Earlier this term 30 lucky schoolgirls from Dunottar Girls School in Reigate accompanied their biology teacher on a very special trip to the Natural History Museum in London. The girls went along to witness the donation of their teacher's collection of plants and butterflies made on an extraordinary expedition to the Arctic over 30 years ago. Head of Biology, Ms Pip Wood, had been the scientific officer on the Baffin Island Youth Expedition to Arctic Canada in 1978 when she was working at Therfield School in Leatherhead. Ms Wood, along with three other adults and seven 16-19 year-olds, had undergone nearly three years of training. The aim of the expedition was to climb peaks in a poorly mapped area of the island and undertake scientific projects.

As Ms Wood is now approaching retirement, she decided to donate her collections to the museum. As a thank you the museum offered Ms Wood and her pupils a once in a lifetime opportunity to look behind the scenes to see their most valuable flora and entomological collections made over 400 years ago. The girls saw how the scientists store the collections and how they are used to make comparisons of life forms as environments change over time.