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15 THE USE AND PROVISION OF URBAN LAND FOR ECOLOGY FIELD TEACHING: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH LONDON Monica Hale Polytechnic ofNorth London, U.K. ‘Ifyou're thinking one year ahead, plant rice. Ifyou're thinking ten years ahead, plant trees. Ifyou're thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people.' (Quoted by Baines, 1985) The concept of town nature reserves, particularly for the use of schools, is not new. Local educational nature reserves were proposed in 1947 by the government's wildlife conservation committee chaired by Sir Julian Huxley. They recommended that such reserves should be made available at least to aU the large centres ofpopulation so that they can be used by schools. It has taken nearly 40 years for this message to find effect. ln a Govemment paper (Cmd 7122, 1947), the arguments for nature conservation were set out and suggested a category of educational nature reserve which it recommended for every town and city. Nothing has come of that suggestion and the need is even greater now. It may seem unnecessarily cumbersome to have yet another category ofland for nature conservation, but developers wiU continue to see open land as ripe for conversion to other uses unless legislation dictates otherwise (Chandler, 1984). THE USE OF URBAN LAND FOR ECOLOGICAL FIELD TEACHING 一 EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS UTILIZING THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT Education must respond to the changing demands of society and employment. The necessity for an increased understanding ofthe environmental impact of developments, the conservation and use of renewable resources and other factors relating to the environment has resulted in an increase ofcourses at higher degree level containing these components. Employers are increasingly seeking a minimum level of proficiency in these specializations. In an increasingly technological world, children are in danger of losing touch with their natural surroundings which may lead to serious environmental and economic consequences as they are the future generation of decision-makers 15 THE USE AND PROVISION OF URBAN LAND FOR ECOLOGY FIELD TEACHING: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTH LONDON Monica Hale Polytechnic ofNorth London, U.K. 'Ifyou're thinking one year ahead, plant rice. Ifyou're thinking ten years ahead, plant trees. Ifyou're thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people.' (Quoted by Baines, 1985) The concept of town nature reserves, particularly for the use of schools, is not new. Local educational nature reserves were proposed in 1947 by the government's wildlife conservation committee chaired by Sir Julian Huxley. They recommended that such reserves should be made available at least to all the large centres ofpopulation so that they can be used by schools. It has taken nearly 40 years for this message to find effect. In a Government paper (Cmd 7122, 1947), the arguments for nature conservation were set out and suggested a category of educational nature reserve which it recommended for every town and city. Nothing has come of that suggestion and the need is even greater now. It may seem unnecessarily cumbersome to have yet another category of land for nature conservation, but developers will continue to see open land as ripe for conversion to other uses unless legislation dictates otherwise (Chandler, 1984). THE USE OF URBAN LAND FOR ECOLOGICAL FIELD TEACHINGEDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS UTILIZING THE LOCAL ENVIRONMENT Education must respond to the changing demands of society and employment. The necessity for an increased understanding ofthe environmental impact of developments, the conservation and use ofrenewable resources and other factors relating to the environment has resulted in an increase ofcourses at higher degree level containing these components. Employers are increasingly seeking a minimum level of proficiency in these specializations. In an increasingly technological world, children are in danger of losing touch with their natural surroundings which may lead to serious environmental and economic consequences as they are the future generation of decision-makers 176 MONICAHALE (I.U.C.N., 1980 and N.C.C., 1984). The recognition of the imporlance of enviionmental education has led educationists to add the experimental and investigative approaches to knowledge acquisition to traditional classroom learning (D.E.S., 1981 and Hale, 1986a). The curriculum determines the content and approaches adopted to achieve defined educational objectives. Environmental studies generally, and ecology in parlicular,need a sound conceptual approach emphasizing the understanding of specific processes and the interactions between organisms and their environment. Ecology may thus form the basis for scientific field investigations at all age levels. A range of skills and disciplines may be incorporated or lead on from such investigations: these may include human reactions and responses in relation...

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