Case Study: University Mini BioBlitz
- Discipline:
- Natural environment
- Participants:
- Adults,
- Community groups,
- Families,
- Schools and colleges,
- Young people
- Purpose:
- Collaborating
- Source:
- vinspired students
Overview
Who: University of Exeter; University of East Anglia; University of West England, Royal Holloway, University of London; Canterbury Christchurch University and Manchester University in partnership with Bristol Natural History Consortium.
What: Biodiversity survey races over three hours to half a day, bringing together people from across the community with naturalists to identify as many species as they can.
Why: A public engagement event, to develop awareness of biodiversity and environmental sustainability and produce useable scientific biodiversity data. Offers a broad range of student volunteering opportunities.
Where: Held on the university campuses or in woodland area nearby.
When: All first piloted in October 2010, with plans for university BioBlitz events to continue in 2011.
Project Description
Bristol Natural History Consortium worked with six universities to pilot Mini-BioBlitz events, as part of the NCCPE's vinspired students project. The events complemented a range of 24 hour BioBlitzes held across the UK in 2010, coinciding with the International Year of Biodiversity. BioBlitzes brought together students, academics, children and the local community in a race against time to survey the biodiversity of the area around them. In total across the six universities over 500 species of plants and animals were identified. For many this enhanced a curiosity in and appreciation of the natural environment and surprise in what could be found, which included everything from foxes to fish leeches and rare sights in autumn, such as a bumblebee making a nest.
The universities drew upon the OPAL BioBlitz tool-kit to plan and hold a BioBlitz event on the university grounds. This offered the opportunity for these universities to enhance their volunteering provision, particularly for bioscience students. There are a range of volunteering roles available, in planning and on the day as Naturalists, team guides and stewards. Additionally there is scope for media volunteers to promote and document the day’s events. It also offered the opportunity to develop connections internally and externally, not just by encouraging people to attend, but by forging partnerships with academics and locals as naturalists.
Purpose
BioBlitz is both a public engagement event and an opportunity to produce useful scientific data, though this balance is adaptable.
To build upon the community led events, which incorporated student volunteering these events were intended to trail a university led approach, to allow universities to tailor the events to meet the needs and resources of their institutions, such as student-led, partnership building or launching a university environmental strategy.
The BioBlitz name and concept is not registered, copyrighted, or trademarked; it is an idea that can be used, adapted, and modified by any group to freely use for their own purposes.
Results/Outcomes
All of the universities involved saw the events as a success, with interest in holding a BioBlitz again. From these pilots a number of key lessons and useful approaches have been uncovered for the universities to build upon, which are discussed below:
Planning
The planning stages of the event ideally needed a couple of months to ensure health and safety requirements were put in place as well as giving time to organise speakers and naturalists for the day. For some of the universities this was challenging, as they were working with a short time frame, however the tool-kits aided, helping to anticipate and delegate tasks. This was reflected in the success of the events to be driven by people from across the university.
Click here to see how UWE’s student-led BioBlitz was co-ordinated.
Stakeholders
As hoped the BioBlitz events proved successful in encouraging students from the Biosciences to volunteer, bringing their studies to life. Each university also established a range of partners, forging links with new academic departments and working with naturalists and schools from the local community. Many of the universities also built upon the work and connections of larger events in their locales, such was the case with Manchester. These relationships were seen as vital to the event and the organisers recognised a need to develop these for future events.
Click here to learn how Royal Holloway, University of London connected the BioBlitz to their widening participation aims.
Marketing and Advertising
A central part of the success of the BioBlitz events is bringing a range of people together, which led to the universities needing to think creatively in how to draw attention to the event to get students and the community involved. For many universities this was seen as the most challenging aspect of the event. Yet, it was also seen as an opportunity to increase the volunteering opportunities by recruiting a media team and using a host of communication channels from word of mouth to making the most of social media.
Click here to find out more about how Canterbury Christchurch University created an interactive BioBlitz via Facebook.
Biodiversity and Education
Raising awareness of the biodiversity on the doorstep was rewarding for all of the universities, as the BioBlitz generated excitement and enthusiasm among the participants to compete in the race to identify species. In particular a common theme was surprise at the number of species, as one student responded;
‘Seeing the reactions of the public at the amount of things living in their local park and how intrigued they were to learn more. Also, seeing for myself the amount of wildlife that can be found in different areas (woodland, grassland etc) and being close to wildlife I’ve never seen in real life before.’ Student Volunteer, Royal Holloway, University of London
Click here to learn more about Exeter’s event spearheaded by wildlife presenter Nick Baker.
Reward and Recognition
Each of the events held have recognised the valuable contribution student volunteers have brought to the event, and the opportunities it presents for students to develop a host of skills. These contributions were generally celebrated in an event following the BioBlitz. Though some of the universities, such as in Exeter and Manchester the event was used to develop awareness and contribute to wider personal development accreditation.
Click here to see how the BioBlitz was integrated into the Manchester Leadership Programme.
Sustainability and integration with the HEI
Bringing the BioBlitz events into the HEI’s has met with enthusiasm across the universities, both as a PE tool and for longer term biodiversity data, with most keen to host another event in the future, with Exeter planning a full 24 hour event in 2011.
Additionally the events have also been highly successful for the majority of the institutions in linking to broader strategic aims and gaining the support of senior managers. For example the BioBlitzes at UEA and Exeter marked the launch of wider initiatives, the Campus Conservation Project and the Birds and Bees Campaign, respectively.
Click here to find out how UEA adapted the BioBlitz and its continuing impact for the university.
Top Tips
- Make as many connections as possible. Involve people from across the university, such as Students’ Union representatives and especially senior managers in backing the BioBlitz. This will assist in getting further internal support for the event.
- Marketing is vital. Have T Shirts/merchandise with logos – it helps to identify people on the day and link with something larger. Get a celebrity involved to draw students and the general public in. Someone local, or an alumnus, is a good place to start.
- Keep it simple. Organising an event can be quite complex initially so work with what you already know.
- Confidence came through involvement. Before organising an event it is really useful to attend an event first, this was helpful to all universities to establish contacts and realise what was involved. Get support. BioBlitz can easily appeal to a broad range of university objectives, this helps in getting buy in from senior management, and then it is also easier to persuade middle management to get involved.
- Think about ways to evolve. BioBlitz can develop for example, as a student led activity or for creating community links. This is key in sustaining the momentum around BioBlitz and ensuring its relevance to a range of students and the community.
- Recognise the flexibility. BioBlitz is both a public engagement tool and means for capturing credible scientific data. How much you include these two aspects in your BioBlitz is up to you. When you start to plan your BioBlitz be clear on your aims and who you want to benefit.
Further Resources
To accompany this case study, we have produced two toolkits which you can use to help organise your own BioBlitz events. The University BioBlitz Toolkit, designed to sit alongside OPAL's BioBlitz Toolkit, provides a step-by-step guide to organising a BioBlitz event at a university. The University BioBlitz Media Toolkit provides advice on using social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, to promote your event.
