26, climate change, the greenhouse effect, global warming, carbon capture, net-zero and extreme weather were all topics in the news more often. It is the perfect time to start children thinking about climate change and understand the causes and the impact that it will have on our planet. Conducting experiments will let children experience first-hand the causes and effects of climate change, and therefore make it more real and easier to understand. Once they understand how and why climate change is happening, they can have more informed class discussions about what COP, what they would like to see being done to tackle climate change on an international level, as well as the small everyday things that we can all do to play our part.
The main concepts that need to be understood are:
- nearly everything we do as a society requires energy, and that most of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels.
- Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, especially CO2, into the atmosphere
- Increased amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere increases the temperature of the planet
- Increased global temperatures have impacts on the planet, such as melting polar ice.
- Energy Use experiment and discussion activity
- Products of Combustion (Secondary aged pupils)
- Effects of increased CO2 (Primary and secondary aged pupils)
- Impact of increasing temperatures
- What can we do?
Helping Wildlife There are lots of ways of helping the biodiversity in your own garden or greenspace. This is a great way of getting engaged with your local biodiversity, in building knowledge about the diversity around you and of creating a sense of responsibility for our environment. Here are a few ideas of things you can do in your own area.
Helping Birds
- Led Workshops
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You may prefer to bring your class here for a workshop led by ABC staff.
These workshops are Curriculum linked, and use the outstanding resources we have available in the Biodiverity Centre, Zoology Museum and the Cruickshank Botanic Garden to really engage the pupils with science and environmental topics.
Workshops available include:
Suitable for Lower Primary Age Children:
Night and Day in Nature
My World of Nature
Marvellous Minibeasts (April to September only)
Suitable for Upper Primary Aged Children:
Fossils, Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life
Amazing Animals (Vertebrate Classification)
Harsh Habitats (Animal adaptations)
Resourceful Rainforests
Investigating Invertebrates with Pond Dipping (May to October only)
What's the Point of Plants?
Workshops are available on Mondays and Wednesdays, morning or afternoon. There is currently no charge associated with the workshops. For more information and to book a session, please contact us on biodiversity@abdn.ac.uk. Due to limited availability, we recommend you contact us as soon as you can before your intended visit to avoid disappointment.
More information about the sessions:
Night and Day in Nature (suitable for lower primary classes)
This workshop introduces pupils to the idea of nocturnal and diurnal animals, and discusses some of the reasons why animals are active at different times of day. Using the fantastic resources in the Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre, we will look at what senses animals use, and how different senses become more important at different times of day. The workshop also looks at different time zones around the world to introduce pupils to the idea that while it is lunchtime in Scotland, in other countries it will be bed time. Using the Zoology museum, we will look at animals from different areas around the world, learn about what senses they use, and look at what time of day it is where they live.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 0-06a, SCN 1-02a, SCN 1-12b
Session Length: 1 1/2 hours
My World of Nature (suitable for preschool and lower primary classes)
This workshop aims to increase the childrens awareness and experience of their surrounding environment. Through interactive and outdoor learning which engage the childs observation skills and senses, they will discover ways of communicating the interdependency of living things through sorting and grouping living things, and food chains. They will be using their senses to experience the world around them and develop the important scientific skill of observation. The first half of the session utilises the handling collection at the ABC and the second half takes place in the university’s botanic garden.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 1-01a, SCN 1-02a, SCN 1-12b
Session length 1 1/2 hours.
Marvellous Minibeasts (suitable for lower primary classes. Only available April to September)
Everyone loves looking for minibeasts! This workshop aims to use childrens fascination with creepy crawlies to develpo their appreciation of biodiversity, and the important role that invertebrates play in all ecosystems. Pupils will have a chance to examine some of our common minibeasts up close while learning some fascinitaing facts about them, before taking part in a minibeast hunt to find native invertebrates in their natural habitat.
Key Experiences and Outcomes:SCN 1-02a, SOC 1-13b
Session Length 1 1/2 hours.
Fossils, dinosaurs and prehistoric life (suitable for upper primary aged groups)
This workshop uses the ever popular topic of fossil and dinosaurs to engage children with science and the skill of observation. The session starts in the Aberdeen Biodiversity centre classroom where pupils will undertake different activities to understand how fossils are made, and what information they can tell us about prehistoric life. We will look at how we know what dinosaurs ate, when dinosaurs lived, why they became extinct, and what came after the dinosaurs. Afterwards, pupils will explore the Zoology museum to learn more about some of the specimens there, and decide if they are from an extinct prehistoric animal or a creature that is still living today.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 2-01a, SCN 2-20b
Session Length: 2 hours
Amazing animals (suitable for upper primary level classes)
This workshop introduces the idea of classifying animals based on similar characteristics. Pupils will be given different vertebrate specimens and will be asked to put them into the correct group; fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds or mammals. We will then use the Zoology Museum to learn some more about animals belonging to each of the groups. Finally we will use the microscopes to get a close look at some of the distinguishing features of some of the groups, and do some scientific drawings.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 2-01a
Session length: 2 hours
Harsh Habitats (suitable for upper primary level classes)
This workshop introduces classes to 5 different major habitat types and some of the animals and plants that live there. We look at the different ways animals and plants have adapted to meet the challenges of the different environments. Using the resources of the Aberdeen Biodiveristy Centre we will investigate the different conditions in different habitats, and why an animal or plant that is not adapted to that environment might find it difficult to survive. Finally we will move into the Zoology museum to look for some animals for different places of the world. After reading information about each of the animals, the pupils must decide which of the habitats we have studied today they are most adapted to.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 2-01a, SCN 2-12a, S0c 1-12b
Session length: 2 hours
Resourceful Rainforests (suitable for upper primary level classes)
The rainforests of the world are amazing places that provide so many resources that are useful to people. We will start by looking at different rainforests form around the world (both tropical and temperate) and thinking about the animals and plants that live there. We will also consider the process of pollination which is important in the production of many of the reources.
Afterwards we will head out to the Cruickshank Botanic Gardens to look at species of trees which are native to Scottish Temperate Rainforests, and consider how seasonality affects which characteristics are visible in the trees.
Key Experinces and Outcomes: SOC 2-12a, SCN 2-01a
Session Length 2 hours.
Investigating Invertebrates with Pond Dipping (suitable for upper primary classes. Only available from May to October)
Invertebrates are one of the most abundant animal groups on earth, but are often overlooked due to their small size. This workshop begins in the Aberdeen Biodiversity Classroom and gives pupils the opportunity to get up close to some of our most common invertebrates to appreciate their unique features, different life stages and the importnant role they play in many of our ecosystems. We will then move out to the Cruickshank Botanic Garden to do some pond dipping to look for invertebrates in the pond. This will help to highlight the vast diveristy of invertebrates, and develop the pupils skills of observation as well as respect for living things.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 2-01a, SCN 2-02a, SCN2 -14a
Session length: 2 hours.
What's the point of plants?
Plants are often considered boring compared to animals. They don't move, they don't hunt, they don't do anything interesting. Or do they? This workshop looks at different plant groups, and what makes them so important to humans and to all life on earth. We will investigate when differnet plant groups evolved, and what their different features are. Groups will be asked to discuss different uses of plants, and decide in their groups what the most important role of plants has been in the past and in the present day.
Key Experiences and Outcomes: SCN 2-01a SCN 2-02b
Session lenth: 2 hours.
- Early Years
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The resources that are housed at Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre, in conjunction with the Cruickshank Botanic Garden and Zoology Museum allow our youngest visitors to experience the wonder and enjoyment associated with the natural world.
Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre has a huge range of fantastic hands-on specimens, which makes it a great venue for a learning session with an early year’s group. Early years groups are welcome to come and visit Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre and the Zoology Museum for a self-led visit.
- Primary
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Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre, (previously as the Natural History Centre), has been working with local primary schools since its inception in 1995. The implementation of the Curriculum for Excellence has allowed us to refocus, and redevelop many of our programmes to support teachers further.
We are continually developing new topics, and ways to engage with teachers and pupils, so please contact us if there is something you think may be helpful.
- Secondary
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Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre has regularly worked with secondary schools on an ad-hoc basis. We are now aiming to formalise our secondary school provision with workshops to help with practical elements of the curriculum, and to provide opportunities and support for teachers to incorporate topical science research from the University of Aberdeen into their teaching. Contact us if you would like more information about workshops we can offer to secondary school classes, or to find out about transition days for higher pupils who are conseridering studying a biology related subject at university.
The University of Aberdeen has a vast number of researchers working on cutting edge science across all schools and colleges. We work closely with researchers in the School of Biological Sciences to incorporate topical science into our curriculum linked CPD sessions.
- Tertiary
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The resources at Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre are ideal for teaching many aspects of science education, and science. We regularly work with local education providers to provide guest lectures to students from a range of disciplines. Contact us if you are interested in working with the resources or the team.
The handling collection, resources and expertise at the Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre, together with the resources of the Zoology Museum and Cruickshank Botanic Garden, can be used by local colleges for support in teaching science and environmental subjects. These collections can also be used to provide inspiration for art, design and photography students. Contact us for further details.
Aberdeen Biodiversity Centre works with undergraduate and postgraduate trainee teachers from the University of Aberdeen School of Education to promote and encourage biodiversity education and creativity in science within the Curriculum for Excellence.
- Informal Education
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Adult groups, art or special interest groups are welcome to arrange a general visit to the centre and Zoology museum, but must be booked in advance.
Please contact us at the centre if you are interested in this.