PuffinCam is back!

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Puffin at Burhou. Photo by Paul MarshallFrom Alderney Wildlife Trust 

AWT logoAfter a succession of bad news stories for Channel Islands wildlife, the Alderney Wildlife Trust is delighted to be able to announce that the LIVE – PuffinCams are now back up and running from the Island of Burhou. These two cameras are the centre piece to the ‘LIVE – teaching through nature’ and have been brought back into action in readiness for the return of the Channel Islands’ largest puffin colony after the winter storms and wrecks.

LIVE is linking over 60+ schools across the UK and Channel Islands in 2014 and its creators at the Alderney Wildlife Trust are hoping to interest more Channel Island schools to take part thanks to the support of Guernsey Education Department and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (one of the project’s Jersey partners).

LIVE utilises over 300 teaching and learning resources and live camera feeds from the seabird colonies and other wildlife sites, including Birds On The Edge. LIVE provides a core 12 week cross-curricular project – using nature to help engage and teach children in Key Stage 1 & 2. LIVE provides resources for literacy, numeracy, ICT, science and art. It covers topics within the school’s curriculum including: life cycles, food chains, habitats, adaptation and more. Further details can be found here.

Burhou aerial. Alderney Wildlife TrustActivities over those weeks include:

  • Daily blogs by the Wildlife Trust and Durrell ecologists about Channel Island Wildlife.
  • Weekly videoconferences in which pupils could ask questions directly to the LIVE education team about what they were seeing in the puffin and other wildlife behaviour.
  • Access to a secure school area of the website which provided resources aimed at providing a new angle on teaching literacy, numeracy, science, IT, geography and art; whilst also covering curriculum topics such as habitats, life cycles and island living.
  • Activity Days where participating schools could take part in activity sessions with support from Wildlife Trust and Durrell staff and teachers
  • ‘The Travelling Puffin’, where an Alderney (cuddly) Puffin took a trip around participating schools so students could meet first hand a life size Puffin. Schools then put up a blog and pictures about their visitor, for other schools to see and discuss.
  • Activity Boxes, these interactive aid boxes will be available for schools to access on a loan basis and will contain materials which support the programme and come directly from the Alderney and he Island of Burhou.

RSPB President and BBC OneShow presenter Miranda Krestovnikoff said of the project – ‘LIVE is a truly remarkable way to inspire and connect children to nature…’

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