In collaboration with the Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFI) team BIFoR have developed a number of teaching materials around the water and carbon cycles.
The resources are available, on our 'Virtual BIFoR' site. Visitors to the site can explore the BIFoR FACE facility (see image below), clicking on the yellow dots will either provide written information or a video about the experiment they can see. Clicking on a question mark leads to an education resource such as a dendrometer dataset investigating how eCO2 affects tree growth or a task looking at how fungal pathogens will respond to climate change. It is an exciting opportunity to engage schools and other members of the public who may not be able to visit the FACE site. More and more datasets are being added and we hope this will become the "go to" place for "virtual field studies".
A useful podcast recording regarding water and the carbon cycle is available and more resources are being worked on. Links to more podcasts and videos are available on our social media webpage.
We have previously also given tours of the BIFoR FACE facility to school groups who are able to make the journey to the facility in Staffordshire. If you would be interested in learning more about a visit or to book a visit please contact Deanne Brettle on d.brettle@bham.ac.uk
Further great teaching resources linked to forests are available on the Sylva Foundation website. BIFoR are part of the Forestry Skills Forum which, lead by the Sylva Foundation, helped to develop these resources. The Forum is dedicated to promoting education, skills, learning and development across the forestry sector in England and Wales. A further resource the Forum is proud of is a new forestry careers website. There are number of great videos to watch including interviews with a people involved in a variety of roles.