joint first session chair - fota wildlife parkteaching staff. amy teaches on the fdsc in integrated...

Education and Communication Conference Fota Wildlife Park.

Day 1 – Wednesday 19th November

Joint first session – Chair: Lynda McSweeney

Registration

Welcome address: Séan McKeown.

How Ireland tells its story: Mark Henry, Marketing Manager, Tourism Ireland. Mark leads the Central Marketing Division of Tourism Ireland – the public body responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas. Mark is an insight-driven, strategic marketer and is an established leader in deploying new media marketing. He leads the Central Marketing Division of Tourism Ireland – the public body responsible for marketing the island of Ireland overseas. Mark’s remit covers strategy development, research, marketing communications, eMarketing, content development, customer contact and Northern Ireland projects. His role involves identifying the best prospects for generating tourism to Ireland, understanding the island’s customers and working with colleagues to plan effective marketing strategies to deliver growth. He has responsibility for developing the organisation’s advertising, content and eMarketing assets. Mark also looks after Tourism Ireland’s customer response channels and works across the organisation to ensure focus on delivering on its Northern Ireland growth remit. Before joining Tourism Ireland Mark was Strategic Development Manager with the Internet arm of Horizon Technology Group plc. Before that again he was Head of Research & Planning for the e-business subsidiary of eircom, the former state telecommunications company. Mark possesses Masters degrees in both Psychology and Business Administration

Workshop: How Zoos can best tell their story. Charlotte Smith, Chester Zoo

Charlotte joined Chester Zoo as Head of Discovery and Learning in June 2014, following 15

years working in the museums sector, including leadership and learning focused roles for

Imperial War Museums and Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. She has a wide

range of experience including managing projects, programmes and events for formal and

informal audiences, volunteer management, community engagement, exhibit

development, evaluation and the development of master plans and engagement

strategies.

How zoos can tell their stories: As zoos and aquaria, we communicate our stories in many

different ways and to achieve a wide range of different agendas and outcomes. Based on

Charlotte's experience developing a new organisational Learning and Interpretation Strategy

for Chester Zoo, this practical workshop will use visitor journey mapping to explore how we

might tell our stories more holistically to achieve more consistent messaging, better visitor

experiences and ultimately greater impact

Tea break

Education delegates out and about in Fota Wildlife Park – zoo tours/own time.

Lunch break



Chair: Natalie Garrett

BACK TO BASICS- EFFECTIVE LEARNING FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES

Special needs: Ita Teegan, Principal of COPE Foundation, Cork.

Ita Teegan has been involved in Special Education for 30 years. She has been the

principal of St Bernadette’s school for children with Mild Intellectual Disability for

6 of those years. She has worked with the National Council of Curriculum &

Assessment in devising curricula for children with intellectual disabilities. She has

also worked with the Special Education Support service for 2 years before

returning to her natural habitat; Scoil Bernadette!

Her Presentation concerns: Intellectual disability What wildlife parks/zoos mean to a person with an intellectual disability How parks/zoos can facilitate visits…what do our children like? Mediating the experience A little song!

Pre school: Karen O’ Sullivan, Manager of Cork County Childcare.

Karen trained as a special needs and primary teacher, working in varied school

environments. Karen worked as an education officer at Durrell, back when it was

JWPT and was head of education at Dublin Zoo and then the Wildscreen Trust

working on ARKive. For the last nine years she has been the CEO of the Cork

County Childcare Committee, a support agency for providers of early years

education and care services.

Pre-school does not mean pre-learning

Children learn from the minute they are born and when they are attending early childhood

care and education settings they are learning at an amazing rate. Building on the essential

methods for assisting children on their learning journey, Karen created a pre-school pack for

use at Fota. This could be used as a template for any attraction wishing to start the

conservation learning early

Teenagers:

Mícheál Ó Laoghaire; Scoil Mhuire Fatima, An Mhaienistir Thuaidh

Mícheál has 35 years Teaching experience in every class from second to Sixth. He has many years in Irish Summer Schools/Colleges which dealt with teens from 12 to 17. Adult classes in Irish In UCC and Presentations to UCC Ed. Dept regarding Maths Recovery. He has worked as Resource/Learning Support Teacher for 6 years with responsibility for the introduction and implementation of the Maths Recovery programme in our School. In the late nineties He was responsible for the introduction and implementation of the HSCL ( Home/School/Community Liaison Scheme) in the North Mon Primary school(s). He has returned to that role with the past two years.

Outline of presentation: What is the Hscl scheme and what role does the HSCL play in the child’s educationThe role of the HSCL in Literacy, Numeracy and Science Education.Changing the context – Using a different environmentLessons to be learned from Irish Language Teaching in regard to the difficulties posed by classroom routine and context – The School world V The Real WorldAn example – Natural Maths Eyes – a new way of envisioning Maths and the teaching of maths

Questions

Delegates share best props/ resources for each age group

Tea Break



Chair: Dave Naish

Feedback to delegates of best three resources for each group.

Back to basics – Effective learning with different resources. Different views on learning in

animal collections – what works best?

Close contact with animals: Amy Bye, Senior Education Officer, Bristol Zoo

Amy Bye, Bristol Zoo

Amy joined Bristol Zoo in 2005 and has worked her way up to the position of Senior

Education Officer and Lecturer. Amy closely assists Dave Naish with the running of the

Education Department, concentrating on session development and supporting members

teaching staff. Amy teaches on the FdSc in Integrated Wildlife Conservation, in both

biology and communication, and is also an assessor for the DMZAA course.

Enhanced learning with close animal contact

People visit zoos to have amazing experiences with animals. For some groups, such as

groups visiting for an education session, we feel their learning experience is greatly

enhanced by having a hands-on experience with animals. This short presentation will

highlight the advantages that close animal contact can provide.

Carrie Littlehales, Chester Zoo

Carrie started at Chester Zoo in 2002 as a Presenter. After 9 years she applied for the

Outreach Safari Ranger position and started in 2012. These two educational roles have

given her a huge range of varied experience of formal and informal education from writing

and delivering talks and presentations, talking to people from 0 to 100 years old who may

love or even hate some animals and using evaluation to improve the service. She was

lucky enough to deliver an Educational Workshop in the Philippines, and saw zoo field

conservation first hand.

Being a Safari Ranger she has much more control over making the bookings, deciding and

designing workshops, advertising, evaluating and report writing which has given her more

freedom to explore zoo education, what we want to teach visitors and guests, and how

best to do this.

Animal free learning

The presentation will cover why Chester Zoo and other collections do not use animal

handling in education workshops and presentations. It will highlight the benefits,

advantages and other issues surrounding animal use which will hopefully lead on to a lively

discussion after about why we use animals in education and how we could use alternatives.

Katriona Smith, ZSL

Katriona holds a degree in Zoology and has spent her career working within zoo education

departments. She is currently the Practical Learning Officer at ZSL London Zoo and is

responsible for organising and delivering the practical programmes like Zoo Academy,

Junior Zoo Academy and Careers Days. She also runs courses that work with students that

are disengaged from mainstream education.

Classroom learning – why it works

Her talk outlines the positives of teaching in a classroom environment within zoos and

aquaria and highlights how this can be beneficial to learners of all kinds.

Nicolette Craig

Nicolette has a First Class degree in Zoology, and an MSc in the very grand sounding

“Advanced methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity. After four years as an Education

Officer at Drusillas Park and in Portugal, Nicolette’s plans to become a world leading

Education Officer were well and truly scuppered by children and a husband on an

impressive career path.

A somewhat chequered employment history then followed as a Zoo Records Keeper, a

teacher’s assistant, a freelance writer and then a Communications and Events Officer at a

charity. Finally in March this year, with great joy, she returned to life as Education

Coordinator at the glorious Cotswold Wildlife Park.

The zoo as your classroom

Five minutes isn’t long to expound the virtues of using a zoo itself to teach and inspire the

children and young people that visit. Instead of using yet another classroom to teach

children about animals and conservation, Nicolette argues that there is nothing better than

using the animals and the zoo themselves to illustrate your point.

By forcing the children to don raincoats and wellies or sunhats (if we’re lucky) and get

outside, we can fill them with awe and excitement for animals and plants. With Ofsted

encouraging learning outside the classroom, zoos can offer a unique opportunity to

effectively bring the National Curriculum to life



Chair – Dave Naish

Questions and discussions

Authentic learning environments: Sarah Thomas, Head of Discovery and Learning

ZSL.

Sarah graduated in Zoology from the University of Glasgow in 2000. She started

her career in zoos at Blackpool Zoo where she progressed to Education,

Conservation and Research Manager. Having completed her PGCE in post

compulsory education, Sarah specialised in teaching practical programmes with a

focus on “social and emotional aspects of learning”. Sarah joined the Zoological

Society of London in May 2011 and her current role is the Head of Discovery and

Learning. Sarah leads a team that covers both ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade

Zoo and manages programmes in formal and informal learning, practical

programmes, inclusion, arts and culture, evaluation, social research, visitor studies

and social dimensions of conservation. Sarah chaired the BIAZA Education and

Training Committee between 2007-2013, and is a member of the BIAZA Research

Committee. In 2012, she became the Chair of the EAZA Education Committee and is

a member of the EAZA Conservation Committee. Sarah is currently in her final year

of a part time PhD at Lancaster University focusing on the social dimensions of

conservation programmes.

Zoos as authentic learning environments?

This presentation describes a model of authentic learning, based on nine key factors

that can be used to design authentic learning environments. It will draw on findings

from the previous talks in this session and reflect to what extent BIAZA zoos and

aquariums are meeting these key aspects. Results from a research study conducted

with 11 BIAZA zoos and aquariums around authenticity will also be presented and

discussed.


Day 2 – Thursday 20th November

Chair: Sarah Thomas

Back to basics- working together with BIAZA

Panel: Questions to and discussion about BIAZA: Kirsten Pullen, CEO, BIAZA; Zara

Gaspa, Communications Manager, BIAZA; Dave Naish, Sarah Thomas, Chairs of

Education and Training Committee.

Back to basics – Working together within collections.

Coral Jonas, Dartmoor Zoo

Coral is Head of Education at Dartmoor Zoo, managing the formal and informal education

output at the Zoo. She has been working in zoo education for the past two years and

previously worked as a Science Biology teacher in secondary schools. She works closely with

the Operations Manager to raise the profile of education at DZP and has significantly

increased student visitors to the Zoo. Coral is currently studying for her MSc in Conservation

Biology

BIAZA Education and Training Committee – working for you

Dave Naish, Bristol Zoo

Dave joined Bristol Zoo’s education department in 2001 and now leads the formal

education programme as Education Manager. The education team now delivers sessions

and lectures to over 40,000 students including conservation foundation degree students.

In January this year, he took over from Sarah Thomas as Chair of BIAZA’s Education

Committee. He has also been an assessor for the DMZAA for 10 years.

BIAZA Education and Training Committee – working for you

BIAZA is the professional body representing zoos and aquariums in the UK and Ireland

and is a conservation, education and scientific charity. Its education policy promotes best

practice in education and learning in its member collections and its Education and

Training Committee (ETC) provides a vital link with and between members. This talk will

explain how the ETC works, how members can use it effectively and what the benefits of

getting involved are.

Case study: Education working with marketing department: Nicola Murray,

Discovery and Learning Manager, Plymouth Aquarium.

Nicola Murray is the Discovery and Learning Manager at the National Marine Aquarium,

Plymouth. With more than 10 years’ experience in the field of conservation biology and

environmental education, Nicola is passionate about the Aquarium’s mission to drive marine

conservation through engagement. Using innovate and ground breaking techniques she is

responsible for developing, driving and evaluating the National Marine Aquarium’s schools

learning and public engagement programmes.

Case study: Cross departmental cooperation - Project ‘Delaquarium’The Discovery and

Learning Team at the National Marine Aquarium worked with children from Delaware

Primary School on their self-titled project ‘Project Delaquarium’. The children were set the

task of designing website pages for the Aquarium, this involved working with the Marketing

Manager and Interpretation Planner. They also worked with the Aquarium’s Head Chef to

design healthy and appealing children’s meals for the Aquarium café. Our learning

outcomes for this project were to raise the children’s awareness of the work of the

Aquarium towards marine conservation. The teacher used the project to track academic

levels and average point score progress, plus as a way to monitor engagement and learning

in their gifted and talented children. It also was a good way for the school to allocate some

of their pupil premium funding towards the project to show that they offer additional

opportunities for children in the group who receive those funds.

Case study: Education working with conservation department, Charlotte Coales,

Education Officer, ZSL. Charlotte is a Discovery and Learning Officer at ZSL London

Zoo. With ten years’ experience in museums and zoos, she has an MSc in Science

Communication and previously worked on the Nature Live team at the Natural

History Museum. Charlotte spends a large part of her day working with the many

primary and secondary school students who visit the Zoo, but she is also working

towards finding new ways of supporting ZSL scientific staff to engage directly with

school and public audiences.

Case study: Cross departmental cooperation -Pop-up conservation – facilitated

events with scientists, in a shop! In summer 2014, the Zoological Society of London

(ZSL) launched their first ever pop –up shop on Carnaby Street, London. Shop sales

raised funds for ZSL’s Lions400 campaign, an ambitious public fundraising project

designed to raise £5.7m for the endangered Asian lion. Visitors to the shop were

also given the opportunity to attend free, weekly Pop-Up Conservation talks. These

facilitated talks involved ZSL researchers and conservationists, bringing them into

direct contact with the public and revealing personal stories of life in the field and

ZSL’s active role in wildlife conservation and research. Continued on next page

Charlotte led the development and delivery of these events and collaborated with

retail staff, the development department and ZSL scientific staff to shape and

produce the programme

Discussion groups/ feedback: Maximising the benefits of working together.

The psychology of working together effectively as a team, Canice Kennedy, Sports

psychologist.

Canice Kennedy is a Sport Psychologist based in Cork and has worked with players, athletes & teams from a wide range of sports. Canice holds a Masters Degree in Sport Psychology and lectures in Sport Psychology at UCC.

In addition to the mental preparation for sport, Canice is interested in work / life balance and team building. Canice has a business background in both private & public sectors and holds the Graduateship of the Marketing Institute of Ireland.

The Psychology of Working Together Effectively as a Team

A team is a small group of people with complementary skills, who work actively together to achieve a common purpose for which they hold themselves collectively accountable. The challenge is in developing the team – communicating the overall vision and training the members to develop a culture that encourages the members to perform in their roles and perform for the team. High quality performance depends on individual members performing to the best of their ability but accepting that the greater good is more important. Team members must accept that there will be conflict between members but they must recognise the contribution of others. Being a member of a team brings responsibility and the members must have a team mindset. Members must buy in to having a role as a team member and behave like a team member. Ultimately when the team is successful, everybody wins

Tea Break



Chair: Rachael Taylor

Back to basics – working together with external partners

Education working with corporates, Lynda McSweeney, Head of Education, Fota

Wildlife Park

Lynda has an Honours degree in Zoology from University College Cork and additional

qualifications in business management. Throughout her undergraduate / post-graduate

programmes, she spent a significant period of time studying animal behaviour in Fota

Wildlife Park. This led Lynda to being accepted on a graduate internship in Fota in 1995

whereby she was officially made Head of Education in 1997. In 2010, Lynda was awarded an

Honorary MSc by University College Cork in recognition of her contribution to conservation

education on a national scale. Lynda is responsible for overseeing both formal and informal

education in Fota Wildlife Park. Furthermore, she has been a member of the BT Young

Scientist Judging panel since 1999. Under Lynda’s guidance, Fota’s education department

has been awarded the Sandford Award as a centre of excellence for natural heritage

education in both Ireland and the UK since 2008. In 2012, Lynda established Fota’s Going

Green / Staying Green Campaign which led to it receiving Green Flag Status as a centre of

environmental excellence for waste, water and energy management in its day to day

operations.

Corporate teambuilding – Testing the Biophilia Hypothesis!

In 2014, Fota’s education team established a team building module for corporate groups.

The aim of which was to combine a fun, yet educational day out for professionals seeking an

opportunity to connect with nature! This presentation explores the needs and expectations

of corporates and the educational outcomes from a zoo’s perspective. Does Biophilia really

exist or is it an excuse for avoiding the stresses of corporate life? All will be revealed!!

Cooperative working in action – practical outdoor activity

Lunch



Chair: Dan Cragg

Education working with higher education providers/ academics: Courtney Collins,

University College Cork

Courtney Collins is a PhD student at University College Cork. Her current research

involves an investigation into the relationship between zoo visitors, captive animals,

education and enrichment at Fota Wildlife Park and Dingle Aquarium. Courtney has

over five years professional experience developing curriculum and teaching children

in different areas of environmental and science education. She earned a BA from

UNC – Chapel Hill and an MSc from Trinity College Dublin. Courtney’s interests

include science education, informal education, animal behaviour, visitor effects,

environmental enrichment and marine ecology.

Fota Wildlife Park and University College Cork have a longstanding and successful association, which has benefitted both institutions and resulted in academic achievements as well as practical advances for Fota. My research contributes to that association by introducing a novel research area to both Fota and UCC - zoological education. While Fota Wildlife Park already has a committed and professional education department, there has never been a PhD research project carried out on zoological education at Fota. In conjunction with the education department at Fota Wildlife Park, I have developed an educational intervention that is based on children making environmental enrichment devices for zoo animals. Here, I will discuss the potential for this to advance children’s learning in the zoo while simultaneously benefitting captive animals. This research will produce several academic publications and will also offer practical benefits to Fota.

Case study: Mutually beneficial student research in Paignton Zoo, Catherine

Addison, Paignton Zoo Catherine is currently an Education Officer at Paignton Zoo, jointly

responsible for the zoo’s formal education provision from early years to post 16. She has

more than 20 years experience in education and has taught in environmental education

settings as well as schools both in the UK and overseas. She is the education lead at the zoo

on the Selamatkan Yaki project in Sulawesi and has recently been writing a new curriculum

for our education project in Nigeria.

Catherine is also responsible for the botanical garden education and Paignton has recently

hosted the 2014 BGEN conference.

Making Higher Education Connections work for you.

Catherine’s short talk will detail how Paignton Zoo works with a variety of University

partners through our Field Conservation and Research and Education Departments to

stimulate research projects that provide tangible results that we can use in the zoo.

Back to basics- recognising the scope for learning in animal collections and

ensuring effective assessment

Formal education- showing teachers that learning in animal collections is second

nature, Dr Ruth Richards, Inspector for Science for Department of Education,

Ireland. Formal Education – showing teachers that learning from animal collections

is second nature

Dr Ruth Richards is currently a member of the Irish Department of Education and Skills

Inspectorate. Two main roles of the Inspectorate are to evaluate the Irish education

system and in the provision of an advisory role to aid improvement. Dr Richards works as a

post-primary inspector, and has done so since 2000, which is over 14 years. Her main

subject areas of expertise are Science, Biology and Agricultural Science, as well as the

implementation of the many and varied models of inspection currently devised by the

inspectorate. Prior to joining the inspectorate Dr Richards trained as a teacher of General

and Rural science (BSc.ED) in Thomond College of Education in Limerick and graduated in

1990. In the ten years between graduating and joining the inspectorate she carried out

studies for a PhD in the area of Zoology, which was completed in 1995 and taught in a

number of post-primary schools. Some post-doctoral studies were also completed before

taking up a permanent teaching position in a post-primary school in Cork city, prior to

joining the inspectorate

Zoo keepers or educators or both? The presentation will briefly explore why animal

collections have the potential to provide many valuable learning opportunities. The

quality of the learning is very much influenced by the quality of the teaching. As a

teacher and educator, I will be looking at and providing some pointers in the area of

effective teaching and learning and how it can be measured and assessed for the

many audiences a zoo caters for. It will be important to also consider, the rational

used for why a zoo should get involved in any formal education. Once involved ideas

on how to manage the education programme effectively will be developed, in the

context of what might be current practice and what could potentially be achieved in

the future

Informal education – creating an environment for effective learning. Fiona

Kearney, University College Cork

Fiona Kearney is the founding Director of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, a purpose-built museum, and a cultural and educational institution at University College Cork that promotes the research, creation and exploration of the visual arts. In this position she has curated Folly: Art after Architecture, The Artist’s Eye: Photographic Portraits of Artists, Living/Loss: The Experience of Illness in Art and the award-winning Through the Looking Glass: Childhood in Contemporary Photography. Throughout her academic and professional career, Fiona has received several distinguished awards including the designation of college scholar by UCC, the NUI Prix d'Honneur from the French Government, a UCC President’s Award for Research on Innovative Forms of Teaching, a Fulbright scholarship and the Arts Council funded Jerome Hynes Fellowship on the Clore Leadership Programme. She was appointed to serve as a member of the Arts Council of Ireland for a five- year term where she was chairperson of the Policy and Strategy Committee. She is a member of the Irish Museums Association, ICOM, IKT and AICA. Informal education – creating an environment for effective learning. This talk will discuss how museum staff approached the mediation of two Zoological themed exhibits at the Lewis Glucksman Gallery; The Learning Zoo: Artefacts from UCC's Zoology Museum and Fieldworks: Animal Habitats in Contemporary Art. The Learning Zoo presented specimens from the University's Zoology museum, while Fieldworks featured works by Irish and international artists to reveal how animals forage, nest and play within a variety of locations. Both displays provided unique perspectives on the animal kingdom, and a dedicated area of creative participation was established within the museum that invited audiences to actively contribute to the exhibition theme.

Questions

Workshops: Novel learning outcomes – providing learning

opportunities for all.

Tea Break



Chair: Dave Naish

Back to basics – Effective marketing of education programmes.

Current strategies for marketing education programmes in BIAZA collections: Sarah

Thomas, Zoological Society of London

Sarah graduated in Zoology from the University of Glasgow in 2000. She started

her career in zoos at Blackpool Zoo where she progressed to Education,

Conservation and Research Manager. Having completed her PGCE in post

compulsory education, Sarah specialised in teaching practical programmes with a

focus on “social and emotional aspects of learning”. Sarah joined the Zoological

Society of London in May 2011 and her current role is the Head of Discovery and

Learning. Sarah leads a team that covers both ZSL London Zoo and ZSL Whipsnade

Zoo and manages programmes in formal and informal learning, practical

programmes, inclusion, arts and culture, evaluation, social research, visitor studies

and social dimensions of conservation. Sarah chaired the BIAZA Education and

Training Committee between 2007-2013, and is a member of the BIAZA Research

Committee. In 2012, she became the Chair of the EAZA Education Committee and is

a member of the EAZA Conservation Committee. Sarah is currently in her final year

of a part time PhD at Lancaster University focusing on the social dimensions of

conservation programmes.

Marketing educational programmes in BIAZA zoos and aquariums

This talk will present the results of a small scale evaluation of how BIAZA zoos and

aquariums market their education programmes. Education staff from each collection

attending this conference were asked to complete a questionnaire regarding the

approaches and tools used by their zoo or aquarium to market to schools and other

educational institutions. The questionnaire also asked for their opinions on what

works best and what were the biggest challenges. It is hoped that this presentation

will show commonalities and trends, as well as highlight areas that require further

attention.

Darkpost- a new way to market your education programme. Alex Smale, Managing

Director, Tribemix ltd

Alex has been a social media marketer since 2007 when he built his first business

using only content marketing. He is now ranked in the top 10 social media experts

in the country on the SMAUK500 chart. Having previously worked in the zoo

community for several years, he has a good understanding of how social media can

help zoos to market themselves effectively. He now runs his own social media

agency, Tribemix, working predominantly in the leisure industry with a select

group of clients.

Facebook Dark Posts: This brand new advertising platform from Facebook is a

revolution in the marketing world. In this talk, Alex will explain, step by step, how

you can target key education decision makers with very little budget to make them

aware of your education programmes

Joint last session

Closing remarks: Kirsten Pullen, CEO, BIAZA

joint first session chair - fota wildlife parkteaching staff. amy teaches on the fdsc in integrated...

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