{"id":6326,"date":"2015-05-20T06:27:35","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T06:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6326"},"modified":"2015-05-20T06:27:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-20T06:27:35","slug":"the-forestry-commission-misses-an-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/05\/20\/the-forestry-commission-misses-an-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Forestry Commission misses an opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superworm is super-long. \u00a0Superworm is super-strong. \u00a0Watch him wiggle! \u00a0See him squirm! \u00a0Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Have a forest adventure with Superworm in 2015\" \u2013 says\u00a0the Forestry Commission's\u00a0website<\/a>. \u00a0To aid this, the Commission has published a book by Julia Donaldson. \u00a0It\u00a0tells the story of how a superhero worm and his mini-beast friends defeat the \"villainous Wizard Lizard\". \u00a0Clearly, it is playing into the Superhero trope so (currently) apparently so beloved of young children.<\/p>\n

The purpose seems positive. \u00a0The Forestry Commission says:<\/p>\n

From 13 March until the end of October, families can enjoy Superworm activity trails<\/a> at around 20 selected sites across the country. \u00a0Each activity trail will include up to 10 stops and take around one hour to complete (distances will vary between 800 and 1,500 metres). \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At each stop, visitors will discover a panel containing activities and questions inspiring them to use the Superworm story and its characters to think about the woods and forests around them. \u00a0The trail has been designed by Forestry Commission England\u2019s learning team to have activities suitable for children aged 3-6, as well as elements that will appeal to 6-8 year olds. \u00a0The activities will encourage children to use their \u2018superhero\u2019 senses and powers of discovery and creativity; from discovering the touch and smell of the forest to becoming nature detectives. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Additional activities created by the Youth Sport Trust will also excite young adventurers to become super-fit like Superworm. \u00a0Special packs with additional things to do, including a sticker sheet, activity leaflet, string to make your own Superworm and a limited edition Superworm mini-book, will also be available to purchase onsite.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although that sounds promising, I was disappointed with the booklet \u2013 and clearly mistaken in my expectations of it. \u00a0I had thought\u00a0that it\u00a0might be informative about worms and forests and their inter-connectivity. \u00a0Not at all. \u00a0All you learn is that: \"Superworm is super-long. \u00a0Superworm is super-strong. \u00a0Watch him wiggle! \u00a0See him squirm! \u00a0Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!\"<\/em><\/p>\n

So much for environmental education, I thought. \u00a0I hope the activity trails make up for this, but you have to wonder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Superworm is super-long. \u00a0Superworm is super-strong. \u00a0Watch him wiggle! \u00a0See him squirm! \u00a0Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM! \"Have a forest adventure with Superworm in 2015\" \u2013 says\u00a0the Forestry Commission's\u00a0website. \u00a0To aid this, the Commission has published a book by Julia...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}