: Spring Bulbs

Hello Bulb Buddies,

It's planting day for schools in Wales, England and Northern Ireland! Schools in Scotland will be planting next Friday.

Click here for activities and resources that will help you with this part of the project and with looking after your bulbs over the coming months! 

These resources will help you on planting day:

• 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

Please read these as they contain important information! For example, do you know 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.

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

Professor Plant & Baby Bulb

Riley, a pupil at Stanford in the Vale Primary, has taken part in the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation for the past three years. He has shown exceptional commitment to the project, and has endeared himself to the project coordinators through his descriptive and friendly feedback. I have to say that I have enjoyed receiving regular weekly updates from Riley over the last three years.

Here are some of Riley’s best comments:

2017:

• The weather has turned really cold today. Been training people to do this experiment during the week. From Riley xxx
•  Hello. This week it has not been icy and it has been nice all except today. Hope you have had a nice week. Bye Bye (Riley)
•  Hello, this week it has been cold and hot and it has been a really good week because we have had a delivery of two new trolleys and we even invested in a wormery which is a big hit with our foundation friends. (Riley)

 2018:

• Hi this is Stanford in the vale primary school, we done this amazing project last year .I am Riley one of the gardening club members. I was the one that recorded and submitted this data last year. I loved doing this project last year, I hope I will this year too. I will be also teaching some of my friends how to do this project this year too. Bye Bye Riley (Riley)
•  Cannot believe this is the last weather reading for this year! We have observed some strange weather patterns this year! Snow - sunshine! (Riley)

 2019:

• Happy to restart the project and I am teaching the younger children in the club how to record. Have a good weekend and we will be back next week. Regards Riley (Riley)
• HI THERE, this week it has been a mixed week and there has been a lot of rain this week and there has been a bit of sun. Today in class we were talking about global warming which is a serious issue which needs to be sorted out. Speak to you next week!

To celebrate Riley’s contribution to the investigation, we asked if he’d be happy to answer some questions and give us an insight into his experience of participating in the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation.

An interview with Riley:

Q. How long have you been involved with the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation?

A. I have been involved in this investigation for three years now.

Q. What have you enjoyed most about the project?

A. I’ve mostly enjoyed recording the weather and the rain. I like seeing the difference between the temperatures of different days.

Q. What do you feel you have gained from the project, have you developed new skills?

A. Yes, I do think I have gained on this project. I have developed how to record the rain using a gauge and it has helped me using a thermometer more accurately.

Q. What are your thoughts on Science and Maths?

A. I am quite interested in both of these subjects, so this has helped me produce a lot more in these subjects.

Q. What were you feelings towards these subjects before the project, have they changed?

A. I was feeling quite confident before I started and now I am feeling much more confident about it.

Q. Were you aware that you were doing math and numeracy during the project?

A. I was sort of aware that I was using maths and numeracy during the project. I was mostly aware as I was measuring in millimetres and degrees.

Q. Were you confident taking scientific measurements before the project?

A. I was a little confident but I wasn’t that sure on it but now I am really happy about it.

Q. Do you feel these skills have developed through your time on the project?

A. Yes definitely, before I wasn’t that sure mostly on how to measure the rain and this project has developed my skills on that and developed my skills also in science.

Q. What advice would you give us to improve or develop the project?

A. I think it would be good fun if you could give the children some more fun activities or competitions because at the moment you don’t have many.

Q. You took a leading role, teaching other pupils about the project. Can you tell us a little bit about that experience?

A. I think it is really fun / exciting teaching other children about this experiment because it makes me feel like it is helping other children develop their science / maths and it makes me think that they could take over the job and become future scientists! 

We’ve taken Riley’s advice on board, and will be looking at new activities and competitions we can introduce over the coming years.

Riley is the first to be nominated as a Spring Bulb Champion. In future, we will invite teachers to nominate pupils who have shown outstanding commitment or who they feel have developed as a direct result of the project, to be recognised as Spring Bulb Champions.

Thank you Riley, and everyone who participated in this year’s project.

Professor Plant

4,370 pupils from across the UK have been awarded Super Scientist certificates on behalf of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales, in recognition for their contribution to the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation.

A big congratulations to you all! Thank you for working so hard planting, observing, measuring and recording, you really are Super Scientists!

Many thanks to The Edina Trust for funding this project.

Super Scientist Winners 2019

Schools to be awarded certificates:

To be awarded certificates, pencils, sunflower seeds and surprise seeds.

Schools with special recognition:

To be awarded certificates, pencils, sunflower seeds and surprise seeds.

Highly commended schools:

To be awarded certificates, pencils, a variety seeds and gift vouchers.

Hello Bulb Buddies,

Thank you to all schools who have entered their flower data! Remember to make sure the dates entered are correct and that the height has been entered in millimetres. We have had a few flowers reported for April and lots of very short crocus and daffodils!

If you spot that your entries need amending, just re-enter them to the website with a comment to explain that the new entry is to replace a previous one.

I have enjoyed reading the comments that have been sent with the weather and flower data! I’ve attached some of these below.

Last year an interesting question was raised by Stanford in the Vale Primary, who asked whether they needed to enter multiple flower records if the height and flowering date were the same for each? It is still important to enter this flower data, as the number of flowers at a particular height and particular date will impact on the overall averages for the project.

To work out your schools mean flowering height for the crocus and daffodil, add all of your crocus or daffodil heights together and divide by the number of entries for that flower.

If you have one flower at 200mm and one at 350mm the mean would be 275mm. If you have one flower at 200mm and ten flowers at 350mm your mean flower height would be 336mm. This is why it is important that you enter all of your flower records.

Every flower record is important and impacts on the overall results. If your plant hasn’t grown by the end of March, please send in a flower record without a date or height and explain this in the comment section. If your plant has grown but hasn’t produced a flower by the end of March please enter the height without a date and explain this in the comments section.

Keep the questions coming Bulb Buddies! There are resources and activities on the website to help you. Once your plant has flowered, why not draw it and label the different parts of the plant? I would love to see photos of your drawings and will post any that are sent in on my next Blog!

On that note, I'd like to share Llanharan Primary's video with you, click here!

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies!

Professor Plant

I hope you all had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year. Thank you to everyone who has sent weather data in. I'm enjoying hearing how your plants are doing and what the weather is like where you are! Remember, there are schools taking part from all over the UK. You can use the website to compare your results with schools in other countries. In the report at the end of the project we will compare the weather and flowering dates for Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Which country do you think will be warmer and which do you think will have the most rain?

Lots of schools have reported that their bulbs have started to grow. Can you tell which of the plants are daffodil and which are crocus? The pictures on the right might help you to identify your plants. The pictures show plants on the same day, in the same park, but growing in different places. Some of the plants have grown less than others. Why do you think this is? The descriptions with the photos might help you to think of reasons why the plants are developing differently.

I look forward to your next data entries and comments. Remember, you can share photos by email and over Twitter.

Keep up the good work Bulb Buddies,

Professor Plant

Your Comments

Weather

Thank you for your weather updates Bulb Buddies.

Ysbyty Ifan: Wythnos gyntaf yn ol yn yr ysgol ac mae'n eithaf braf. Pawb yn hapus ar ol chwarae efo teganau newydd Sion Corn!

Ysgol Beulah: Blwyddyn newydd dda! Rydyn ni wedi cael wythnos sych.

Kirkby La Thorpe Cof E Primary Academy: colder week, quite dull and damp atmosphere (coats on at playtime!) but very little rain , nearly snow like on Wednesday as attempted to rain , small brief flurry in the cold wind. ground still moist , a few weeds but no flowers emerging yet! although daffodils available in shops.

Ochiltree Primary School: We have had a wet week this week.

Darran Park Primary: The temperature is lower this week and there hasn't been so much rain.

Hudson Road Primary School: It has been so cold this week and very windy

Hudson Road Primary School: It has rained this week everyday

Project

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda – Happy New Year to you all Bulb Buddies.

Ysgol Bro Pedr: Blwyddyn Newydd Dda - Happy New Year

Shirenewton Primary School: Nadolig Llawen a blwyddyn Newydd dda

Ysbyty Ifan: Nadolig llawen a blwyddyn newydd dda a diolch yn fawr am y cerdyn.

Plants

Thank you for the updates on your plants Bulb Buddies. I’m excited to hear that lots of plants have started to grow.

Carnbroe Primary School: Happy New Year Professor Plant we have been checking our bulbs this week and they look well but no flowers. We have had not much rain and it is been mild.

Ysgol Casmael: Some of our bulbs have shoots starting to peep through.

Ysgol Nantymoel: Some of our plants are starting to grow. Please help we have made a mistake with our records before Christmas and still can't correct them.

Dalreoch Primary School: Our bulbs in the ground have started to show through. They are about 3cm tall.

Hendredenny Park Primary: Some bulbs are starting to show shoots

Steelstown Primary School: This week all of the bulbs have started to grow. Everyone is super excited and can't wait until April when all of them should be grown!

Steelstown Primary School: When we are taking the temperature and rainfall we have noticed that the bulbs are starting to grow it is very exciting. We cannot wait until they have fully grown into flowers

St Julian's Primary School: Lots of daffodils have started to grow now.