Sara Cooper - Artist in Residence, Green TV

Site visit - May 2011

Pupils and teachers from Golden Flatts Primary School visited Tees-mouth Field Centre, Hartlepool Power Station and explored the Nature Reserve. Pupils folded their own hand-made books to use as field notebooks.

Rangers Lynne and Claire guided us around the site pointing out different habitats, plants and animals. A long eared owl swoops low over our heads and flies across the dunes.

The view across to South Gare is dominated by the steel works. Teesmouth is busy with cargo ships sailing in and out of port.

A very windy day; we fastened our map drawings and field notebooks to clip- boards, but still we lost some to the wind! We had to wear sand goggles to stop the sand blowing into our eyes.

Learning to use viewfinders - this helps pupils select what to draw. We draw from observation, exploring composition and scale.

We collected samples and back at the field centre Lynne and Claire help us to identify and record our finds. Pupils have collected limpet shells, sea kelp, driftwood and slag (a by-product of steel making).