LV Form Biology Trip to the Oxford Museum of Natural History and Oxford University Botanical Gardens
The LV Form set off from Calne in glorious morning sunshine, although this was to be followed by several beautifully timed scattered showers, on their recent Biology trip to Oxford. The changeable conditions served as a reminder that sometimes the weather forecasters are indeed accurate and that plants do need rainwater to survive!
On entering the museum the girls were greeted by the towering dinosaur fossils displayed within amazingly intricate architecture. Several girls were keen to meet the pony and cheetah exhibits which had "Do Touch" signs and then we were escorted to the lecture hall. Mrs Lloyd, the museum's Education Officer, gave a lively lecture and used selected fossils and skeletons to explain and illustrate the important theories about animal evolution. The girls came face to face with hissing cockroaches and discovered how the enterprising smaller males nibble the antennae off the larger males to make the smaller males more attractive as mates and thus more successful breeders. Eventually two species will result; watchful large cockroaches and sneaky small cockroaches. The girls were also surprised to learn of barnacle adaptations that enable variety within their species which is an important mechanism for evolutionary theory. After an interesting exercise, when the girls found examples of animal adaptations amongst the museum displays, they were led up to the roof space of the museum and into the original lecture theatre where supporters of Charles Darwin took part in "The Great Debate" against supporters of The Bishop of Oxford. During this historically significant debate, one of Darwin's supporters had been asked from which side of his family, his grandmother's or his grandfather's, had there been apes!
After a picnic lunch the group followed Mrs Lloyd through some beautiful parts of Oxford and arrived at The Botanical Gardens. The girls were given a fascinating tour through the tropical and desert habitat glass houses and also the open gardens where the beds had been planted in a hierarchical arrangement, from the very earliest plants to the most recent, in terms of their evolutionary development. The girls were interested to learn about many examples of plant adaptations for survival and of plants being used for their active ingredients in ancient and modern medicines. They also learned how cotton is not an economically sustainable crop whereas natural, breathable cloths made of bamboo fibre and hemp fibre could provide more sustainable products if investment is channelled into such alternatives - the t-shirt and sock samples looked great and felt soft too!
The girls arrived back in Calne in good spirits, having all had enjoyed a thought-provoking and varied day.
