Loughborough Brownies

In September 2005, CHI were invited to organise a programme of activities around wildlife recording by the Loughborough Brownie District Commissioner. This also included hosting some activity sessions at the annual Brownie Camp in 2006 which was held at Charnwood Oaks Scout Camp. Over 50 brownies were involved in the project.

At a Brownie meeting in September, CHI talked about wildlife and natural history with the Brownies and asked them to choose their favourite plant or animal, and what activities they would like to do involving their chosen favourite.

Using consensus-building techniques, the group selected badgers as their favourite and wanted to:

Val Williams of the Leicestershire and Rutland Badger Group ran a session with the Brownie Group which included learning about the natural history of badgers and their habitat.  Activities such as word searches, art work and using a museum specimen from the LCC Resource Box Scheme were also included.

Before the Brownie camp, CHI introduced the Brownies to observing nature by looking for different coloured natural history objects and listening to the sounds of nature. This activity was outdoors at the site where they held their regular brownie meetings.

For many of the young people a new perspective on the site was gained through participating in these two activities.  Looking at natural colours and listening to natural sounds made them aware that, although the site was small and in an urban setting, there was a wealth of natural history there to be discovered.

This took place over a weekend in May 2006.  Four quadrat making sessions were held on the Saturday which ran on average for thirty minutes each. The sessions involved the Brownies recording the wildlife in the wood and grassland areas around the camp.  The Brownies made quadrats and then used them in the two habitats recording the plants and animals  that they found by drawing or writing on a recording sheet.

On the Sunday a poet, Katie Owen ran two sessions with the Brownies writing poems, taking inspiration from the natural world around them. The Brownies were each given a blank poetry book and wrote short poems about what they had seen.  The poetry books were collected by the Brownie Leader and used to help complete a portfolio about the weekend.

The variety of projects engaged many young people and produced the following outcomes:

Comments from the brownies on the sessions included: