: Sustainability

Thirty eight schools 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 - Climate Change Investigation.

Congratulations to all 1,625 pupils who have keep records and made observations to study climate change - each will receive a certificate and other prizes to celebrate their outstanding efforts. Certificates and prizes will be sent to schools by the 14th of May 2012. Many thanks to the Edina Trust for funding this project.

Winners 2012: Each will receive a class trip of fun-packed nature activities!

• Westwood CP School in Wales
• Earlston Primary School in Scotland
• Fulwood and Cadley School in England

Runner's up: Each to receive vouchers to purchase gardening equipment, certificates & seedlings.

• Christchurch CP School
• Saint Roberts Roman Catholic Primary School
• Sherwood Primary School
• St. Joseph's R C Primary (Penarth)
• Stanford in the Vale CE Primary School
• Woodplumpton St Annes C of E Primary
• Ysgol Nant Y Coed

Highly commended schools: Each to receive certificates, sunflower seeds, salad seeds & flowers to attract butterflies.

• Channelkirk Primary
• Coleg Powys
• Ysgol Y Ffridd
• Ysgol Capelulo
• Lakeside Primary
• Maesglas Primary School
• Ysgol Clocaenog
• Ysgol Bro Ciwmeirch
• Ysgol Porth Y Felin
• Glyncollen Primary School
• Ysgol Pant Y Rhedyn
• Howell's School Llandaff
• Williamstown Primary school
• Ysgol Tal Y Bont
• Morfa Rhianedd
• Ysgol Deganwy

Schools with special recognition: Each to receive, certificates, flowers to attract butterflies and salad seeds.

• Gordon Primary School
• Laugharne VCP School
• Milford Haven Junior school
• Ysgol Iau Hen Golwyn
• Oakfield Primary school
• Windsor Clive Primary

Schools to be awarded certificates: Each to receive Super Scientist Certificates.

• Radnor Primary
• Brynhyfryd Junior School
• Bishop Childs CIW Primary School
• Eyton Church in Wales Primary School
• Ysgol Cynfran
• Ysgol Bodfari

Many thanks

Professor Plant

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs

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Over the last couple of months we have held a total of 5 Green Baby days at the T? Gwyrdd here at St Fagans Museum. The idea behind the Green Baby days was to promote greener practices and to lessen the environmental impact raising a baby can have. 

To help us achieve this we invited a number of experts in to help us, all of whom I’d like to thank! 

Obviously one of the main ways of lessening environmental impact when raising a child is through the use of re-usable nappies. This is also a great way of saving money, around £700! These re-usable nappies have moved on a great deal since the days of terry towelling and enormous safety pins! It was great to see peoples reactions when shown examples of the fancy newer nappies and to hear their stories! 

So I have to give a massive thank you to the 3 re-usable nappy providers who helped us over the 5 days. First of all to mamigreen who are based in Cardiff and came to help us on the first 2 Green Baby days. Secondly a huge thank you to Gemma at Little Gems Nappies (based in Pontypridd) who came to help us over 3 days last week during the Easter holidays. And also a big thank you to Melanie at Little Lion (based near Bridgend) who lent us a variety of re-usable nappies that we were able to showcase! 

If you are interested in learning more about re-usable nappies or are considering using them then check out their websites. They all cover most of the southWalesarea and offer phone consultations as well as home visit consultations! 

We also had a stand by Fairdos which is a Fairtrade shop based inCanton inCardiff. As a stockist of all kinds of Fairtrade products this was a great opportunity to showcase their range of Fairtrade cotton baby clothes, toys and bibs. A big thank you to the Fairdos volunteers who gave up their time to man the stand!

 The final area we covered was baby food. Making your own baby food is healthy, cheap, eco-friendly, and you know exactly what’s in it! We had Welsh Government advice and recipe documents for different stages available to read, and many visitors asked us where they could find these documents themselves. So here we go…

English Language Downloads

Welsh Language Downloads 

Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who came to see us during the event and for sharing your knowledge, especially those who entered our competition by posting tips on our Green Babies ideas tree! We will shortly be picking a winner and contacting them about their prize.

Wood for the Trees return to the T? Gwyrdd this Saturday, 7^th of April. Earlier this year they held a footstool making workshop, which was a great success as can be seen from the picture. Participants made their own footstools from start to finish, from planing the stool legs to the upholstery work at the end. 

The footstool workshop was for people who had booked in advance, but this time the T? Gwyrdd doors will be open to all for an Upcycling Chalky Workshop! There will be a chance to make your own blackboard to take away with you and also the chance to decorate some furniture! 

The T? Gwyrdd will be open between 11 and 1 and again from 2 till 4 after lunch, so why not drop in and see what’s on offer!

Click here for more information.

This is the first official week of spring. It's called spring equinox, which means that the day and night are almost the same length.

At the North Pole, the polar bears are celebrating the first appearance of the sun in six months but at the South Pole the penguins are preparing for six months of darkness. I picked this up on Derek the Weatherman's blog - what a fascinating thought.

In the UK, school scientists are mapping spring by posting results to show when there spring flowers open - as part of a long term study into climate change. Despite the initial early start to the spring I think our results will show that our flowers have come late this year, because of the late frost. The results are flying in this week - 203 sent in so far! Many schools are still waiting for their flowers - hopefully they will come soon.

Please take a look at the beautiful pictures sent in by Fulwood & Cadley School and Brynhyfryd Junior.

What is the mystery bulb?

Ysgol Porth Y Felin: On Monday it was very rainy and we think the mystery bulb is
a tulip. Glyncollen Primary School: We found out that one of our mystery bulbs is a tulip. Our daffodils and crocus look lovely in the Spring sunshine. Ans: Both schools are correct - Welldone!

Your comments:

Fulwod and Cadley reported: All our crocuses have flowered now but 15 of our daffodil plants have no buds at all. We think, that they are unlikely to produce any buds now, we would be grateful if you would let us know what you think?

Ans: I agree, if there are no buds by now, sadly it is unlikey that they will flower. This has happenend to a few of mine too. The reason this has happened is unclear. When a daffodil doesn't make a flower gardeners say that the plant has gone 'blind' - as it has no flower head. This normally happens if the bulb has been flowering for a few years or if there is too much nitrogen in the soil - but this doesn't normally happen with a new bulb. This seems to have happened to my bulbs that started to grow really early - end of Decemeber early Jan. They grew tall then we had the frost and they seemed to stop growing taller - until much later. The hours of sunshine is a big factor with dafs - so we will have to look at all the records to see if there are any trends before we can make any conclusions.

Channelkirk Primary School asked: We measured the height of our plants in cm, but the site has it as mm. Should we measure the flower only? Ans: No, please measure the height in mm if possible or simply convert to mm. Thanks Prof.P

Ysgol Bro Cinmeirch: Tyfodd ccenin pedr mae o yn 215mm a dyfodd y grocws 35mm. Tyfodd cenin pedr arall 85mm a tyfodd y crocws 120 mm. Ateb: Sylwadau gwych!

Ysgol Nant Y Coed: I think that it's great to learn about rainfall and how it works their magic with flowers It's fun experementing on this and it's a experience for children to learn to measure. Ans: Glad you enjoyed - thanks for helping me. Prof. P

Ysgol Nant Y Coed: It was a very good experiment! Ysgol Nant Y Coed. I like the experiment!!!!!!!!!!! Ans: Glad you enjoyed the experiment! Thanks so much for helping me with this. Prof. P

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs

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