BIAZA Newsletter | Winter 2017 | Issue 13

Blackpool Zoo Education and Presenters’ Conference: Learning for all: Being Inclusive and imagination in the design and delivery of public and schools education programmes for the future. Following this, highlights over the two days included how to bring fun into interactions from the National Blackpool! Land of sun, sea and the BIAZA Education and Presenters’ Conference 2016. And what a successful conference it was!

As we all know, one of the main goals of BIAZA accredited zoos and aquariums is to promote the conservation of biodiversity. One of the main conduits for this is the public and school learning programmes that are delivered across our collections and the talented staff who run them. So, whatever your role is in your zoo or aquarium, have a chat with your learning team about the conference and find out how they deliver conservation education! You can also read on to find out a bit more… Natalie Ward and her team at Blackpool Zoo did an excellent job of creating a conference programme that constantly referred to the theme of the conference - Learning for all: Being Inclusive. The main influence for the theme came from feedback from the attenders of last year’s conference at the National Marine Aquarium and from discussion at the BIAZA Learning and Volunteering Committee (LVC) meetings. The conference hoped to address the ever pressing issue of ensuring that zoos and aquariums do not become entrenched in delivering their longstanding education and presenting programmes. We must keep pace with changing attitudes and public perception of the various roles of zoos and aquariums in education, raising awareness of conservation issues and driving pro-environmental behaviour change. It is not good enough for us to remain static and unresponsive to the changes in our visitors and what they expect from a zoo or aquarium experience – we should all be working towards delivering discovery and learning conference programme filled with talks, workshops and open space time tailored to an extremely wide range of zoo and aquarium audiences; from toddlers, adults, people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), community groups, brownies and guides, evening courses, after school clubs, home school and more. Day one started with a thought provoking introduction from Blackpool Zoo’s Director Darren Webster. It was great to hear how he values his education team and his emphasis on innovation programmes that can be accessed by all. So in this context ‘Being Inclusive’ meant a

Poo Museum, as well as some great practical sessions on engagement with digital technology, science communication and presenting skills, and making science and conservation come alive via the use of street busking techniques. There was the usual BIAZA merriment at the icebreaker which was set in a casino/pirate ship (only in Blackpool) and provided a great chance for networking, with the second evening involving posh burgers, cocktails and Marrakesh! For those who did not attend, the take home message, unsurprisingly, is to look at your programmes and ensure that you are delivering the best inclusive and diverse activities that you can. This should be achievable for both the smallest and largest collections. Think about creating innovative and immersive experiences for your guests to really enhance their experience, thereby creating an atmosphere where learning is seen as being fun.

If you are struggling for ideas, join the educators’ SLACK community which is open to anyone in any role in a BIAZA collection (https:// biazalearning.slack.com) There will always be someone in the same position as you, so this is a great forum for sharing ideas and getting help with new projects. Perhaps most importantly, this conference showed that there should also always be an evaluation element to our learning work. If you can provide evidence that your programmes enhance knowledge and understanding, as well as positive attitudes towards wildlife, we will place ourselves as essential institutions for conservation within the hearts and minds of our visitors and the local and global communities in which they live.

Photos: Blackpool Zoo

By Nicola Murray, National Marine Aquarium

23 BIAZA News • Winter issue 13