
- Teacher: Becky Clover
- Teacher: Steph Holt
- Teacher: Sam Thomas
Introduction to UK Natural History is a five week online course which will introduce some of the fundamental principals and practices of modern amateur natural history.
The four weeks have been divided thematically as follows:
Week 1: Introduction to Natural History
Week 2: Introduction to Botany
Week 3: Introduction to Entomology
Week 4: Introduction to Geology and Palaeontology
Week 5: Developing skills in Natural History.
For the duration of the course you are required to keep a Naturalists Journal, a copy of which should be submitted electronically at the end of the course, along with details of biological records submitted to an appropriate national or local recording scheme.
A short training course on the identification of the UK's amphibians and suitable survey techniques.
Please note, this course is not associated with training towards a Great Crested Newt Licence (GCN-EPSL), and no status as such should be inferred from attendance, however advice on training towards this can be requested.
Please do not share course materials outside of the course, these have been developed specifically for the Wildlife Garden volunteers and trainees and are the property of the Natural History Museum, London.
A six-week Masterclass. Natural history collections describe more than biodiversity. They also reveal and confront the changing narratives between natural history, science and society. During this six-week short course, you will join Museum curators, scientists and archivists as they use the collection and its historical highlights to explore how natural history collections can elucidate societal changes, reveal hidden human narratives and how cutting-edge technologies are enabling a new era of digitisation.
A six-week Masterclass. Animals face significant dangers, not only from other species, such as predators, but also from trillions of lesser-noticed microscopic organisms. For humans, pathogens, including bacteria, multicellular parasites and other vectors of disease, contribute to worldwide suffering, yet the biological diversity of these organisms is varied and fascinating. During this week course, Museum experts will explore the vast diversity of organisms whose behaviours and life histories impact the health of humans and other animals. They will also look at how pandemics can be linked to human-animal zoonoses, and how our changing climate may be altering the diseases that we catch.