One aspect of ecology fieldwork which can be a potential cause for concern to teachers who are not themselves active natural history enthusiasts is the identification of some of the organisms that will be encountered. Long gone are the days when most children could readily identify most of the trees, flowers and birds in their local surroundings! For some children, those days probably never existed, but the ‘I Spy’ books and Frederick Warne’s ‘Observers Books’ provided a starting point for very many children. The raw beginner and the tentative amateur ecologist may still hope that a picture book will lead them unerringly to the name of the specimen. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case! With a little more experience, the naturalist then starts to use field guides, which are books containing textual descriptions to be used alongside annotated illustrations. Professional botanists and biologists tend to use keys as their route of choice for identification sources. The drawback here, for schools, is that the keys to specific groups of organisms tend to be very learned and very detailed, expecting familiarity with the morphology of the group and comfort in using very specific terminology. I have in mind keys such as that at the beginning of my very well used ‘CTW’ – Clapham, Tutin and Warburg’s ‘Excursion Flora of the British Isles’.
How nice it would be if we had clearly illustrated keys to a limited range of organisms which might be found in the most familiar of habitats! Children do not often need to identify down to the level of species – family, class or even phylum will often suffice. Children should not need to be knowledgeable botanists before they can identify the wild flowers around the school grounds. But these same children will become better equipped as biology students if they can learn to handle keys from the start of their fieldwork. Not only that, but both the National Curriculum and the ISEB Common Entrance Science syllabus require pupils to be familiar with the use of keys.
As well as needing clear illustrations and accessible language, a child-friendly dichotomous key should face its user with very straightforward decision making. ‘Does it have more than one tail?’ , ‘Has it got 8 legs?’ or ‘Does the leaf stem have more than 3 leaflets?’ are questions which can be answered by simple observing and the minimum explanation of terminology. ‘Does the spikelet have 1 to 3 projecting awns attached to the backs of lemmas?’ is not such a question. Anyone already familiar with the products of Gatekeeper Educational or Lyn Merrick will be able to say unerringly which of those questions is not found in a Gatekeeper Guide!
The first three Gatekeeper Guides show the format which is intended to be used for further titles. Each is a wipe-clean laminated A3 sheet, folded to A4 size, double sided with a different set of keys on each side. They are described by the company as providing ‘ easy identification using key questions that are easy to follow and clear illustrations which are attractive to study. They are robust, easy to handle and a perfect wildlife reference for schools and nature lovers of all ages.’ Each of these Guides admirably succeeds in meeting all of these aims. A first glance at the illustrations could give the impression that they are photos with the background removed. They are not – each illustration is an original full colour painting, produced for this work. The clarity of these illustrations is simply stunning – you really can see the diagonal arrangement of the wing cases of a Backswimmer, or the colour difference between the flowers of Black Knapweed and Creeping Thistle, for example. If you don’t know how to separate Hoverflies and wasps at a glance before looking at the ‘Land Invertebrates’ guide, you should be sure of them afterwards! Our biological classification system uses the structure, appearance and behaviour of an organism. These three characteristics are used in these keys, as required, so they are based on sound biological principles.
A useful feature of these Guides is that they use the absolute minimum of necessary technical terms, and even these are frequently explained or illustrated somewhere in the Guide. For example, in the Guide to Identifying Freshwater Invertebrates, it is explained that insect larvae that look like wingless adults are generally called nymphs, and in the Guide to Identifying Land Invertebrates, the clubbed antennae which so readily identify the Burying beetles are very clearly illustrated.
One question which needs to be considered is how comprehensive is a simple-to-use key? It can be disappointing if a key is so simple to use but leaves many organisms at best vaguely identified. The Guide to Identifying Freshwater Invertebrates directly identifies 30 invertebrates, and I would be surprised if children found invertebrates in their pond dipping nets which are not in the Guide. If you are using a fieldwork site which has rarer species than these, it could be that you are working in a site which should not be so freely disturbed! This is not quite the case with the Guide to Identifying Land Invertebrates, as there are no butterflies (they will have their own Guide shortly), no moths and very few flies. However, the majority of the invertebrates which might make their way into a pitfall trap in ‘typical’ school grounds probably are here.
The starting point for the two Guides to Identifying Invertebrates start with the number of legs and one full side of each Guide is devoted to keying out the insects. The keys are clearly set out, with large print and good use of differently coloured guide lines marking the routes from question to identity. The style and layout in these first three Guides are consistent, so that as soon as a child has become familiar with the use of one of them, they will be instantly comfortable with another. The third Guide available so far is the Guide to Identifying Wild Flowers of Grassland. This starts with the number of petals, then leads on through the shape of the flower head, followed by flower colour. The final stage can require closer observation of leaf, stem or flower features, but these are kept to a minimum and the terms used are again well-illustrated.
The latest key is the Guide to Identifying Trees and Shrubs, but I do not have this to hand as I write. I think that these 4 Guides, with more in preparation, are the best available for Prep school pupils, combining clarity, simplicity and rigor – a hard combination to achieve. Also they will certainly be hard-wearing and are fairly inexpensive. Single copies of each Key cost £2.50, with a pack of 5 of one title for £11.50, or a pack of 15 for £30. There is a post and packing charge of £3.00 per order, and VAT at the current rate must also be added to the total order cost. The awaited Guides include Common Grasses, Wild Flowers of the Hedgerow, Birds, Butterflies and Fruits and Seeds.
Gatekeeper Guides are available from Gatekeeper Educational Ltd. Waldron Down Cottage, Blackboys, Uckfield, Sussex, TN22 5NB, or through the website www.gatekeeperel.co.uk Credit card orders can be made by phone on 01342 810784, or cheques should be payable to Gatekeeper Educational Ltd.
There are other laminated coloured keys to particular groups of organisms or to the wildlife found in certain habitats, such as those produced by the Field Studies Council, but I feel that these are either often too technical for our pupils, or if intended for pupils of our age range, they are less clearly set out and less comprehensive in their coverage. A full list of the FSC identification charts, prices and ordering details can be found on the FSC website at:-
www.field-studies-council.org/publications/foldout.aspxRichard Hompstead