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JOIN USStudents team up with Sanger Institute to develop a hub of biodiversity
15 June 2023A team of CRC learners have been busy creating a centre of biodiversity at the college’s site in Cambridge. The Darwin Tree of Life community project, launched in collaboration with the Wellcome Sanger Institute in September 2022, has been working to measure the variety of plants, animals and insects present on the campus.
Following a visit by a team of scientists from Sanger and the University of Oxford, an outdoor space at the college was chosen for the project and a thorough survey using set traps was used to determine the type of plants, their dimensions, and the size of raised beds required. The students also undertook their own survey the following month to quantify the diversity of bug life present to ensure that the environment was appropriate for other life forms to prosper
This cross-departmental project has been established to foster scientific skills with the aim of increasing the employability of the college’s supported learning students. Members of the Green Team, Aspire Groups and Horticulture Groups are enrolled on programmes that are specifically designed to help develop their life skills and independence and to provide them with transferrable skills that will help them gain future employment. Furthermore, they provide opportunities for the learners to engage with the natural environment in their local community, with the resulting benefits that this brings to their own health and wellbeing needs.
This initiative, spearheaded by Dr. Nikki Chapman from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, was funded through an application to the Darwin Tree of Life project’s Enabling Communities Fund, which provided a budget set at £1,800. This money has financed the harvesting of willow to help form a fence and an arch, plant growth and imbedding, groundwork formation, raised bed creation, path excavation and fence construction. With the help of the college’s construction students, the result is now a space brimming with life, providing an oasis of tranquillity for humans to enjoy alongside their various shared inhabitants!
With the new inclusion of wildflowers, plans for the biodiversity hub are to continue growing blooms, blossoms and more, that will provide bursts of colour to attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and other wildlife. Students also plan to build bug hotels and beetle banks to increase on the energy and excitement that is developing as part of the Sanger Project.
