Michael Jones, Director of STEM gives an overview and encourages visitors to the website and the Nature Reserve

At Northfleet Technology College we have a Nature Reserve. This year we have developed the space following receipt of project funding from the Royal Society and the Churchill Foundation.

This has enabled us to monitor the space to explore the biodiversity. We are carrying this out through the use of digital means: remote weather station and an array of wildlife cameras. This is supplemented with observation and investigation by staff and students. The weather data collection is achieved using a remote station linked to WiFi. As the site does not have power or cabled access we have installed a solar power collection system. We will be installing an IP camera so that we can feed live camera footage to our Reserve website. To increase our power we will be installing a wind collection system.

In term 2 we will be planting approximately 400 trees. The aim of this is to combat the future effects of CO2 plus provide increased cover and food sources for our flora and fauna.

The site is healthy with at 2 fox families. As apex predators this indicates to us that the site is supporting a pyramid of wildlife.

We welcome visitors to our site and do want to share our experiences.

The Reserve site is here: https://ntcnature.blogspot.com/

Recently, we have been highlighted here https://www.sec-ed.co.uk/knowledge-bank/funded-stem-research-projects-what-will-your-students-investigate-royal-society-science-engineering-maths-technology-grant-curriculum-skills-employment-careers-advice/ and here https://royalsociety.org/blog/2022/10/young-student-researchers/