My placement is studying biodiversity! - "Magpies love selfies on wildlife cameras!" - Poppy

The STEM placement students are sending us weekly blogs all about their experience in the world of work! 

Work experience is great and it provides students with many benefits whilst gaining skills and helping choose the right future career path for pupils. Having work experience on a Curriculum Vitae will make a person stand out to employers as they will notice they have motivation and a real passion for work. It will also help to boost a students confidence in themselves!

See how Poppy's getting on in her STEM Placement

Week one - 

"It has been a wild week. Bird surveying on Monday, rained off on Tuesday, pit fall digging on Wednesday, sweep netting on Thursday and identifying moths on Friday. My placement is studying biodiversity in school grounds; this week we were at Lake Farm Park Academy, being surrounded by a park so we were spoilt with very diverse plant and animal life. I can now happily, thanks to many hours spent gazing up at the sky, identify a feral pigeon and a few other birds.  What I have learnt this week is that Magpies love selfies on wildlife cameras!"

Week two -

"Been a busy bee this week.  At Englefield Green whilst pond dipping I managed to catch a creature that looked prehistoric but much to our dismay it was just diving beetle larva. We then visited Strodes which although had a excessive amount of ant hills also had a surprising amount of  other wildlife; we saw dragon flies, lots of butterflies and even got a photo of a rabbit on camera. What I have learnt this week is that perseverance pays off as we finally caught a mouse in a Longworth, we named him Sydney!"

Week three - 
"I’ve had an exciting week. At my college, Esher, the cameras managed to picture several foxes and lots of squirrels who greedily ate most of the cashew nuts.  Two field mice were caught, pictured and released (Terry and Dan). Then we visited Jubilee High School and helped with creating their pond. This involved lots of plastic sheet arranging, dirt going everywhere and hunting for a tap so we could fill it. Impressively we caught 3 mice at JHS (Fred, Andy and Eleanor)! What I have learnt this week is that things don’t goes as planned; none of our cameras got anything at JHS."

Week four - 

"A lovely last week at Eton End, I impressively caught a Rusty Red Click beetle (rarely seen) However, we had been seeing them absolutely everywhere!  After that, we went to ACS - 36 acres of grounds, LOTS of walking and admiring the large variety of butterflies. 

When pond dipping, I caught some goldfish (which had been introduced by the grounds men) so I carefully returned them back into the pond.  At St. George’s, Weybridge - I was very excited to have seen the herd of deer wondering in a forest section.  What I have learnt this week is that the more you know the more you notice!"

                                                                                           
                                                                                                                                  - Poppy