International Year of Biodiversity

The School of Biological Sciences strongly supports the International Year of Biodiversity.

Events

Bioblitz: 21-22 May 2010

Finished! See the BioBlitz Blog for photos and video from the Blaise Castle.

A race against the clock to find as many animal and plant species as possible in the Blaise Castle Estate. BioBlitz bring scientists, naturalists, environment and wildlife agencies, nature enthusiasts, students, school groups and the general public together to discover and experience what nature has to offer.

Bristol Festival of Nature: 12-13 June 2010

Europe's largest celebration of the natural world on the Harbourside. 12-13 June 2010, with a schools day on Friday 11 June. Last year the School organised some fantastic stands, talks and activities, and everyone had a great time. Last year more than 25,000 people came - and this year the Festival will be even bigger and better - with more emphasis on biodiversity and sustainability for IYB.
The Conker Science Project

The Conker Science Project is a national citizen-science experiment run by Michael Pocock and Darren Evans (University of Hull) and funded by NERC. People across the country can record the spread of an alien moth that is damaging our horse chestnut trees. From 3 July 2010 thousands of school children will be joining with members of the public running an experiment to see the effectiveness of natural pest controllers of the alien moth - just using a plastic bag!
A Celebration of Bees and Pollination: August bank holiday weekend

To mark the International Year of Biodiversity, the Botanic Garden will be hosting a festival in celebration of bees and pollination. A weekend of interactive events and displays – come and see what bees and pollinators do for us!

Please contact Jon Bridle or Philippa Bayley if you have any ideas for other events or activities. School members: contact Philippa Bayley to volunteer or view a table of all Biological Sciences public engagement activities (PDF, 151 KB).

Congratulations to two groups in Biological Sciences who successfully obtained funding from the BBSRC for two innovative public engagement projects:

Steve Simpson, Andy Radford, and Michael Pocock will be Bringing Biodiversity to Life through a series of sustained activities with local schools, including surveys of the biological diversity in their school grounds, and equipping children and teachers with the skills to ask scientific questions for themselves, and take biodiversity from the abstract and distant into the everyday (but far from commonplace).
Simon Hiscock, Heather Whitney (along with staff from the Bristol Nanoscience centre), and Jane Memmott will be running an August bank holiday festival at the University Botanic Gardens to Celebrate Bees and Pollination. Plans include: a hands-on opportunity to appreciate bees' role in making cider, a live flight arena illustrating how bees see the world (and particularly the surface of flowers), and displays and demonstrations of beekeeping and honey and candlemaking, and fruit and cider production. These events will also be made especially accessible to people with impaired hearing.

Visit our public engagement site for more information about the School's projects and events.

Biological Sciences at the University's Discover 2010 event. Thanks to the Centre for Public Engagement for photos.

Dr Steve Simpson giving a talk