MDX academics work with 4-year-olds in the local community to discover the wonder and value of mini beasts

Local schools and MDX collaborate on environmental project where children discover that ‘small things make a big difference’

An MDX academic team led by Jayne Osgood, Professor of Early Years Education, spent the first half of this year working with two local schools on an innovative ‘Environmental Education’ pilot project to support Barnet Council’s NetZero ambitions.

They worked with 120 four-year-olds from two primary schools in Barnet as well as their teachers, parents and grandparents and the Council to create ‘Minibeasts of Barnet’. Following the success of the project the research team is now applying for funding to expand the pilot project on national and international level.

The Minibeasts project was funded by Higher Education Innovation Funding and the team included Dr Victoria de Rijke, Professor in Arts and Education, and PhD student Matthew Maxwell.

Children were supported to explore tiny species living alongside them in their community, including microbes, insects and harmless viruses, that they encountered every day but probably did not think about.

Watch Minibeasts video

Instead of teaching children to feel responsible for the future of the planet, the project focuses on experimental and open-ended exploration. Children were encouraged to tune into and engage with the natural environment: to playfully consider how their interactions with minibeasts could inspire new ways of thinking and living in the world.

The aim of the project was to develop an understanding in young children of how all species are interconnected. It challenged the idea that humans were superior to other species, and encouraged the children to consider our relationship with everything around us, no matter how small.

The academic team used creative arts-based methods, movement, collage, and nonsense poetry to help the children to create together and learn through making things. By inventing ladybird language, dancing as ants, and moving like spiders, the children learned through play.

Commenting on Minibeasts, Professor Osgood said: “We were asked to develop an environment project about nature with young children, and to make it fun and not to scare them about climate change. We needn’t have worried. The children engaged with their tiny non-human companions with wonder and excitement."

“The children taking part flourished and this included those with special educational needs. There is no right answer when you’re out in all weathers with your wellies exploring insects, plants and nature. We know that post-pandemic many children are struggling as they have missed out on vital experiences to make them ‘school ready’. This has put them and their teachers under enormous pressures. It’s so heartening to discover that there is a different kind of learning that enables children to thrive.”

Professor Osgood, Middlesex University

The project culminated in developing a picture book of the children’s work, Making Odd Kin, and having a launch day at their schools with ice cream vans and fun. It also led to the Hon Sandra Agard, renowned British storyteller, writer and cultural historian, performing Making Odd Kin at the British Library.

Watch Sandra Agard

Minibeasts of Barnet and Making Odd Kin have been embedded into the teacher training programmes at Middlesex University, inspiring more young children across the borough.

The research team believe this project could play an important role in contributing much-needed environmental-education materials and methods to the early-years curriculum. 

Professor Osgood has been invited to present on the success of Minibeasts by the Australian Association for Research in Education; NORCHILD – a conference hosted by a consortium of Norwegian Universities; the Montessori Europe Congress and Social Justice in Early Childhood and the University of Tasmania.

The academic team has published two peer reviewed outputs on Minibeasts. A publishing contract with Springer Nature has also been secured to produce a book: Creative Methods in Early Childhood Education (Autumn 2025).