New online plant identification course for beginners.

Would you like to help beginners in your own area as a tutor?

>> Go to online course

This online course was started in Hertfordshire in 2011 to train volunteers wanting to join the Wildlife Trust’s group of wildlife site surveyors. It provides a foundation in classification, terminology, the use of keys and the features of the most important plant families.  Course units are delivered online and participants have to find common plant species and answer questions about them.  Their answers are checked, and advice given, by a tutor.

The course is proving very successful in Hertfordshire so, with the support of the BSBI’s Training and Education Committee, it is now to be offered generally via the website, where there is more information including a course sample.

This is an opportunity to help beginners in your own area by becoming a tutor.  The course units are all delivered online so the tutor receives the same information as the students. The tutor’s role is to check and comment on their answers. All correspondence is online; the tutor does not have to take phone calls or go into the field.

You may wonder whether you are good enough to be a tutor.  If you can handle the BSBI recording card for your own vice county the answer is almost certainly yes.  Answer sheets come in at intervals throughout the summer so this role is not suitable for anyone who will be away for a large part of the season, without access to the internet, but shorter breaks are no problem. Also, you would probably tutor only one, two or three students in the first instance so the commitment would not be too great.

The course will commence in February 2013 and run throughout the season. You might have beginners in your own area who would enjoy and benefit from it. Why not suggest it to them and consider becoming their tutor? if you are interested please contact Brenda Harold for more information about the tutor’s role.

Training & Education Committee

Members of the committee are: Sarah Whild (chair), Sue Townsend (secretary), Paul Ashton, John Bailey, Ian Bonner, Peter Gateley, Brenda Harold, Alex Lockton & Clare O’Reilly.

Resources for beginners

A leaflet written by Clare O’Reilly with suggestions for beginners on how to get started in botany.

Careers Advice

Are you hoping to study to be a botanist but don't know what degree to take or how to specialize? Download the Connexions Botany Careers Leaflet here.

Schools

For a web site aimed at school age children, visit SAPS.

BSBI Library

Our library is hosted for us at Manchester Metropolitan University‘s premises in Shrewsbury.

Most of our books and journals come from donations, and we can guarantee to take responsible care of anything that we receive. Duplicates and surplus material is found a good home at Field Centres around the country. We also digitize our own publications and books that are out of copyright, copies of which are held in the library.

If you are interested in donating, to the library, please contact Sarah Whild.

We are grateful to the following for contributions:

Mike Atkinson, Ian Bennallick, Chris Boon, Michael Braithwaite, Mary Briggs, Karl Crowther, Trevor Dines, Bob Ellis, Gwynn Ellis, Jean Green, Simon Leach, Audrey Locksley, Ian McNeill, Roy Maycock, Richard Middleton, Richard Pankhurst, James Partridge, Sharon Pilkington, Mike Poulton, Richard Pryce, Paul Reade, Clive Stace, Wiltshire Botanical Society, Goronwy Wynne, Brian & Barbara Ballinger, The University of Hull, William Peter Wheldon and to the estates of Alan Underhill, Alice Lambert, John Lavender, John Ounsted, Melody Ryle and Max Walters.