: Learning

Dear Bulb Buddies,

I’d like to say a big thank you for all of your hard work on the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. I’ve enjoyed this year’s project, especially all of the comments that you have shared with your data. Some of your comments are listed at the end of this Blog.

As schools closed early this year many of you will not have had a chance to enter your data to the website. I understand that some schools may have had a few weeks worth of data still to upload before this sudden change. I am also working from home as the Museum I work at closed in the same week as most schools. It’s a big change; and I have been thinking of you all at this time and hope that you are all Okay.

I will still be Blogging and Twitting about the project. In the coming weeks I will highlight different resources and activities that you can do at home. This week my suggestion is that you draw pictures of daffodil and crocus plants and learn how to label the different parts of the plants. If you have done this activity before, maybe you could choose a different plant to draw this time? I’ve already been sent some fantastic images from St Mungo Primary that you can see to the right of this Blog. If you can, email a photo of your picture to your teacher or share it over Twitter with @Professor_Plant .

There are resources on the Spring Bulbs for schools website that you can access from home. I’ve attached outlines of a daffodil and crocus that you can colour and label and ‘The Life of a Bulb’ origami booklet (and instructions) that you can colour and fold.

There are also lots of activities on the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales website. You can choose between lots of different themes, from Romans and Celts to artists and dinosaurs! To find these visit the Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales learning page. You will see a list of the seven different Museum sites. Click on your chosen Museum, then scroll to the ‘Resources’ tab. You’ll find different resources there that link to the Museum you’ve selected.

Some schools were able to take their plants home with them. That wasn’t possible for everyone because schools closed suddenly. If you weren’t able to take your plants home with you, don’t worry, they will be fine.

Thank you again for all of your work on the project, and remember to watch this space for more blogs Bulb Buddies.

Professor Plant

Your comments

Comments about schools closing:

YGG Tonyrefail: Diolch am y prosiect eleni. Thank you for the project this year. Stay safe and well in the coming weeks. Professor Plant: Diolch, I hope you will take part again next year.
Hudson Road Primary School: This is the last reading we are able to send. We have loved taking part in the Bulb project. Professor Plant: Thank you for sharing your data Bulb Buddies.
St Julian's Primary School: We all took our daffodil pots home today on our last day at school for a while. Thank you for letting us take part once again. Professor Plant: I’m glad you were able to take your plants home and hope you will take part again.
Gavinburn Primary School: Our school closed on the 20th March and only 3 flowers had appeared from our daffodils planted in the ground. Professor Plant: Thank you for the update Bulb Buddies, it’s helpful for us to know that plants hadn’t yet flowered.
Dalbeattie Primary School: School is now closed but we are trying to keep records best that we can although they may not be as accurate. Professor Plant: Thank you Bulb Buddies, great work.
Henllys CIW Primary: All the flowers opened except mine and a spare one . Everyone's opened over the same weekends too. There was another spare one that opened so I took that one home instead. Professor Plant: I’m sorry that your plant didn't flower but am glad that there was a spare one for you to take home. Thank you for all of your work on the project.
Arkholme Primary School: This is the last day we are in school before it closes. Some of the flowers were broken in the strong winds and will not flower. Our teacher is going to check the bulbs when he is in school. Professor Plant: I’m sorry to hear the wind damaged your plants. Thank you for taking the time to update me on your last day in school and for all of the work you’ve done for the project.
Arkholme Primary School: The mystery bulbs are just beginning to bud. The sunniest week so far this year. The crocus flowers have started to open out in the sunshine. This is the last day to look at the bulbs as school is closing for the virus. Professor Plant: Thank you for this final update and for checking on the plants for as long as you could. You paint a lovely picture of your school garden.
Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Hi, This will be my last time submitting the weather data! After 3 years on doing it has finally come to an end! It has been fairly cold this week with not much rain! We won't be submitting it next week because school is closed! Thank you for the last time! Riley. Professor Plant: Dear Riley, thank you so much for the work that you have done for the project over the years. I’ve enjoyed reading your regular up-dates and wish you all the best. Remember to keep following the Blog for links to resources and to the end of project report.
St. Robert's Catholic Primary: This is our last week of weather results as our school closes today. Professor Plant: Thank you for updating me Bulb Buddies, and thank you for all of the great work you’ve done.
Darran Park Primary: Our weather has been a bit dryer this week. Unfortunately our class attendance has dropped continuously throughout the week and these children have not been able to check their plants. We have done this as best we could. Thank you for enabling us to do this project, we do hope that we will be able to do this again. Professor Plant: Thank you for taking part in the project and for updating me. I’m glad you have enjoyed the project and hope that you will take part again.
Sanquhar Primary School: Bulb pots taken home by the children left in school. Professor Plant: Fantastic, thank you.
Ysgol Bro Pedr: Take care of yourselves! Professor Plant: Thank you, and you Bulb Buddies.
St Fergus' Primary School: Our flowers are not far away from opening, the tops are very yellow but no flowers yet. Our school is now closed due to the Corona virus. Professor Plant: Good observational skills and description Bulb Buddies. Thank you for updating me, it’s very helpful to know that some plants hadn’t flowered when schools closed.

Comments about plants:
Dalbeattie Primary School: Only green leaves- no flower formed - this is like several of our crocus bulbs. Professor Plant: I’m sorry to hear that not all of your plants flowered Bulb Buddies, this sometimes happens. I’m glad that the other bulbs flowered for you to enjoy.
St Fergus' Primary School: We have one crocus fully opened, a beautiful purple one, some more are just about to open. Professor Plant: Fantastic Bulb Buddies.
Carnbroe Primary School: 2020-03-05. The crocuses bloomed early March.We are still waiting on the other bulbs to flower. Professor Plant: Thank you for entering your data Bulb Buddies.
Sanquhar Primary School: We found our bulb bed had been burrowed into. We have replaced the bulbs. None of our bulbs in pots are showing anything yet. We have moved them to a sunnier position. Professor Plant: Thank you for the update Bulb Buddies. Do you have any ideas what might have been burrowing into your flower bed?!
Bryncoch CiW Primary School: I noticed a caterpillar on my daffodil. Professor Plant: Fantastic Bulb Buddies, do you know what type of caterpillar it was?

Llanedeyrn Primary School: I was shocked on how tall it had grown. Professor Plant: They do grow surprisingly tall!
Bursar Primary Academy: 3 of the planted crocus' never flowered. Numbers 1, 15 and 30. We believe this is because these were sheltered from sunlight and rainfall. The Crocus' opened between 24/02/2020 and 05/03/2020. The heights range from 31mm to 98mm. Professor Plant: Well done for thinking about why some plants might flower and others not. This can also be why some plants flower earlier than others.
Litchard Primary School: It shows the difference in temperature when we brought the crocus inside it opened within 10-15 minutes. Professor Plant: This is an interesting experiment to do, bringing one inside while the others are outside and comparing the flowering date.
Hudson Road Primary School: There were two flowers that had opened when I measured them they were both 90 mm tall. Professor Plant: Fantastic work Bulb Buddy!
Drummore Primary School: It is a small plant but its a step closer saving the world. Professor Plant: They are very small and delicate, but can teach us a lot about the natural world.  
Drummore Primary School: They take a long time to grow. Professor Plant: They do, and you’ve been very patient caring for it since October.

Comments about data input:
Our Lady of Peace Primary School: We are happy to send in data again. Professor Plant: Thank you for sharing your data Bulb Buddies.
Our Lady of Peace Primary School:  Sorry we missed out a few weeks and a couple of days. As we said we are super sorry. Professor Plant: That can’t be helped, thank you for letting me know and for inputting the data you can.
Saint Anthony's Primary School: It was really exiting to check the temperature and rainfall. Professor Plant: I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the project Bulb buddies, thank you for all the work you’ve done.

In June 2019 the opportunity arose to begin a partnership between the Learning Team at St Fagans and the Access Base at Cantonian High School, Cardiff. The Access Base offers a provision for children from the ages of 11 to 19 who have a statement of educational need for Autism. As a Learning Facilitator I have always found working with Autistic Spectrum Disorder groups rewarding, so I was excited to be asked to organise a programme of activities for the group. I was particularly looking forward to getting to know the group as the same learners would return each visit.

During June and July we met with the students and staff for 3 visits. These visits acted as taster sessions where we could all get to know each other a bit, and find out what sort of activities would be enjoyable and beneficial for the group. They included a guided tour of the site, making coil pots with air drying clay, and potting plants with our Gardening team. Following this, it was decided the students would visit fortnightly with activities based around a different project each term.

Our first project was based around the theme of craft, with Christmas in mind. We began by making baubles and woollen 'fairy lights' using the wet felting technique. This hands on, tactile activity proved popular as the students enjoyed coming up with different colour combinations! In the following visits the group made more baubles and designed and created their own sets of Christmas cards using stamps and ink. In our last meeting before Christmas, the students decorated plant pots before planting daffodil and crocus bulbs to take home and grow.

Following the Christmas break, the plan was for the group to help develop a resource for ASD visitors, allowing them to become familiar with the site before their first visit. Developing a resource like this is something I’ve been interested in for a long time. This has involved visiting the galleries and buildings at St Fagans, and taking part in workshops such as the Warrior Grave and Lambing. I have collected feedback to add to the future visitor resource - for example the need to be aware that there's an echo effect while walking through the Atrium, and low level lighting in the buildings.

Unfortunately, our time together working on this project was cut short by the current events. There are still many more buildings for us to visit together, and more workshops to take part in. We look forward to welcoming Cantonian Access Base back to the museum in the future.

Miss Aimee Phillips – Cantonian High School said “Having a partnership with the St Fagans Learning team has given our pupils some amazing opportunities to learn outside of the classroom. Multisensory, hands on learning is vital to our pupils who are on the Autistic Spectrum. When working with the learning team, our pupils have been able to develop and refine their social skills which is a key area of learning. Some of our most memorable moments at St Fagans over the past year include, working in the Italian Garden, learning how to be a miller, the warrior workshop and most recently, watching lambs being born on the farm. As a teacher I would highly recommend the Learning team and their resources to anyone wanting a unique learning experience.”

You can learn more about the St Fagans Learning programme on our website. 

Hello Bulb Buddies,

I hope that you have had a good half term. Have any of your plants flowered over the holidays? Remember to enter the date your plant flowers and the height of your plant in mm to the website. We ask for the flowering date for every single plant to be entered, these are then used to work out the average flowering date for your school.

Schools that are taking part in the Edina Trust Extension Project are also asked to note whether each daffodil record they enter is from a bulb planted in the ground or in a pot.

We talk a lot about the weather records you take each week, but the flower records are just as important. We are investigating how changes in the weather effect the flowering dates of spring plants. To do this we need to be able to compare flowering dates for each year the investigation has been running.

The bar chart below shows the average flowering dates for spring plants in Wales since 2006. You can see from the chart that 2019 saw the earliest flowering dates since 2008. Do you think our plants will flower earlier or later this year Bulb Buddies?

Average flowering dates for Wales 2006-2019

The bar chart below shows the average flowering date for each country in 2019. You can see from the chart that plants flowered earliest in Northern Ireland and latest in Scotland. Do you think we will see the same pattern this year Bulb Buddies?

Average flowering dates 2019

Watch your plants closely over the next few weeks. Last year the average flowering dates for crocus was 22 February.

It’s fascinating to see how your plants change over time. There are activities on the website about the life cycle of plants: https://museum.wales/spring-bulbs/

Remember to share your photos with me Bulb Buddies.

Professor Plant

We have just launched our self-guided mindful tour here at St Fagans National Museum of History. The tour is through the gardens around St Fagans Castle. Our new free fold-out map of the gardens encourages visitors to take in their surroundings and explore their different senses.

The idea of the tour came from my own experience of using mindfulness for my mental health. St Fagans Castle gardens are beautiful all year round with animals and plants to see whatever the time of year. It is also a place where you can usually find a bit of quiet even during our busier times. Mindfulness is about being in the moment and focusing on individual senses. It’s surprising how much passes us by when we’re focused on our busy lives. Just stopping and concentrating on what you can smell or hear can help in times of stress.

Having the opportunity to walk around the gardens and take in the sights, sounds, smells and textures of nature has been very calming for me. My particular favourite is the Italian Garden in the summer with the running fountain. I feel incredibly lucky to work somewhere where I can do this and I wanted to share it with everyone who visits St Fagans.

Last summer I created a draft plan of a map to test with staff and community groups. Even though it was a very basic map at the time the feedback was very positive:

"Wir wedi mwynhau’r daith - diolch Joe! Braf cael cyfle i grwydro gerddi’r castell a mwynhau’r awyr iach. Diolch!"

“Lovely and peaceful, I like the sound of the water. The gardens were beautiful and very relaxing.”

"Wedi mwynhau gwylio’r colomennod ar ben y colomendy."

“Lots of quiet, secluded areas to sit down. I did find myself stopping to take note of my senses – smelling leaves, listening to the birds”

"Gall hwn fod un o highlights newydd SF"

“It felt like I had permission to take time and look and explore which was so nice.”

The feedback fed into the creation of the final version. It is designed by Frank Duffy who has done a great job of the illustrations and the look of the map. The map was funded by the Armed Forces Covenant who have supported a range of innovative events, displays and programmes at the Museum since 2014. One of the aims of the funding is to support the wellbeing of veterans and their families, so the concept of the mindfulness walk fitted in perfectly with the Covenant’s objectives. Members of the Armed Forces community had a first look at the new maps on 9^th December 2019 with very positive feedback for how it could be used to help those living with mental ill health.

Try the tour out for yourself by picking up a copy at St Fagans. The map is available at the front desk or you can download a PDF version here.

During 2019 we spent time developing the skills programme at St Fagans, working with partners and communities to create opportunities for adult learning and skills development, linked to our work under the Fusion Initiative and the Well-Being of Future Generations Act. To mark the launch of the new section of our Learning website for Community Learning here’s an update on what’s been achieved so far and what’s to come in 2020.

Community Learning and Skills Development:

We have been working with organisations such as the Wallich, Hafal, Crisis and Oasis Cardiff to collaboratively establish craft skills taster sessions with their participants. Workshops including leather and copper work have inspired the participants to use the museum’s collections as inspiration, whilst bringing their own cultural experiences with them to each session. 

People who have taken part have shared their experiences and feedback with us. Here are some of the highlights:

“Immersing, interesting, rewarding”

“It’s something that I’ve never done before so I found leather work really interesting and relaxing.”

So far 243 people have been taken part in sessions from April and December 2019, with further sessions planned in 2020.

Widening Accesses Partnerships:

We have been collaborating with Cardiff Metropolitan University’s Widening Access department to bring accessible learning programmes to the museum, using the museum’s collections to enhance and deepen the learning potential. In 2019 two creative writing courses and one in complimentary therapy were delivered at St Fagans. A second Complimentary Therapy course is currently running and further courses are planned for later this year.

Learner feedback highlights:

“The course has been a good confidence booster and showed me where I would like to progress.”

“Really enjoyed the course, well tutored, supportive environment.”

Language Skills:

Creating opportunities for people to learn and develop their language skills forms an important element of the skills development programme. In 2019 St Fagans built on its partnership with Cardiff University School of Welsh, who delivered a 20 week Entry 1 course (January to July 2019). Many of the learners went on to enrol on the Entry 2 Course which started in September 2019. A blended Entry 1 and 2 course also started in September 2019, with a new Entry 1 course starting this January.   

ESOL Learners are benefitting from the St Fagans ESOL learning resources, developed collaboratively with Cardiff and the Vale College (CAVC), proving opportunities for them to use the museum as a safe space for learning, sharing their culture and developing their knowledge and understanding of Welsh cultural heritage. Groups have been visiting from colleges such as CAVC and the resources are being regularly downloaded from the Museum’s website – in total 174 downloads between May and December 2019.

This year we are celebrating this success and building on it by launching the new Community Learning section of our website. Head over to have a look and learn more about how to take part and book a visit.

Thanks to all the participants, partner organisations and the team at St Fagans for everything that’s been achieved so far.