Glow Scotland

December 5th, 2011

Panda-monium as Sweetie and Sunshine land in Edinburgh

pcurrie

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: CfE, China, Chinese, early years, edinburgh, environment, Events, Glow, Glow Meet, Glow TV, Literacy, pandas, Tian Tian, video, Yang Guang, zoos
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Glow, Learner Resources, Literacy, Pupils

Our Glow TV team had an unusually early start to their Sunday as they braved the cold and snow and made their way to Edinburgh zoo for the arrival of two very special black and white guests. Known as Tian Tian and Yang Guang, or ‘Sweetie’ and ‘Sunshine’ the Pandas arrived just after lunchtime on Sunday 4th December to an excited throng of flag-waving well-wishers and a tartan-clad pipe band playing ‘Scotland the Brave’.

The pandas’ arrival marks the start of a ten year stay at Edinburgh Zoo, which many people hope will result in a baby panda. Baby or not, the new residents are sure to bring the zoo many new visitors, keen to catch a glimpse of these endangered bears. They arrived at Edinburgh airport, having made the 12 hour journey from China in a special ‘panda express’ Fed Ex plane with panda livery and a crew dressed in kilts.

Our Glow TV team of junior reporters, Callan, Cammy, Daniel, Emma and Evan, were at the zoo’s Education centre all morning, making Chinese lanterns and watching a panda presentation as well as capturing interviews with zoo staff. They, and lots of other children were then given special black and white jackets and hats and Scottish, British and Chinese flags to wave, before making their way down the hill to welcome the pandas from the airport.

The panda reporters did, of course, capture lots and lots of footage of the arrival excitement for Glow users and this week sees Glow TV turn into ‘Pandamonium’ as we bring you as much panda-related content as we can. Pam Currie from the Glow team will kick this all off on Tuesday at 2:30pm as she gives viewers a taste of what’s to come and provides sneaky early details of an exciting panda competition we will be launching. After that, on Wednesday morning at 10:00 am, Pam is joined in the TV studio in Glasgow by Louise and Melissa from the Daily What News, our Glow news service for schools. They will share panda facts, discuss the related news articles and resources, and give more details and tips on the competition to win ‘Pandaphernalia’, or ‘cute black and white panda stuff,’ if you are groaning at our panda puns by now!

Later on Wednesday, at 2:30 pm Glow TV viewers can watch our ‘Pandamentary’ which offers a truly behind-the-scenes look at all the zoo arrival excitement we captured on Sunday. Watch our intrepid panda reporters take part in fun panda activities and see the zoo keepers’ panda presentation from the Education centre. We even managed to grab a real scoop, when our reporters were relaxing with a hot drink in the cafe, only to see Yang Guang’s truck being reversed alongside us as the zoo staff prepared to unload him to his new home. As true reporters would do, they quickly grabbed their cameras and ran back out to the cold to try to get some sneaky footage of Yang Guang in the back of the truck.

‘Pandaphernalia’ competition details will be revealed in all of these Glow TV broadcasts this week and entries will run until December 16th. Tune in and find out how to enter. A good few black and white panda prizes to be had, including two cuddly panda toys, panda wristbands, panda rock, panda sweets, panda pens and a panda keyring, as well as some limited edition Glow TV t-shirts.

Education Scotland has set up a special ‘UK Pandas’ blog to celebrate the arrival of Sweetie and Sunshine and suggest CfE learning ideas as an inter-disciplianary resource. The blog also contains integrated links to the Chinese Embassy’s excellent ‘Panda Pals’ site, the Fed Ex blog that tracked the journey from China, the Edinburgh zoo homepage and a special Edinburgh Zoo panda site as well as videos and a host of other links.

January 17th, 2009

Invitation to all biology teachers and classes – 21st Jan., 2pm

J Jelly

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: biology, ecology, environment, fulmar, Glow Meet, plastic, seabird, SSC
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Lothian, Events, Local authorities, National Groups, South Lanarkshire, Uncategorized

If you have a Glow login you will be able to access the Science Glow Group in the National Site. On Wednesday 21st January, a very special Glow Meet session will be taking place there. It will be well worth dropping in, with your class, at 2pm – 3pm, especially if you are studying Higher Biology or are interested in environmental issues.

The Scottish Seabird Centre Education Officers, Emily Dodd and Anna Pugh have invited classes across Scotland to come into the Glow Meet session to see the dissection of a seabird, a fulmar. You may be thinking, how grisly! …until you realize this bird has died, not of old age, but because of our lack of care of our environment. Emily told me a similar post mortem was held last year at the SSC and several pieces of plastic were found in the poor bird’s stomach. Reading about this in a book is one thing, but seeing it in real time, via Glow Meet, where classes will be able to pose questions to the scientists performing the autopsy, is quite another! Some North Berwick HS pupils are going to be lucky enough to be in the SSC during the dissection, but schools all over Scotland will for the first time be able to drop into this via the videolink that Glow Meet offers.
It should not be difficult to access the Glow Meet (assuming your local authority and school have enabled this function in Glow – and you have a Glow login as a member of staff). If you are going to bring your class in to see the post mortem, I’d be grateful if you would let me know (j.jelly@ltscotland.org.uk) but essentially, navigate to the national Science Glow Group, find the Glow Meet webpart on the discussions page and click on “Join the Glow Meet”. If you have a webcam, you can be visible to others, if you have a microphone, you will be able to voice questions, but even if you have neither of these things, you will still be able to see the post mortem and pose questions by typing them in. If you are coming in with a webcam in place, a school name placard would be a great help to others in identifying you.
Glow is enabling the sharing of events such as this. There is another great opportunity in the Social Studies national group on 19th Jan. to experience first class Google Earth training via Glow Meet.
Don’t be shy, make use of these opportunities. Log on to Glow and come into these Glow Meet sessions.
Hoping to see to see you on Wednesday! (The session will be recorded though, so if your timetable means you can’t come in live to the session on Wednesday, you can access the Glow Meet recording later)

PS Click here to find out more about using Glow Meet and all the other Glow functions.
You can read more about the post mortem by clicking the poster: fulmarposter.jpg