Zoo’s joined-up strategy links education, energy and environment

Paignton Zoo Head of Education Lisa Stroud smiles a lot – but then, she has plenty to smile about. When she took up her post 16 months ago, she inherited a busy department with an enthusiastic team and strong partnerships beyond the gates of the Zoo. Now, she has won a major grant to help pay for a whole range of innovations. “I love my job!” she enthuses.

The conservation charity’s successful Education Department was built up from next-to-nothing over many years by previous incumbents, including her immediate predecessor Rob Lovell. She took over a team of 12, including six part-time Education Officers covering all ages from toddlers to post-16 and encompassing a wide range of audiences, from family visitors to university students. Their base is a big building standing physically – and symbolically - at the heart of the Zoo.

Education is the central aim of any top zoo. Around that sit field conservation, the breeding of endangered species and what is termed advocacy – speaking out for conservation, standing up for zoos and generally giving a voice to the natural world.

Formal education at Paignton Zoo is so popular that, unlike many other zoos, which subsidise their schools work from central funds, the Education Department generates sufficient income to cover its costs. This means the Zoo can invest more in conservation work and in supporting the learning experience of visitors, enabling them to get more out of their visit.

Lisa: “I’m certain that we can expand our educational activities to promote conservation more broadly, assisting the wider work of the Zoo.”

Even though the department already attracts a healthy 45,000 school pupils a year, Lisa has big plans to build on these firm foundations. She wants to create new partnerships with other environmental and educational bodies, bring new learning opportunities to the famous Zoo and to secure funding for new technologies.

Charity

Paignton Zoo Environmental Park is part of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, which also runs Living Coasts in Torquay, Newquay Zoo in Cornwall and two local nature reserves. A successful application to the charitable arm of the industrial giant Alcoa Howmett has landed Lisa a £35,000 grant. How does she plan to spend it?

Her eyes light up: “Oh, lots and lots of wonderful projects! This really does provide us with the springboard that we needed to take us to the next level.”

The project - Making Sense of Global Environmental Change – runs until May 2014, and aims to illustrate how resource use and carbon emissions impact upon biodiversity.

“The central message is that, as building design and use are both under human control, we can minimise the effect that they have on the environment. In particular, we are looking to encourage schools, colleges, visitors and staff to reduce their environmental impact.”

It’s an interesting parallel to the Zoo’s Fairer World ethical trading initiative, which links production in developing countries to habitat and species conservation. The initiative is expanding the capacity of Paignton Zoo's Education Department to interpret environmentally sustainable behaviours and their benefits to wildlife conservation.

It is also equipping the Zoo with a new Building Management System for Reptile Tropics and ten additional electricity sub-meters which will provide a minute-by-minute understanding of the energy used on site. In effect, Paignton Zoo Environmental Park will become a case study to interpret the complex converging issues of climate change, habitat loss through the unsustainable use of resources and wildlife conservation.

The grant is allowing Lisa to do more: two part-time members of staff have become full-time for 16 months; a team of presenters will be on-site throughout the 2013 summer season; and video conferencing facilities are to be installed so that Zoo staff can run live link-ups with scientists working on in-situ conservation projects.

Further support promised from Alcoa Howmett will also allow for refurbishment of the charity’s aging residential course classrooms.

Partners

Lisa has other plans. “Our education staff come from a range of backgrounds, including teaching, zoology, field work, veterinary nursing and conservation, and have a variety of specialisms, from plants, invertebrates and primates to vocational training and community engagement. I want to make more use of this invaluable expertise and incorporate their experiences into our programmes much more. Each of them is now linked to one of our field conservation programmes.”

The Zoo has a long-standing partnership with Bridgwater College, which uses the site to teach BTEC Level 2/3 courses in animal care and animal management. Now, a further partnership has been established, between Paignton Zoo and South Devon College, to deliver a BTEC Level 2/3 Coast, Countryside and Environment Diploma.

This will be taught jointly by Paignton Zoo staff and lecturers from South Devon College in a newly refurbished lab-classroom in the Education Centre, on the Zoo’s nature reserves and at the college.

Developing the Department’s use of technology is important; Twitter, Facebook, blogging, websites, a Virtual Learning Environment and video conferencing are all on her radar.

“The aim is to create an expansive and accessible learning environment. As travel costs rise it can become increasingly expensive for schools to come out on trips – one way of getting around this is by using video conferencing.”

Forest School

Forest School was developed in Scandinavia to teach children about the natural environment. It became popular on the Continent and, following a visit to Denmark in 1993, Bridgwater College pioneered the concept in the UK, where it is spreading.

Lisa: “Many children nowadays have very little contact with the natural environment, even in a rural area like ours, and rarely play outdoors. Children are less likely to have an affinity with nature and this can lead to a lack of confidence outdoors.”

The Education Outside the Classroom Manifesto (2006) highlighted that education outside can motivate pupils and bring learning to life. Forest School can contribute to four of the five Every Child Matters framework outcomes (Chief Secretary to the Treasury, 2003), identified as key to a child’s well-being.

“Forest School is based on the principle that if children can appreciate and enjoy the natural world, this will encourage care and understanding of it in later life.”

Research has shown that Forest School has huge benefits for both children and adults, showing positive changes in behaviour, health and physical development. As part of its existing partnership with Bridgwater College, Paignton Zoo will host a free Introduction to Forest School event from 4.30 to 6.00pm on 9 January and will subsequently provide the BTEC Level 3 Advanced Forest School Leader Award, from 11-15 February, led by Bridgwater College Forest School.

Great Gorillas!

The Alcoa Howmett grant is also funding a schools outreach programme linking to the charity’s 90th anniversary Great Gorillas Project. For 10 weeks over the summer, 30 life-sized silverback gorilla sculptures, sponsored by local businesses and painted by local artists, are inhabiting the streets, parks and open spaces of Exeter and the English Riviera.

The Great Gorillas Project is showcasing artistic talent and highlighting the conservation threat facing wild gorillas. Alongside the ‘big boys’ come scaled-down gorilla sculptures for schools. These juveniles, decorated by students, are occupying indoor public venues such as shops, museums and libraries.

Each school signing up to the project received a blank 76cm-tall gorilla sculpture and a Great Gorillas Project education pack containing guidance notes on art and design, cross-curricular lesson starters and ideas and access to podcasts and other additional materials.

They have also had the support of Paignton Zoo’s education team and will be able to keep their own unique Great Gorillas sculpture as a memento of the project. More than 20 schools signed up to the project.

Lisa: “It’s an exciting opportunity for schools to showcase their children’s creativity and to engage staff, parents, governors and associates, while also covering elements of the curriculum in an extremely appealing style.”

Joined-up

So how do you sum up what you are doing?

Lisa: “The focus has changed. This is joined-up education – we are linking schools and our visitors with real people carrying out real conservation projects in real places. We are also linking what we do – shopping, building, driving – with what is happening to the natural world. It’s a very exciting time!” It’s no wonder Lisa Stroud smiles so much.