Author: Sandie Robb, The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland
“There have been some great developments within our ‘Science in the language class’ series. We have language packs in Spanish, French, Japanese and now Gaelic. For Mandarin, the ‘Beyond the Panda’ programme keeps going from strength to strength and evolves each year. Another change is that my role is now Language Project Coordinator for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS). This is a new position in the Society to manage the overall language programme.” (Sandie Robb, RZSS)
The language packs have fun educational games based on RZSS conservation projects across the world and help to revise topics such as numbers, colours, parts of the body, weather etc along with an introduction to animal names and threats. The packs are sold, not for profit, at £50+VAT and £6 postage. For Spanish and French, sessions are also available at RZSS Edinburgh Zoo at the standard education rates. On 17 September 2019, we have another Spanish Day for P5-P7 and each school with a confirmed booking will receive a free Spanish pack!
The ‘Science in the language class’ website has some free fact files and worksheets for each language. A new section for ‘other languages’ is available with free templates to download. This includes blank maps for both parks along with some animal picture cards so that you can create your own maps and animal flashcards in any language.
The new Gaelic pack, supported by the Scottish Government, has games based on RZSS native species projects – Scottish wildcat action; reintroduction of the beavers; water vole and red squirrel conservation. Stòrlann have kindly provided sound files of all the words, phrases and sentences used.
‘Beyond the Panda’ continues with its China mobile library, Chinese outreach and the science specialist Confucius Classroom. The mobile library and outreach travels across Scotland, including the islands, are free of charge. The newest development within this programme is that ‘panda boxes’ have changed to ‘panda packs’, a card version of the original box resources which means each school can receive a free pack on confirmed booking of the mobile library. Also, this year our Confucius Classroom offered some free places to Edinburgh Zoo for an introductory ‘Discover China’ session and very successful free family ‘Zoo fun with Mandarin’ classes. There is, of course, lots of information and additional materials to download from the ‘Beyond the Panda’ website.
For further information on any of our programmes, please contact Sandie Robb, RZSS Language Project Coordinator, by email or tel: 07963 070654.