Developed over the past 18 months, on 3 March 2015 the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) unveiled their completed ‘Beyond the Panda’ innovative teaching and learning programme. Developed in conjunction with the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools and supported by the Scotland China Education Network (SCEN), it was created with generous funding from Jaguar Land Rover (China).
The conference was attended by Consul General Pan Xinchun, who gave a special welcome, and Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages. Representing the culmination of this sponsored programme that showcases RZSS’ education work with giant pandas, also in attendance were key figures from the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools, the Scottish Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society and the Languages Team Curriculum Unit for Learning Directorate and Natasha Black, Curriculum Unit Administrator.
The programme includes outreach workshops, an online learning resource and a free education pack being sent to all primary and secondary schools in Scotland.
Eight schools from across Scotland also visited Edinburgh Zoo and giant pandas Tian Tian and Yang Guang to mark the occasion.
The Beyond the Panda education packs are an introduction to RZSS’ brand new, curriculum linked on-line learning resource that is designed to help schools and their pupils investigate, study and explore global citizenship, sustainability, biodiversity and conservation within the overall context of giant pandas and China. The packs should be used in conjunction with RZSS’ online resource www.beyondthepanda.org.uk, which the conservation charity will continue to add to and develop.
The outreach lessons utilise a variety of panda-related games and Chinese maps to teach more about China and giant panda biology. The complete programme has clear curriculum links, learning aims and intentions, background notes for teachers and a list of additional resources that includes books, websites, sound clips and exclusive images and video links. The online learning resource and education pack are designed to enable teachers to deliver relevant, challenging and enjoyable learning experiences, within the overall context of giant pandas and China, from Early Years onwards in their own classrooms.
These brand new learning resource packs and the accompanying online tool adds to RZSS’ Beyond the Panda work that has been taking place over the last 18 months. To date 64 Beyond the Panda outreach lessons have been delivered in schools across Scotland, with another 51 associated follow-up outreaches, and in October 2014 Lasswade High, due to the generosity of Jaguar Land Rover (China) were able to visit and make lasting links with students from the Xinching Middle School in Ya’an, Sichuan.
The day also saw presentations from three winning schools of a Beyond the Panda ‘Take Action Challenge’, where many schools across Scotland were challenged to come up with an idea to help with giant panda conservation. Glashieburn Primary, Aberdeen, created a Beyond the Panda leaflet. The children created text and drawings and distributed their leaflet to their friends, family and their community in order to spread the education of China and the giant pandas. Thornton Primary in Fife designed a fun Scotland/China board game with flashing lights and easy, medium and difficult questions about Chinese animals, Scottish animals, China culture and language and Scottish culture and language. Danestone Primary in Aberdeen developed a Giant Panda App. The children created various stories about the giant panda wandering through different habitats of China, meeting some animals along the way and eventually ending up in the bamboo forests. The creation of the app was possible due to funding from AVC Media.
Chris West CEO of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, said:
“Our charity is deeply passionate about teaching Scottish children about conservation and other related issues, and as Edinburgh Zoo is the custodian of two giant pandas, we are in a unique position to work with other like-minded bodies to deliver this. RZSS is part of the Scotland China Education Network (SCEN) whom it works closely with to promote Chinese language, culture and geography through the medium of giant pandas. We are extremely grateful that Jaguar Land Rover China has kindly provided the funds that have enabled us to make the complete Beyond the Panda programme happen.”
Bob Grace, Regional President of Jaguar Land Rover Greater China, said:
“Giant pandas are a great ambassador of cultural exchange between China and the rest of the world, and we see our support of the RZSS giant panda education programme as a fantastic means of linking our two countries. We hope that teachers in Scotland utilise this resource to learn more about the unique nature of giant pandas, the history of the programme at Edinburgh Zoo and more about China’s unique wildlife and geography.”
