Course Description
Follow Steve Backshall on an amazing journey through the wild world and learn some of the most mind-blowing facts about nature! Become an accredited nature knowledge expert and the source of all animal knowledge.
Do you know which common insects roast their would-be predators with heat? Which animal has the most powerful bite, or where it hasn’t rained for nearly 2 million years!? By the end of the course you will do – and you’ll also be a Steve Backshall accredited Nature Knowledge Expert - with a certificate to prove it!!
You’ll need to get your pen and paper ready as each of the six lessons will begin with a quiz, where Steve asks you ten questions about our amazing natural world.
He will then go through each question, giving the answer as well as other incredible facts, fascinating knowledge and stories about his own adventures. Steve will then set a fun assignment. This could be a written piece, like arguing for or against the reintroduction of wolves in Scotland, or a creative piece – a drawing, painting, or poem inspired by something you’ve learned.
On hand to give you feedback is Will Nicholls - Zoologist, professional wildlife camera operator and Steve’s associate. Will films wildlife around the world for natural history television, and his zest for adventure is unmatched. You will also have the opportunity to meet and chat with fellow students in the Nature Knowledge Expert community, so get your pen ready and prepare to be taken on a fantastical journey around our planet.
Course outline
Introduction, Predators and Unicorns
The World’s Deadliest Animal
Steve’s Mindblowers
Under the Sea!
Sea Creatures, Land Animals and Mass Migration
Lazy Animals, Long Journeys and Meat Eating Pandas
Choose how you want to learn
The Expert option
RecommendedDevelop your learning further with marked assignments and personal tuition from Steve Backshall
- Start course whenever you like
- 6 weeks tutor access for personalised assignment feedback & coaching
- 6 assignments marked by Steve Backshall
- Certificate of completion from Steve Backshall
- Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
- 6 lessons with expert videos & notes
- Group chat & direct message with tutor & classmates
- Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
$499The Peer option
Discover the benefits of group learning in an online interactive classroom of no more than 20 people. Get the most from shared knowledge and community study
- Start course whenever you like
- Practise what you learn with your peers
- Online classroom with up to 20 classmates
- 6 lessons with expert videos & notes
- 6 course assignments
- Group chat & direct message classmates
- Lifetime access to videos, notes & classroom
$199
Learn better together
Online classroom
Start anytime and join a class of no more than 20 students
Test yourself
Practice what you learn with assignments after each lesson
Personal tuition
Exclusive assignment feedback from Expert Tutors
Share
Share ideas with classmates from around the world
Meet Steve Backshall
Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he could crawl. Growing up, he counted the animals that lived around him as his best pals – from the asthmatic donkey to the grass snakes in the manure heap!
After leaving University, Steve studied martial arts in Japan attaining his black belt. Over the following years Steve wrote for the Indonesian Rough Guides and during his travels became conversant in the local language, drank blood with uncontacted tribes, nearly got caught in fatal crossfire in riots in East Timor, came nose to nose with Komodo Dragons and attempted to walk solo across Irian Jaya!
Next, Steve headed out to Colombia. Whilst living in the jungle he wrangled snakes and ended up in a Colombian jail (through no fault of his own)! National Geographic Channel International bought the resultant video and Steve was taken on as ‘Adventurer in Residence’, producing, filming and presenting adventure and natural history programmes. Steve has circumnavigated the globe time and again, venturing into the Sinai desert, completing the Israeli paratroopers selection course, catching anacondas, vipers and cobras and making “The Ten Great Dives of the World”, for the long-running series ‘Earthpulse’.
Will Nicholls is a zoologist professional wildlife camera operator from Bristol, UK. Will films wildlife around the world for natural history television, often filming at height from the forest canopy to provide a unique perspective.
Whilst perfectly capable of shooting with two feet on the ground as a traditional “long lenser,” he loves to film at height in the treetops. Will owns and can rig a platform hide for filming, allowing him to experience a rare window into the lives of different species.
Previous television credits include working for the BBC, Plimsoll Productions, and Silverback Films. Will is also the founder of the largest nature photography resource online, Nature TTL www.naturettl.com, where he teaches photography alongside other professionals.