Category Archives: StNinians

Panda travels!

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science centre koreaPatrick the Panda had a great time today at Seoul’s massive science centre. He learned lots about how science had helped people all over the world and how it could help solve problems.

He learned about wind power and how it can be used to make renewable energy. He also met the inventor of an electric kit car. Electric cars can be powered by renewable energy and can help tackle climate change. This is because they don’t produce ‎as many greenhouse gases as cars that are powered by fossil fuels. The inventor hopes his electric kit car will become popular in Korea. He made it himself in the science centre’s make lab.electric car

Patrick went all panda-eyed when he saw this man zipping about in Seoul. H‎e thinks was an in line skate. He’d never seen it before but if people left their cars behind and used this to travel short distances then it could also reduce emissions. Walking would be even better but Patrick is a bit of lazy Panda at times!

Panda Reporter visits Korean schools

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uniformPatrick the Panda visited a middle school in Korea today. In Korea children go to middle school from ages 13 to 15. There are also elementary schools for younger children and high schools.

Patrick was delighted to see that many of the posters ‎around the school were all about climate change. The posters were really colourful and were written in English too. climate poster 2 climate poster 3 climate poster

The school were working hard to reduce the energy they were using too. It was another cold day in Seoul but the heating in the school was limited to just 18 degrees Celsius. This is national policy for all schools and government buildings to help tackle climate change.

Patrick also spotted that the school uniforms included a nice tartan design. Tartan seems to be quite popular in Korea – some of the teachers also had tartan ties.

Patrick is also amazed that there are not more traffic jams in Seoul. You would hardly think that 25 million people in the city. Most use the excellent metro system and buses to get around. This is just one of the other ways Korean’s are trying to protect the environment.

Patrick the Panda Reporter learns about the history of Korea

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Here are some pictures Patrick the Panda Reporter took today…

These pictures show some of the statues outside the war memorial.war memorial

The statue of the brothers depicts a South Korean soldier meeting his brother from North Korea on the battlefield. It represents love, reconciliation and forgiveness. The big crack in the statue reminds people of how the two nations are still separated. war memorial 2

Panda Reporter finds out about Korean vulnerable species

Borestone, Doune, MiddletonPark, PatrickPanda, StNinians, Teachers

seoul templeToday Patrick the Panda Reporter learned about some of the vulnerable and protected species in Korea. There are around 100,000 species in Korea but only 30,000 of the‎m are recorded.

Within the national parks there are 15,000 species including 133 out of the 221 species that are considered endangered in Korea. There include birds, plants, reptiles, mammals and fish.

Panda reporter was sad to hear that the Asiatic Black Bear was one of those listed as being vulnerable. It is sometimes known as moon bear or white-chested bear. It is found in the Him alabaster, Russia, Indian sub-continent, Japan, Taiwan and also Korea.black bear

The map shows where they can be found and the areas where they are becoming vulnerable or extinct. Their numbers are reducing because they are being hunted for body parts. Quite often their body parts are used in traditional medicine. They are also being out at risk because their forests are being cut down.440px-Asian_Black_Bear_area

Black bears are good at climbing and walking on its rear legs. One was spotted walking for over a quarter of a mile!

Panda Reporter also had a chance to visit the National War Memorial in Seoul today. He was sad to hear that 1.5 million Koreans died in this conflict in 1950 – 1953. It is incredible to believe that it was only 60 years ago. The City of Seoul was destroyed in the war but is now very highly developed. The South  Koreans have worked extremely hard to rebuild their capital city.

440px-12-cub_on_tree

Mini pandas meet the giant pandas!

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What a busy Friday I had! My fellow panda friends from
Borestone, Middleton Park and St. Ninian’s and some pupils visited Edinburgh Zoo to learn about the giant pandas and find out about the work being done by the staff at the zoo to protect and research about them. They were lucky enough to see both Yang Guang and Tian Tian. They learned that us Pandas can eat 40kg of bamboo a day and that there are two separate enclosures as they might not get along if they we’re put in together!
We hope the pupils have been inspired by their visit to go back to their schools and find out more about conservation issues in their local environments. I’m looking forward to seeing citizen science activities they’re taking part in; collecting data and using that data and passing it on to scientists. Some schools will be using the OPAL surveys to learn about air, soil and water quality in their school grounds and others will be using the BRISC surveys to investigate biodiversity.
Get blogging so I can read all about it!
Patrick the Panda

St Ninian’s visit Edinburgh Zoo

StNinians

Pupils from St Ninian’s visited the panda enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo today. We we’re so lucky to see both pandas moving about. We saw Tian Tian in her enclosure which is quite rare.
Some of the zookeepers told us about the science behind their breeding programme. They monitor Tian Tian’s hormone levels through urine samples during the breeding season.
Ross was photographed by the press and might make it into the Evening News!

The Panda Reporters are on the move!

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Strange sightings were reported at Glasgow Airport this morning… 5 shadowy figures, each carrying a stick of bamboo were spotted at the arrivals gate in the early hours of the morning!

Have you seen them?

Where are they going?

They were carrying magnifying glasses, notebooks and pencils – looks like they’ve come here to find out what young people in Scotland are learning about our environment!