A SUPER day of scientific exploration in the great outdoors has been experienced by pupils from three primary schools.

Youngsters aged between nine and 11 from Tavernspite, Templeton and Narberth schools took on the role of environmental scientists in the event at Colby Woodland Gardens.

The hands-on field trip involved high level environmental study skills and river sampling techniques, and the children involved had all been identified as having particular strengths in science and mathematics.

It was delivered by Marten Lewis from the Darwin Centre, who said: "This was a very rewarding project to be involved with. The pupils were amazing, and a real credit to their schools."

All the pupils worked extremely efficiently as a team to carry out an environmental study and a detailed biodiversity survey at the gardens.

The activities for the field trip and subsequent analysis techniques for assessing the biodiversity date were borrowed from the A Level syllabus, and the pupils really enjoyed pushing themselves by recording data sets and carrying out complex calculations which they then used for their comparative data analysis processes.

The field trip was a practical element of an innovative multi-partner science and numeracy project, delivered and led by Adam Lopez, assistant headteacher at the Tavernspite and Templeton Federation of Schools.

It involved a team of teachers from 12 primary schools across Pembrokeshire as well as Sam and Marten from the Darwin Centre.

Following the success of the project and the quality of learning experiences for pupils, the lessons and practical activities will now be shared with other educators throughout Wales.

Said Adam Lopez: "I would like to thank all of the brilliant teachers who have taken part, the Darwin Centre and their sponsor, Dragon LNG, the National Trust at Colby Woods for allowing us to use their spectacular site, and especially the wonderful pupils for all their enthusiasm and hard work."