Category Archives: Uncategorized

What’s the story in… Tobermory!

Bunessan, Iona, Lochdonhead, Tobermory, Ulva, Uncategorized

Panda reporter hopped on a ferry to the beautiful Isle of Mull on Friday to visit boys and girls in the primary schools there and find out about the environment on Mull.

“What a great journey onthe ferry – I was watching out for dolphins or whales but I only saw a few gannets!

The nearest primary school to the Craignure ferry port is Lochdonhead Primary School. There I met the boys and girls of Lochdonhead and Ulva. I told them all about the giant pandas in Edinburgh and asked them to teach me about some of the bugs and animals that live on Mull. after spending the morning there I caught the bus to the biggest village on the island, Tobermory. The bus took a long time – I hadn’t realised how big Mull was!”

 

Panda Reporter travels Scotland!

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Hi everyone! I’ve just arrived at Queen Street in station. It’s very early and there weren’t many people around… but I did see a fox running across George Square. He didn’t want to chat and seemed in a hurry though!

The first train goes to a place called Oban so I think I’ll head there and find out about the environment and conservation up there.

– Panda Reporter
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A Safe View of the Eclipse

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The pupils from Borestone know that it is dangerous to look at the sun directly so they got creative! They kept their eyesight safe during the Solar Eclipse by making and using pinhole viewers. The children were excited to see this natural rare phenomenon. David from P4/5 exclaimed “I was happy to see my first solar eclipse.”

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Patrick the Panda arrives in Seoul

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seoul 1Panda couldn’t believe the journey from the airport this morning. Seoul is enormous and the roads and buildings seemed to go on for miles. There were hundreds of apartment blocks. About 25 million people live in the wider Seoul area.eco home seoul

Panda didn’t expect to see anything about the environment today. However, right in the city ‎centre there was a purpose built eco-home to help Koreans learn about reducing energy in their homes. Panda bumped into some old friends – the polar bears . They were helping to raise awareness‎ about climate change.

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After this Panda enjoyed visiting the parks and palaces in the heart of the city. She even saw the changing of the royal guard. Th‎e costumes were amazing.

Panda is hoping to learn more about‎ endangered species tomorrow.

Panda makes a good Korea move!

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looking at planePatrick the Panda has decided to leave the Education Scotland offices on a fact finding mission and take himself off on an adventure.

He spent all weekend doing some research online and has decided to visit Korea. He has found out that they have a rich and varied culture and lots of interesting plants and animals.

Patrick the panda is very excited about his trip to Asia. He’s never been to Korea before but is looking forward to learning more about the environment and meeting new friends. He hopes to report back regularly about the things he finds.

Luckily giant pandas are really not that big – otherwise he may not have squeezed into the hand luggage!

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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

Patrick the Panda investigates ponds in Glasgow!

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Patrick the panda is getting ready to go exploring the pond at Queens Park in Glasgow. He’ll be using the OPAL water survey to find out about the quality of the water there. Are there lots of invertebrates there or is the cold weather keeping them away?
Matt, the OPAL scientist, has provided Patrick the panda with a water survey pack – it has a guide to identifying different species. Patrick also used the guide to find out that if the water is healthy then there may be species such as dragonfly larvae, but if the water is not very good quality then he might only find species such as pond skaters and water shrimps.

After he’s surveyed the pond he’ll need to remember to submit his information to the OPAL website so that scientists can use it to better understand the health of Scotland’s ponds.
Why don’t you have a look at the OPAL website and see if there are surveys you could carry out in your school grounds.
Remember- Patrick will go with a sensible grown-up to look at the pond- make sure you do too!