5 Long Semesters: A BioLit Student Testimonial

Picture the scene.  It’s one very cold January 2024.  You are a spry young 2^nd year student, not yet wizened by the trails of the Honours-years workload.  Perhaps you are looking for something a little unique to do with your time at university, or heaven forbid, become employable.

“Hey, what’s this “Biodiversity Literacy” VIP module thing, that sounds good-”.

You had no idea what you were letting yourself in for, huh.

Why, hello there and welcome! To be clear, I’m not being held hostage by the BioLit VIP module.  Quite the opposite really.  This is my 5^th semester here, and as a final-year student, it will also be my last.  To say I’ve enjoyed my time would be quite the understatement. So, my final words to you will be this testimonial, which I sincerely hope will illustrate the skills and gifts I’ve been given over these 5 precious semesters.  One fresh hell of a ride.

But first, I should probably explain what goes on here.

Now, who is this BioLit gal?

Put simply, The “Biodiversity Literacy”  Vertically Integrated Project (affectionately known as BioLit) is one of a series of VIPs run by the University of St Andrews.  Less of an academic module with a set curriculum, VIPs are more a set of ongoing projects that students in any year can participate in!  We in BioLit are headed by our leader and overlord, one Professor Will Cresswell.  By virtue of being a nature-oriented module, we admittedly bring in a lot of Biology students.  But worry not!  Amongst others, we have also had students join us from the schools of English, Physics and Astronomy, Mathematics and Statistics, and even Economics and Finance.

Our M.O. is pretty self-explanatory.  We hope to increase basic wildlife literacy within the university and wider St Andrews community.  As a student, it is all too easy to become trapped indoors under a mountain of coursework, never again to touch grass.  Many people out there lack any in-depth knowledge of the natural world and may damage it out of ignorance or malice.  Biodiversity (how many animal and plant species inhabit a space) is a fundamental part of ecosystem health, and we hope to educate St Andrews residents on local biodiversity and improve it where we can on university grounds!

Each student helps out on some of our projects, currently including but not limited to:

• Long-term species mapping to monitor biodiversity on university grounds

• Putting bird and bat boxes up around campus

• Outreach to and coordination with university management, including Sally Mapstone herself

• Taking over the boards under the cloisters in St Salvators Quad

• And now in its 2^nd year running, Biodiversity Awareness Day!

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Projects are led by students, and we meet each Friday to discuss updates an action points!

Never say our meetings aren’t entertaining.  Here’s Will Cresswell standing on a chair, imitating a woodcock.  Woodcocks are rumoured to carry their chicks away from danger with their feet, something that Will decided to grace us with his very own impression of.  Perhaps one day we will remember to put him in a nursing home.

You were saying something about learning skills?

As previously dubiously claimed, I joined BioLit for employability, and employable I have now become.  I’ve quoted the VIP on every one of the 15 thousand job applications I’ve put in for seasonal work this summer.  Why?  Because I’ve learned skills here that I couldn’t have learned anywhere else at this university.

To start with the nerdy stuff, species recording!  We use a piece of called Qfield, where we can map any animal or plant species we find on our mobile phones.  Qfield is actually a remarkable bit of technology, with a desktop sister called QGIS, where we can view our collective efforts.  I would call QGIS approximately “pre-historic”, but mastering her is such an important skill.  For those unaware, GIS software is by far the most common application used to map areas in most natural sciences, and with no formal training in it at undergraduate Biology here, having an alternate source of training lets us graduate with an advantage.

What a beauty:  This is a screenshot of our QGIS species monitoring map.  Each dot is a record, and each layer holds an entirely new set of information.  As you can see, we’ve done a lot of mapping!  I may be biased, but I love her.

But what about the whole “Biodiversity Literacy” thing?  That means you get to learn about animals and plants right? Yes!  Yes we do and it is WONDERFUL.  Our primary focus is on birds, as an accessible starting point to wildlife identification.  Will takes us on bird walks each Tuesday morning, where we follow him around like lost ducklings as he explains the finer points to identifying each bird we see.  But it doesn’t end there.  The real winner is the knowledge we share with eachother.  For every piece of knowledge I’ve learned from Will, I’ve gained tenfold more from other VIP students.  Moths from Älice, plants and fungi from Cori, and hoverflies from Parker.  I can now quite thoroughly call myself a naturalist, and well on my way to becoming a wildlife expert.

Will teaches the subtleties of species identification.  For example, those tiny differences between the elusive Kingfisher (second) and the common-or-garden Crisp Packet (first).  Unmistakable. Will once misidentified a crisp packet as a kingfisher and once he told us, we never let it go.  I have been advised that this is a “good misidentification based on a deep knowledge of kingfishers and their habits, and wishful thinking”.  I am assuming this is the correct form of crisp packet, as Will is ancient. 

Perhaps the most important skill I’ve learned with BioLit is a good old-fashioned bit of resilience.  When co-ordinating our projects with externals members of the university and wider community, the biggest problem we face is simply a lack of engagement.  This does make for good written communication training, and eventual mastery of the follow-up email.  When this fails, your verbal communication training begins, as you must find and locate 3 separate people’s offices, just to have a 5-minute conversation.  Times are tough, but refusing to take no for an answer is certainly a skill worth retaining, especially in the conservation sector! 

But really, why stay?

While the skills I’ve learned in BioLit have certainly put me at an advantage in post-undergraduate life, in truth I stayed for the people.  In St Andrews, undergraduate biology students are spread across town, with no one centralised building to call their own.  This makes finding friendships outside of class-time a challenge and can leave us feeling isolated.  By sharing knowledge and experiences in BioLit, we’ve formed a collaborative and supportive community.  New students are mentored by old, and we all pitch in to get the work done.  The friends I’ve made through this module, I suspect I will keep for life.   

Fond memories.  In April 2025, BioLit took a trip to the Corrour estate in the Scottish Highlands.  We camped overnight on the shore of the beautiful Loch Ossian, and watched the sun go down.

Under Will’s mentorship, I’ve gone from a timid 2^nd year to a near-graduate, sure of myself and my abilities.  I’ll be starting my Master’s degree in September, something I could not have done without Will’s help and guidance.  I’m sure I’ve gained more from him and the other BioLit students than I could ever really know.  Aside from all I’ve learned, Will has been more than accepting of me as a transgender student, beyond that of many of my other professors.  I was initially nervous to come out to him, but despite our generational differences, Will has been trying and understanding where it counts.  We joke around a lot, but I could not more highly recommend him as a mentor.  

Allowing me greater access to nature in my academic life has had untold benefits.  From improving my understanding of the concepts needed for my degree to just bringing me day-to-day joy.  Biodiversity Literacy is hands down the best module I ever could have taken, both for skills and for community.  If nothing else, it’s made my university experience worth it, and worth remembering for life.