Hi Bulb Buddies,

As we reach the final day of weather data collection, we want to extend a huge thank you to all the schools that have participated in this year’s Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. Your dedication to the project has been invaluable, and we truly appreciate the effort you’ve put in.

Final Data Submission

Now that the recording period is ending, we kindly ask you to upload all your collected data (both weather and flower records) as soon as possible. If your plants haven’t flowered yet, don’t worry. Please let us know, and when they do bloom, you can still enter the flowering data (in millimetres). Every data entry is important and helps make this citizen science project a success.

Bulbcast Competition

If you have created a Bulbcast entry, don’t forget to submit it! We’re happy to receive entries via email, WeTransfer, or shared links – whatever works best for you. If you’ve had any issues sharing your submission, please get in touch so we can help. 

Check Your Data

To ensure your data is complete, you can review your school’s graph on the project website. Remember, prizes will be allocated based on the data entered, so make sure everything is up to date.

Bulb Care Resources

Even though data collection is ending, there are other tasks for you to enjoy. We have plenty of resources on our website, including tips on how to care for your bulbs after flowering. Remember to repurpose your pots after your plants have flowered. We will be sending sunflower seeds to all schools who have submitted weather and flower data and extra seeds to high performing schools, so the pots can have another role to play here!  You can also save the pots and use them if you are taking part in next year’s project.  

February Weather Summary

As we reach the end of March lets take a peek at last month’s weather. February is the month that sees us transition from winter to spring, and this was reflected in the weather we saw. 

The temperature for the first two weeks was lower than average, but the warmer weather in the second half of the month means that the overall temperature for February was above average. Northern Ireland was the warmest country with temperatures 0.9°C above average. 

At the beginning of the month Scottland saw freezing conditions and snow. Mid-month Northern Ireland and England saw heavy rain and strong winds. Towards the end of the month Wales saw heavy rains and some flooding. The end of the month saw more settled weather with some fog and frost. 

February saw below average rainfall, with Northern England seeing nearly half of the expected rainfall. 

Sunlight hours increased throughout the month, reaching just under the long term average for the UK. Scotland was the sunniest country this month. 

Once again, thank you for your fantastic work as part of this year’s Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. We couldn’t do it without you, and we hope you’ve enjoyed being part of this scientific adventure!

Please let us know if you have any questions or need support.

Professor Plant

I am a history MA student, and since April 2024 I have been a volunteer for the museums second-hand book sale. 

A typical session volunteering includes categorising and pricing donated books stored in the volunteer hub. Once we have chosen which books to keep (which is most of them) we place and organise them at the front of the museum. You can choose how long you want to volunteer for and if you want to be alone or work with someone else. Sometimes there are a lot of books to sort and sometimes all you need to do is put out more on the shelves to sell.

I started volunteering because I took a year off university in between my undergrad and postgrad, and I wanted to do something that would give me an insight into how the heritage sector worked. I find organising and arranging the books calming and the staff and volunteers are always really friendly! 

Maia – Book Sale Volunteer

Hi Bulb Buddies,

We have just two weeks of weather records ahead of us, this school year is flying buy! I'd like to thank all schools who have already submitted their data and who have shared photos and videos of the project. 

Keep Logging Your Data

Spring is in the air, and that means we’re nearing the end of data collection for this year’s Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. Please remember to upload your temperature and rainfall records so far. Every entry helps us to build a bigger picture of how weather affects flowering times, so don’t miss out on adding your data. 

Share Your Flower Records

As your bulbs begin to bloom, remember to log each flower separately. Every child can enter their own flower data, helping them build important digital skills while contributing to real scientific research. Remember to upload the height of your plant in millimetres (mm). If your plant has grown but hasn't flowered you could enter it's height but 00-00-00 as the date. You can also do this if your plant didn't grow. You can add comments about your plants when uploading your data too. 

Super Scientist Prizes

Prizes will be allocated to schools based on the amount of weather and flower data shared. So be sure to upload all of your data and showcase the great work you've been doing recording throughout the school year. 

Bulbcast Competition

A quick reminder that there’s still time to submit your Bulbcast video entries. You can submit these over Twitter or via email. We can’t wait to see how your young scientists have been documenting their investigations. Need inspiration? Check out last year’s fantastic entries below:

Don’t forget, you have until 28 March to send in your Bulbcast videos. We’d love to celebrate your students’ creativity, storytelling, and scientific discoveries!

Spring is Here

As the season shifts, encourage your students to look for signs of spring beyond their bulbs, emerging leaves, buzzing insects, and lengthening daylight are all clues that nature is waking up.

Let’s make the final weeks of our investigation count! If you have any questions or need support, we’re here to help. 

Happy recording, and happy spring Bulb Buddies!

Professor Plant

After two years of stillness and silence, the Weaving Shed at the National Wool Museum is waking up, and the sound of machinery at work once again fills the air.

Now that the work of cleaning, repairing and conserving the building and the reconfiguring of the work space inside, the exciting work of learning how to operate the machinery has begun.

Before Melin Teifi closed two years ago, Raymond Jones was the last remaining maker of Welsh flannel, which is culturally important as it has been used extensively to make National Costume and workwear. This year Raymond has been in helping us to restore and tune the flannel loom, as it has been in storage and idle for two years.

We have produced a flannel warp that is unique to Amgueddfa Cymru and tied it on to the loom. We have learnt to use a warp stop which as the name suggests, stops the loom if any of the 1,500 threads break; reducing damage to the cloth and significantly reducing the time required to mend the cloth.

Also, as the yarn is a single ply it requires a higher level of skill and awareness when weaving with it. Working with single ply yarn has proved to be quite challenging and has presented us with different issues and problems which have challenged our understanding of how the looms function. It has been an interesting and rewarding experience.

By improving our knowledge and understanding of how the looms function we are able to consistently make better cloth. It is our intention to be able to make a variety of different cloth such as flannel, double cloth, and twill blankets. This will help us to generate income for the Museum and provide a more fulfilling visitor experience.

Over the last year, we as craftspeople at the museum have learnt a great deal, have encountered many obstacles and challenges as well as some frustrations. The greatest lesson we learnt as a team was… patience!

This year, the Weaving Shed will become alive again as we continue with the tradition of flannel making here in the Teifi Valley and we look forward to sharing this experience and history with you, our visitors!
 

Who are you? How and why did you join Demystifying Acquisitions? 

My name is Abraham Makanjuola, I am originally from London and I work as a Health Economist for Bangor University. During my masters, I was working with the Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel (SSAP) on a documentary about narratives about the African Continent from the perspective of people from the diaspora linked with the UK. Following the release of this, I was approached about being involved with filming behind the scenes content for Demystifying Acquisitions. I was initially not sure, because I didn’t know what I had of value to offer the project, but I was met with encouragement and that helped me make my decision. I think that was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life to date. 

How did you find the overall experience of working for Demystifying Acquisitions? 

It was sensational, I would do it all over again exactly as it has played out. I genuinely have nothing negative to say and there aren’t any glaring issues that require addressing from my perspective. I think that is a testament to the people I was blessed enough to work with. I have enjoyed myself and learned so much over the past couple of years and I am grateful to all involved. 

What set of skills did you gain while working on the project? 

Specific to new museum knowledge, I learned about the conservation of artwork, how the bid and grant writing process works, and how to write labels for artworks in galleries. Wider softer skills I was able to develop were teamwork and collaboration, and project management. 

What was your favourite part of working on the project? 

My favourite part was being a part of the install day of the redisplay, I even got to put up one of the works which was cool. Prior to this day though, my favourite part was learning about label writing. Did you feel listened to? Were you able to influence or change things? What instance? Throughout the process we were given complete autonomy and were encouraged and supported with our group decisions. With this support we were able to respect museum practices but also shake things up and challenge how things have previously been done. We did have push back for certain decisions we made but there was always mutual understanding and respect.