Our Links With Education

One of the stated objectives of the charity is to develop a greater level of understanding within the schools about the importance of our birdlife.

To fulfil that objective we work with the Department of Education in promoting our work within the various schools of the Island. A number of visits to both Primary and Secondary Schools have taken place, linking discussions on Manx birds to National Curriculum topics such as ‘life cycles’. Future visits are planned.

If the full benefit of our research is to be felt, in any lasting way, it is important that future generations continue to gain an insight into the importance of our environment and we therefore look forward to continuing to develop this aspect of our overall work.

Academic research

When the atlas work was being planned it was not envisaged that our work would attract such keen interest from academic establishments. Those running the charity were, however, obviously keen to ensure that the work has academic credibility as well as being of interest to the general public and of use to Government into the future.

To ensure that our methods continued to be accepted as being scientifically credible, Professor Steve Buckland from the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling, University of St Andrews, was asked to undertake ‘an audit’ of our methods. In addition to giving a clean bill of health he expressed particular interest in the level of detail to which we were gathering and recording the data. In particular he was interested in the fact that our results would be capable of interpretation, linked to habitat data already gathered by Government and in the process of being linked to the computer mapping system.

The charity had always intended that its data would be viewed in conjunction with habitat types, but recognised that any conclusions drawn from that comparison would be broadly based. For example x% of species y were found in habitat z. In discussion with Professor Buckland it became clear that, given appropriate research, it would be possible to make more effective use of the raw data. In essence it would be possible to use our data to develop spatial modelling techniques that could be applied elsewhere.

Currently a proposal to link a post graduate PhD student to the charity to carry this work forward is being prepared, including an evaluation of the finance needed to fund the research.

The charity has agreed to explore, to the full, the possibilities that this opportunity presents. In common with many of the companies that have associated themselves with our research we wish to achieve business excellence and promote the uniqueness of the Island whenever possible.