I've spent the last two days teaching An Introduction to the Water of Leith for the University of Edinburgh Office of Lifelong Learning and based at the Water of Leith Visitor Centre (hence the lack of blog posts over the last couple of days!). The course was fully booked and all the students were very motivated and enthusiastic, several now want to take up voluntary conservation work or find out more about wildlife. The course covered the prehistory and history of the river, wildlife and environmental issues. The discussions were excellent! We spent an hour outside thinking about how best to observe nature - keeping our eyes and ears open and looking out for signs of animals (droppings, nibbled cones etc) which might indicate where animals had been even though we didn't see the animals themselves. We also had a two hour guided walk round the Colinton and Criaglockart Dells, looking at the wildlife and historical features. I hope to be able to do this course again in the future, possibly in spring when there would be more birds about!
I'm running a series of guided walks along the Water of Leith (for Edinburgh City Council) in the autumn, you can find out more here.
I'm also running a course on creative writing for the environment for the University of Edinburgh Office of Lifelong Learning, you can find out more here.
9 comments:
What a buzz! Wish I was nearer to enrol on your course...
What good news! i'm checking out your course right now.
Those classes look very interesting but I too live a little far to commute. Very interesting topics.
Whenever I read of your doings up there Juliet, I wish I lived in Edinburgh.
That sounds like a really neat course. I wish I could arrange to just jet over and take it.
We truly need more of this type of public education, both at the continuing education level and at primary and secondary levels. My son took environmental education as an elective in high school his third year. He and I both enjoyed and benefited from the class.
Yes - Edinburgh seems like a great place to be - wish I could take the writing course - might even be able to do a haiku!
We have several series of environmental classes (Master Gardner, Master Composter, Watershed Master, BeachWatcher) where participants are expected, upon completion, to provide 40 - 80 hours of related volunteer effort during the next one or two years. We get many devoted and inspiring volunteers this way - well prepared too!
wow, congrats on everything you're doing - sounds great :)
Glad it went well for you - I'm sure its a nice change to be walking along the Leith rather than being amonst the hustle and bustle of the festival goers up in the old city.
What a wonderful thing to be doing!
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