The Power of Citizen Science for Biodiversity Monitoring in Schools: Community Engagement, Nature Connectedness & Valuable Data!
John Witton
Empowering students, staff and the wider community in schools to become citizen scientists and engage with nature can be a hugely powerful tool to increase nature connectivity. The impact of such events can be long lasting and create legacy within a school with many associated benefits. Simply increasing time spent outdoors can have enormously positive effects on wellbeing. At Jerudong International School we ran a whole-school BioBlitz in June 2025 as part of our Science and Earth Week. We were delighted with the results – 626 observations of 331 species in 3 days. The aim of this workshop is to give other schools, organisations and individuals the tools they need to run their own events. It intends to give an overview of the logistics – how to set this up for your school, even if you have no experience and are not a biologist –and will also include a practical element – getting outside at Garden International School and carrying out our own mini-BioBlitz.
About John
This is my 22nd year teaching Biology and I have been involved in outdoor education my entire career. I set up D of E at my first school in South East London and was the International Award Coordinator at BIS in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I was Director of Co-curricular at NLCS Jeju, on Jeju Island in South Korea with oversight of the entire enrichment programme, including after school CCAs and the Saturday morning ‘Bryant’ programme of adventurous activities. I taught for 5 years at Sevenoaks School in the UK where I was Head of Cross Country (and qualified as a running coach), and did my D of E Supervisor and Assessor Course. I was Head of D of E at Harrow Bangkok and am currently Head of Outdoor Education at Jerudong International School in Brunei where I have oversight of all outdoor activities including the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award, 1st Jerudong Scouts (we are a British Scout troop overseas), year group trips and Outdoor Learning across the Junior and Senior Schools. I attended OFFSEAS 2024 and presented at OFFSEAS 2025 on the provision at Jerudong International School. As a Biologist and Outdoor Educator I’m keen to incorporate real science into outdoor learning.
