: Spring Bulbs

Hello Bulb Buddies,

Thank you for all the work you have done so far and for sharing your photos! It was extremely hard to choose just five winners. The chosen photos are from schools in Wales who are not participating in the Edina extension projects. If you are participating in the Edina Trust extension projects then your photo has been entered into that competition, and the Edina Trust will announce winners soon.

Here are the winning schools:

Ysgol Carreg Emlyn

Severn Primary School

Shirenewton Primary

St Julians Primary

Ysgol Bro Hyddgen

Your prizes will be posted to you soon. Well done Bulb Buddies.

I’d like to send a big thank you to all the schools that have shared photos with us. It has been lovely to see the work that you have been doing, so please continue to share your photos! I will use these in my Blog Posts over the coming weeks.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies!

Professor Plant

Hi Bulb Buddies!

I hope you all enjoyed your half term holidays!

I want to say a big thank you for all your hard work on planting day. You helped to plant 17,360 bulbs across the country! And from the photos I’ve seen, it looks like you all had a great time doing it!

Weather records should be kept from 6th November. Please make sure that your thermometer and rain gauge are in a suitable place next to your bulbs so that you can begin taking your daily weather readings!

It’s a good idea to practise taking readings beforehand. You can do this by adding water to the rain gauge, noting the measurement and then checking that everyone has taken the same reading!

There is a resource on the website to help you prepare for taking weather records. I’ve attached this here in case you haven’t already seen it! This resource helps you to answer important questions, such as ‘why rain fall and temperature readings are important to our investigation into the effects of climate on the flowering dates of spring bulbs’!

Use your Weather Chart to log the rain fall and temperature every day that you are in school. At the end of each week, log into the Spring Bulbs website to add your weekly readings. You can also leave comments or ask questions for me to answer in my next Blog!

Let me know how you get on! You can share photos with me via email or Twitter.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies!

Professor Plant

Your comments:

Professor Plant: Thank you for all your lovely comments Bulb Buddies! I'm glad you are enjoying the project, I look forward to seeing your weather readings!

Portpatrick Primary School: Hi Professor Plant, Portpatrick Primary enjoyed planting all our crocus and daffodil bulbs today on our first day back at school for the new term. Watch this space!

Auchenlodment Primary School: Hello Professor Plant, Primary 4 children from Auchenlodment Primary in Renfrewshire,have successfully planted their bulbs today. We are all very excited to see them grow over the next few months!

Pollyplatt Primary School: Pollyplatt Primary School, Scampton, Lancaster & Wolsley class have planted their bulbs today. We are looking forward to spring time and our colourful flowering bulb display.

Potterhanworth Primary School: Hello Professor Plant, We are the children from Potterhanworth Primary School and we have just finished planting our baby bulbs! We are all very excited to see how long it takes for them to begin to grow and flower! Bye, Potterhanworth Primary School.

Hello Bulb Buddies,

There isn't long to go until planting day on 20th October! Are you ready? Here are some helpful resources to prepare you for planting your bulbs and for looking after them over the coming months! These are also on the Spring Bulbs for Schools website: https://museum.wales/spring-bulbs/

These resources will help you on planting day:

• A Letter from Professor Plant (introduction to the project)
• Adopt your Bulb (an overview of the care your Bulbs will need)
• Planting your Bulbs (guidelines for ensuring a fair experiment)

And these activities are fun to complete:

• Bulb Adoption Certificate
• Make Bulb Labels

It's important that you read these as they contain important information! For example, do you know how deep you need to plant your bulbs? Or how to label your pot so that you know where the Daffodil and Crocus are planted?

Remember to take photos of your planting day to enter the Planting Day Photo Competition!

Keep an eye on Professor Plant's Twitter page to see photos from other schools: https://twitter.com/professor_plant

Best of luck Bulb Buddies! Let us know how you get on!

Professor Plant & Baby Bulb

Every year a highly achieving school from each participating country is selected as a winning school for the Spring Bulbs for Schools Project. The Edina Trust arrange prizes for England and Scotland (and next year for Northern Ireland) and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales arrange prizes for the winning school from Wales.

This year’s winners were Tonyrefail Primary School. Their prize was a trip to St Fagans National Museum of History with a free coach and educational workshops. It was fantastic to meet the group and we had a lovely time exploring nature at St Fagans.

I met the group from the coach and escorted them through the site to Hendre Wen Barn, which is not usually open to the public and has only recently begun to be used as a facilitation space for schools. This served as our base for the day, and the group were very excited to hear about the bats and birds that make the barn their home!

To begin, I thanked the group for all their hard work on the project, and asked them about how they managed the project in their class room. I provided a brief overview of the projects findings, to highlight how their work has helped input into the long term study of the effects of climate change on the flowering dates of spring bulbs. Interesting feedback from the group included that they used a rotor to keep track of whose turn it was to collect data each week, ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to take part.

Following this briefing, we split into two groups. Group A went with Hywel to the Tannery to explore the wildlife that live in the tanning pits; pools of water that have collected in pits that were once used in the process of making leather. The group were on the hunt for the variety of creatures that have made these tanning pits their home. In the process of exploring this habitat they found a number of different creatures and discussed their life-cycles and habitats. The group were also able to hold a palmate newt, which most said they had not had the opportunity to do before!

Group B went with me to the bird-hide, where we took sketches of the woodlands and used binoculars and bird-spotting sheets to see what birds we could find. We were very lucky, and saw an array of birds including a great spotted woodpecker! We were also visited by squirrels and wood mice, which we were as excited to see as we were the birds. We discussed the different species of birds, their colours, life-cycles and habitat. We also discussed how the feeding-space benefits wildlife and what we could do in our gardens or school grounds to help wildlife.

After this, the groups swapped over, ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to explore the woods and the ponds. We then had lunch in the barn, and Hywel answered lots of questions about the protected species of Brown Long-eared bats that roost in the barns rafters.

After lunch we discussed habitats in more detail, and thought about the different insects that we might find in our back gardens. This discussion helped the group with the next activity, making bug-hotels to take home with them. We used recycled plant pots, straws and straw to make the bug hotels, and discussed where the best places might be to place the hotels to attract different insects. Some of the group decided they would place their hotels high up, in sunny areas to attract solitary bees and others decided they would place theirs on the ground in shaded areas to attract insects that prefer cooler conditions.

We finished with just enough time to make our way back to the coach, and were looking out for different insects while we walked the winding paths back. Hywel and I had a fantastic day, and from the smiling faces and feedback it looks like Tonyrefail Primary had a lovely time as well – thanks again Bulb Buddies!

Some of the feedback from Tonyrefail Primary:

‘I think this is one of my favourite trips because I have not seen most of the things I saw today and it is so interesting.’

‘I had a good time and enjoyed bird spotting and pond dipping. I liked bird spotting because it is interesting and I could learn about species that I didn’t know about before.’

‘I enjoyed this today especially because of the pond dipping and bird watching.’

‘I found it fun today. I liked the bird spotting because I saw some birds I’ve never seen before.’

‘I enjoyed holding the newt because it felt like I was holding living putty, and I also liked spotting the birds because they looked very cute.’

‘I liked it because it was my first time holding a Newt. I liked it because my bug hotel turned out great.’

‘I had fun meeting everyone and I loved making bug hotels because it was quite fun. It was fun today.’

‘I liked making bug hotels because I liked making things.’

5,098 pupils from across the UK are to be awarded Super Scientist certificates on behalf of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, in recognition for their contribution to the Spring Bulbs for Schools Project.

A big congratulations to you all! Thank you for working so hard planting, observing, measuring and recording, you really are Super Scientists! Each one of you will receive a Super Scientist certificate and pencil, these will be sent to your school by mid-May.

Many thanks to The Edina Trust for funding this project.

Super Scientist Winners 2017

Winners

England:          Carnforth North Road Community Primary School

Scotland:         Auchenlodment Primary School

Wales:              Tonyrefail Primary School

Runners-up

England:

Arkholme C of E Primary School

Breckon Hill Primary School

Hemlington Hall Academy

Ladygrove Park Primary School

St Clare's Catholic Primary School

St Michael's CE Aided Primary School

St Nicholas Primary School

St Peter's Primary School

Scotland:

Biggar Primary School

Carnbroe Primary School

Gavinburn Primary School

Wales:

Broad Haven

Evenlode Primary

Glanyfferi

Henllys Church in Wales Primary

Rougemont Prep School

St. Robert's Catholic Primary

Trellech Primary School

Ysgol Borth Y Gest

Ysgol Deganwy

Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Tonyrefail

Ysgol Pentrefoelas

Ysgol Rhostyllen

Ysgol y Wern

High Recognition

England:

Coppull Parish Church School

Garstang St Thomas

Hudson Road

Stanford in the Vale Primary School

The Blake CE Primary School

Abbey Primary School

Scotland:

Bellyeoman Primary School

Lawhead School

Loch Primary School

Our Lady of Peace Primary School

St Mary's Primary School

Wormit Primary School

Wales:

Ysgol Tal y Bont

Blaengwawr Primary School

Llangors Church in Wales School

Llanharan Primary School

Llanvihangel Crucorney Primary School

Severn Primary School

St Athan Primary

Ysgol Tanygrisiau

Receiving Sunflower Seeds

England:

Barmston Village Primary School

Barnes Junior School

Bernard Gilpin Primary School

Boston West Academy

Chorley St James Primary School

Ellel St John's CE Primary School

Fosse Way Academy

Leyland Methodist Junior School

Our Lady Queen of Peace RCVA Primary School

Peel Park Primary School

Quernmore Primary School

Saint Leonards Church of England Primary School

St Leonard's RC Primary School

Staining C of E School

Usworth Colliery Primary School

Scotland:

Alexander Peden Primary Sch Alexander Peden

Barsail Primary School

Bent Primary School

Carbrain Primary School

Dykesmains Primary School

East Fulton Primary School

Greenburn School

Hill of Beath Primary School

Kelso High School

Lanark Primary School

Law Primary School

New Monkland Primary School

Newmains Primary School

Newport Primary School

Our Lady and St Francis Primary School

Pirnmill Primary School

St Charles Primary School

St Columbkilles Primary School

St Mary's Primary School, Lanark

St Mary's Primary School, Paisley

St Ronan's Primary School

Wales:

Beulah School

Coedpenmaen Primary

Crymlyn primary

Darran Park Primary

St. Paul's CIW Primary

Trallwn Primary

Whitestone Primary School

Ysgol Pennant

Ysgol Rhys Prichard

Receiving Certificates and pencils

England:

Alston Lane Catholic Primary School

Bacup Thorn Primary School

Belmont Community Primary School

Bolton-le-Sands Church of England School

Coningsby St Michael's Primary School

George Washington Primary School

Trinity Church of England Methodist Primary School

Wolvercote Primary School

Scotland:

Abronhill Primary School

Calderbridge Primary School

Glebe Primary School

St Catherine's Primary School

Stane Primary School

West Primary School

Wales:

Betws Primary School

Castle School

Melin Junior School

St Brides Major CW Primary School

St. Michael's RC Primary

Ysgol Abererch

Ysgol Bethel

Ysgol Betws yn Rhos

Ysgol Bro Ogwr

Ysgol Iau Hen Golwyn

Ysgol Pencae

Ysgol San Sior

Ysgol Tudweiliog

Ysgol Ty Coch

Ysgol y Tywyn

Thank you for all your hard work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant