What's in the UK 2021 Hanson Box
What’s Inside The 2021 UK Hanson Box
The 2021 UK Hanson Box contains specially-designed resources that cover a broad range of subjects in the national curriculum, including biology, English, art, geography, history, ecology, environmental sciences and natural history.
This year’s box includes 7 books, 9 lesson plans, a pack of giant sunflower seeds, as well as dormant eggs for Triops and brine shrimps!
We have also created 6 online films that complement the South Georgia activity kit inside the 2021 Hanson Box, as well as a range of imaginative drawing and creative writing competitions, a pack of giant sunflower seeds and a kit with brine shrimp and Triops eggs.
Below is a summary of the 2021 Hanson Box contents sent to 8,000 schools across the United Kingdom and UK Overseas Territories:
- A book titled Britain’s Secret Islands’ This work explores the history, culture, geography and wildlife of many of the 6,000 islands that make up the British Archipelago.
- A book titled What on Earth? The Plants You Have Never Heard Of. This work showcases the world’s most unusual plants species beyond the regular species all children are familiar with. The intention here is to widen young minds’ appreciation of the astounding diversity of the natural world.
- A book titled Incredible Universe – Volume 1: The Solar System. This book explores the awe-inspiring Solar System and our place in the wider universe.
- A book titled Geographers & Explorers Volume 1. This work recounts five fascinating feats of intrepid exploration and discovery to excite the minds of young geographers and inspire curiosity for the world.
- A book titled England’s Best Loved Poems. This is a collection of beloved English poems, selected by best selling author George Courtauld. This colourful compilation is intended to brighten English classes.
- A book titled Beautiful Britain. This book explores the dazzling rainbow of animals and plants found across the British Isles, with the intent of showcasing hundreds of little-known native British species that your students may not be aware of.
- Lesson Plans for all of the above books.
- South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Information Pack. These pack explores the history, heritage and wildlife of one of the most interesting of all of the UK Overseas Territories, and includes a 64-page book, a map of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, six online films and accompanying lesson plans. This pack also includes a really exciting competition (involving drawing projects for younger children and creative writing for older children). In addition to generous prizes, the winning drawings and essays of this competition will be taken to South Georgia to be displayed in the island’s museum (which thousands of tourists visit each year)!
- Great British Sunflower Competitions: we have sourced packs of seeds of giant sunflowers to enable your school to take part in a UK-wide sunflower growing competition (with prizes for the winners!)
- Nature’s Recyclers kit. Encourage your students to understand the nutrient cycle and the myriad of creatures around us that constantly recycle leaf litter and organic waste etc. Included are packs of dormant eggs of Triops tadpole shrimps and brine shrimps! These amazing creatures hatch out in freshwater, living for only a few weeks. Start your own culture and have your very own easy-to-keep classroom pets!
- Carbon Cycle and Water Cycle Posters. We have enclosed four posters (two concerning the carbon cycle and two concerning the water cycle) to brighten the walls of your classroom and the acquiring minds of your pupils.
Authors: Stewart McPherson and Robert Irving
ISBN: 978-1-913631-09-3
Pages: 160
Images: 440
Page size: 240 x 285 mm (landscape)
Cover format: Hardcover
The British Isles are an amazingly diverse and beautiful part of the world, home to over 60,000 species of animals and plants, some of which occur nowhere else on Earth.
This book takes you on a journey through Britain’s diverse habitats and ecosystems to explore the dazzling rainbow of wildlife with which we share these islands.
Discover the animals, plants and fungi that live in our woodlands, purple heathlands, sand dunes, peat bogs, moors and windswept mountain summits.
Over 400 species are profiled with text descriptions, spectacular images and conservation status indicators. This work covers an immense range of native British wildlife, from earthstars to goshawks, pine martins to bee orchids, slow worms and stoats to hawk moths and cold-water corals. Extinct, re-introduced and non-native animals and plants are also included.
Be amazed at the dazzling rainbow of wildlife that calls beautiful Britain home.
Authors: Stewart McPherson
ISBN: 978-1-913631-07-9
Pages: 160
Images: 620
Page size: 240 x 285 (landscape)
Cover format: Hardcover
What is your favourite plant? A rose, a tulip or a fern?
Or perhaps a carnivorous plant that catches rats, a skull-shaped flower or an electric blue begonia… or one of the 375,000 other plants of our world?
From the Darth Vader begonia, to the weird bat flower, parasitic Rhizanthes (the stuff of nightmares!), to snake fruit, iridescent-leaved plants that shimmer blue to the stained glass window plant, sensitive plants (whose leaves move) to greenhouse plants! Read about ancient dragon’s blood trees, ghost pipes, living fossils, quiver trees, window plants, ice plants, the world’s tallest trees, the oldest plant on earth, gigantic Rafflesia and Amorphophallus blooms, stinky starfish flowers and durians, as well as the bizarre voodoo lily, and an astonishing rainbow of carnivorous plants that catch and eat insect as well as other small animals!
Discover the world’s most spectacular and amazing plants you have never heard of!
Authors: Alex McColgan, Stewart McPherson and Robert Irving
ISBN: 978-1-913631-06-2
Pages: 160
Images: 210
Page size: 240 x 285 mm (landscape)
Cover format: Hardcover
Since prehistory, humankind has gazed with wonder at the night sky.
Beyond admiring the beauty of those small, twinkling lights, there has always been a desire by the thinkers through the ages to study and understand the jewels of the infinite starscape above.
This series of books takes you on a journey to explore the seemingly infinite scale, complexity and majesty of our Incredible Universe.
This volume focuses on our solar system, starting with its place inside the observable universe, and the unimaginable scale of our galaxy and beyond.
The components of the solar system are then systematically introduced along with a summary of key facts, covering: the eight planets, the many dwarf planets, the asteroid and Kuiper belt, as well as the outer limits of the Oort Cloud.
The following 90 pages are dedicated to examining the sun, the eight planets and the dwarf planet Pluto in detail.
Each is profiled over several pages, covering internal structure and atmosphere, surface features, moons, missions and prospects for astrobiology, along with spectacular imagery from NASA, ESA and other space agencies.
The concluding chapters provide a detailed account of exploration of Mars to date, as well as a look to the future and the next chapter of space exploration.
This book will appeal to all interested in the wonders of the universe and our place within it.
Authors: Stewart McPherson and Robert Irving
ISBN: 978-1-913631-08-6
Pages: 192
Images: 320
Page size: 152 x 229 mm (landscape)
Cover format: Hardcover
Geography is the study of people, places and time.
It spans the making of Planet Earth and formation of all we see, as well as the landscape of the human world and the intricacies of the biosphere.
Geography is the burning passion in all of us to question, discover and understand. For those that are curious, it is the greatest of all academic subjects.
This book explores five amazing stories of geographical exploration and discovery:
1. The Exploration of the Lost World: we follow the efforts of adventurers to reach the summit of ‘lost world’ tepui mountains of the Guiana Highlands and discover the unique animals, carnivorous plants and extraordinary landscapes of the summits of these mountains.
2. Escape from the White Continent: we follow the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, his adventurous journey to South Georgia, and the latest discoveries from the Antarctic continent, from Antarctic fossils to glaciology, ice caves, volcanoes under the ice and newly discovered hydrothermal vents.
3. Navigating a Mutiny: in this chapter, we journey to the South Seas to explore the munity on the Bounty story, and the Pacific’s heritage of great Polynesian navigators their star compass techniques, voyaging canoes and the trio of great Western map makes: James Cook, William Bligh and Matthew Flinders.
4. Exploring the Amazon: we follow the extraordinary adventures of Alfred Russel Wallace and Henry Walter Bates through their travels in the Amazon. From the discoveries they made, to Wallace’s catastrophic shipwreck on his way home, and ongoing exploration in the Amazon Basin.
5. Gardens of the Sun: Continuing Wallace’s story, we follow his travels through the Malays Archipelago, and the ground breaking discoveries that he made: the Sarawak Law, the Wallace Line, and eventually, the Theory of Evolution. Each of these is discussed in the context of the time, along with subsequent adventures of Victorian plant hunters and the author’s own journey in search of new species of carnivorous plants.
In our changing world, a new generation of geographers is needed more than ever.
This book is written for borne with a passion for geography in its truest sense: the yearning to peer beyond distant horizons and discover new knowledge.
Authors: George Courtauld
ISBN: 978-1-913631-05-5
Pages: 192
Images: 40
Page size: 152 x 229 mm (landscape)
Cover format: Hardcover
Bestselling author George Courtauld compiles a list of his favourite great English poems.
Each poem is placed in historical context with a short biography of each poet and the author’s personal interpretation of language and themes.
This compilation includes national favourites as well as little known works by the likes of Winston Churchill and Walter Raleigh.
In total, over 100 poems are included in this work, arranged into the following chapters based on their themes and motifs: Fellowship, Regret, Love, Wonder, The Underdog, Prayer, Magic, Defiance, Kingship, Loss and Home.
England’s Best Loved Poems will stir and inspire anyone with a passion for poetry.
Authors: Stewart McPherson
ISBN: 978-1-908787-43-9
Pages: 416
Images: 620
Page size: 160 x 240 mm (portrait)
Cover format: Hardcover
This book accompanies the TV documentary series Britain’s Secret Islands, by Stewart McPherson, broadcast on the History Channel (UK), SBS (Australia), Arte (continental Europe) and many other channels across the world.
The United Kingdom comprises over 6,100 islands, skerries and sea stacks. These fragments of land are Britain’s Secret Islands.
Scattered around the British coast, they are home to rich cultures, ancient history, unique wildlife and spectacular landscapes.
Join explorer Stewart McPherson on a journey to the most remote British Isles.
Explore five-thousand-year-old ruins, Viking heritage, immense seabird colonies, diverse reefs, shipwrecks, and wildlife that is found nowhere else on Earth.
Discover an extraordinary side of the United Kingdom that few know exists.
Authors: Stewart McPherson
ISBN: 978-1-908787-42-2
Pages: 64
Images: 130
Page size: 175 x 145 mm (portrait)
Cover format: Softcover
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are treasure troves of wildlife, home to some of the world’s greatest concentrations of penguins, albatrosses, seals and whales.
As epicentres of Antarctic exploration, these islands boast rich heritage as well as some of the planet’s most dramatic scenery, including active lava lakes, vast glaciers, hydrothermal vents and icy peaks that soar 2,000 m tall.
This 64-page book explores the spectacular wildlife, history and heritage of this fascinating UK Overseas Territory.
This book is part of an information pack created in partnership with the South Georgia Heritage Trust. The pack also includes a map of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, six online films and accompanying lesson plans, as well as a really exciting competition (involving drawing projects for younger children and creative writing for older children). In addition to generous prizes, the winning drawings and essays of this competition will be taken to South Georgia to be displayed in the island’s museum (which thousands of tourists visit each year)!
Encourage your students to understand the nutrient cycle and the myriad of creatures around us that constantly recycle leaf litter and organic waste etc. Included are packs of dormant eggs of Triops tadpole shrimps and brine shrimps! These amazing creatures hatch out in freshwater, living for only a few weeks. Start your own culture and have your very own easy-to-keep classroom pets!
Great British Sunflower Competitions: we have sourced packs of seeds of giant sunflowers to enable your school to take part in a UK-wide sunflower growing competition called the Great British Sunflower Competition (with prizes for the winners!)
How many beautiful, saucer-shaped blooms will your sunflower plants produce?
COMPETITION CATEGORIES
1. Tallest sunflower plant (photograph a tape measure next to your sunflower plant to show height)
2. Most flowers on a single stem 3. Largest individual flower (include ruler or tape measure next to flower to show size)
4. Most attractive specimen (photo whole plant)
5. Funniest sunflower photo (use your imagination, e.g. paint a face, create a moustache or give your flower a hat!)
We have enclosed two water cycle and two carbon cycle posters for your classroom wall! We hope these will help capture your students’ interests
Also included in your 2021 Hanson Box:
- A cover letter from Andrew Fox and Simon Leary, the trustees of the Don Hanson Charitable Foundation.
- Five custom-designed lesson plans. Each lesson plan uses different resources from the 2021 Hanson Box to help teachers use the items we are donating and assimilate them into lessons, addressing different elements of the school curriculum.
- A flyer about our partner organisation, Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots youth groups, which offer a range of exciting activities for schools across the UK!
- A flyer about the upcoming DARWIN200 Global Voyage and the World’s Most Exciting Classroom project which will beam out activities and resources free of charge for 100 weeks.
After a full year of development and planning, the 8,000 * 2021 Hanson Boxes were shipped to schools across the UK.
Each box weights approx. 9 kg, so in total, around 70 tonnes (70,000 kg!) of educational resources were sent!
The Don Hanson Charitable Foundation team really hopes that students and educators will enjoy the resources in the 2021 Hanson Box!
To request next year’s Hanson Box, click here
About the UK 2021 Hanson Box
The 2021 UK Hanson Box will be full of exciting, specially crafted resources and is free for your school!
Due to demand, we are only sending the 2021 box to schools that request it via this website.
If you would like a free 2021 UK Hanson Box for your school, please request one now and we will send it to you free of charge!
