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The UK National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth has the usual large display tanks of animals but also has an education programme that explores the local and tropical marine environment and conservation issues through creative art and drawing. The National Marine Aquarium also offers a Conservation through Tourism Award. Assessing the learning that has occurred in an informal science environment, such as an aquarium or a hotel, can be difficult without resorting to complex and intrusive questioning.

This article discusses learning that occurred during primary school visits to the UK National Marine Aquarium (Aquarium). Before visiting, children were asked to independently create a drawing of marine life off the Devon coast and a drawing of tropical reef marine life, allowing an assessment of prior knowledge. Post-visit, children created another drawing, with changes between the drawings indicating the degree of learning. Visiting children participated in the Aquarium's guided learning programmes, and children were observed to assess engagement and the contribution of provided information to post-visit drawings. Pre-visit drawings showed limited knowledge of local underwater habitats and less knowledge of tropical reef habitats. However, the comparison of post-visit drawings to pre-visit drawings showed that significant informal learning had occurred as a result of participating in a guided visit, demonstrating that the informal science programme at the Aquarium achieves the goal of enhancing knowledg...

In 1989, the progressive introduction of a National Curriculum of subjects to all maintained schools in England and Wales brought compulsory science education into the primary sectors of these two countries for the first time. Such was its considered importance, science was placed alongside English and mathematics in what became known simply as ‘the core’. As a result of its elevated profile and an immense amount of hard work and effort by teachers and other professionals responding to requirements, science education provision appeared to benefit enormously. Successive revisions of the national primary science curriculum have brought about many changes, however, each impacting on the primary profession individually in different ways and as a whole. Findings from a recently completed ‘preparation to teach’ survey across several geographically distinct regions of England are presented here which contribute to our ongoing understanding of the overall status of science teaching within primary schools. Twenty ...

Developments within education, psychology and the neurosciences have shed a great deal of light on how we learn while, at the same time, confirming for us all that learning is a profoundly complex process and far from understood. Against this background, and in this position article, we consider the recent rise in interest in the concept of learning styles as VAK (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic) in primary schools in England and Wales and begin to identify and interrogate some of the more unorthodox claims frequently used to legitimise and lend support to its validity. Through the casual acceptance and promotion of VAK, and its often wider association with the notions of accelerated and brain-based learning, it is our assertion that the complexity of learning is becoming increasingly trivialised and scholarship at all levels within certain sectors of the education community compromised.

This article considers the impact of the early stages of an international project, Gardens for Life (GfL), on children’s perceptions of school gardening and on their learning. The project involved 67 schools in England, Kenya and India and focused on the growing of crops, recognising the importance of both the process and product of this activity in the different countries. The theoretical framework was derived from consideration of informal learning, and more specifically experiential learning, drawing on prior research undertaken in the context of school gardening. The research approach is characterised by the use of concept maps to uncover the characteristically different ways in which children discerned school gardening and to help to provide insight into their understanding of this activity. It was supported by contextual observation, interviews and children’s drawings to aid the interpretation and understanding. The study showed a positive impact on learning and on the perceptions of children towards school gardening in all three countries. It also highlighted the different perceptions, interpretations and understanding of school gardening in the different cultures and environments, as well as the various aspects of it which the children themselves highlighted.

This study analysed 9 to 11 year old children’s drawings of tropical rainforests immediately before and after a visit to the Humid Tropics Biome at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK. A theoretical framework derived from considerations of informal learning and constructivism was used as a basis to develop a methodology to interpret the children’s drawings and to measure the change in children’s perceptions and learning after their visit. The children’s pre‐visit drawings mainly showed tree and plant outlines familiar to an English countryside. Rainforest animals were to the fore in the pictures and there was a general lack of scale, depth and perspective in the drawings. In the post‐visit drawings, the animals had mainly disappeared. There was often remarkable accuracy in the shape and detail of the tropical rainforest trees and plants now drawn. The post‐visit drawings also demonstrated far greater depth, scale and perspective than the pre‐visit drawings. The interpretation and analysis of the drawings gave ...

This study looked at 30 primary aged children between 10 and 11 years old who were visiting the Eden Project, Cornwall and participating in workshops led and designed by the Eden Education Officers. The study attempted to directly test the effects of the Education Officers' workshops on children's learning. Personal meaning mapping, a constructivist approach was used to measure change in the children's understanding along four semi‐independent dimensions: extent, breadth, depth and mastery. The children's mastery of the subject regardless of ability was improved. Most of the workshop aims, such as ‘to recognise some plant adaptations in the humid tropics climate’ were shown to have been met. The research also highlighted areas to be reviewed, such as educating children about the way indigenous people use plants for their survival and also how children can transfer knowledge, so that they can understand the significance of plants in their own daily lives.

The study described is part of a larger research programme designed to investigate primary aged children's learning during a visit to the Eden Project. Children from eight primary schools were interviewed approximately four weeks after a one‐day, teacher‐led visit to the Eden Project (EP) in Cornwall. Their responses revealed that the children enjoyed their visit to the EP and were affected by the sensory experience of being immersed in such a profusion of plants from around the world. The children showed interest in the plants that were relevant to their lives but were often unsure of the relationship between plants, people and resources. The analysis highlights the need for teachers to integrate a visit to the EP within their school's curriculum, particularly in respect of prior preparation and mediation, in order to capitalize effectively on the children's experiences during their visit to the Eden Project.

This research paper focuses on 'teacher-led' primary school visits to the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. It considers the objectives of school visits and the aims of the Eden Project. The strategies used by the Eden Project to convey their messages are investigated and effective strategies for learning are evaluated, based on observations and interviews with children. Whilst the Eden Project is the most spectacular resource to teach children about plants and our relationship with them, the research highlights that teachers need to carefully consider the strategies they use to realise the full potential from their visit. The research indicates that teachers might use and develop effective strategies which include good preparation, high adult to pupil ratio, informed mediation, learner-orientated rather than task-orientated learning and an understanding of interactive learning.