Blog: Learning

The ‘Spring Bulbs for Schools’ project allows 1000s of schools scientists to work with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales to investigate and understand climate change.

Since October 2005, school scientists have been keeping weather records and noting when their flowers open, as part of a long-term study looking at the effects of temperature on spring bulbs.

Certificates have now been sent out to all the 4,075 pupils that completed the project this year.

See Professor Plant's reports or download the spreadsheet to study the trends for yourself!

• Make graphs & frequency charts or calculate the mean.
• See if the flowers opened late in schools that recorded cold weather.
• See how temperature, sunshine and rainfall affect the average flowering dates.
• Look for trends between different locations.
   

Professor Plant

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs

Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant

Last week, as part of Give and Gain Day 2014, we had 50 volunteers from the Lloyds Banking Group helping with a number of projects here at St Fagans. Some helped with the Gardening Department, some helped the Historic Buildings Unit while some assisted with a project alongside the Alzheimer’s Society. Myself and Bernice had the help of 11 volunteers to build a dead hedge in the woodlands near the bird hide.

We had been planning on building a dead hedge in near the bird hide for a while, for a number of reasons. A dead hedge would act as a screen for approaching the bird hide, meaning that birds on the feeders would be less likely to be scared by the approaching visitors. A dead hedge also acts as a wildlife corridor, giving cover to a wide variety of wildlife as they move through the woodlands. Visitors had also begun cutting through the woodland, and one section of the dead hedge was to act as a deterrent meaning visitors would be more likely to stick to the paths.

The first task of the day was the sharpening of the fence posts. The posts are needed for structure and need to be driven firmly into the ground. Creating the sharp end obviously makes this much easier. After creating pilot holes, the poles were then driven into the ground using a sledge hammer. Once the posts were in place, we could then begin to assemble the dead hedge.

A dead hedge is built up of dead woodland material. Over the past couple of weeks I have been asking the gardeners and farmers here to help by collecting any trimmings and off cuts and delivering these to the bird hide for use in this project. Everyone was incredibly helpful, and we ended up with a vast pile of material… or so I thought. Dead hedging takes a lot of material, so along with some of the volunteers I headed into the woods to do a bit of clearing to gain more material.

After lunch, we headed up into the woods near the site of Bryn Eryr, the Iron Age farmstead currently being built. This area has previously been cleared so there was a lot of cut material for us to collect. This was loaded into a trailer and taken over to the bird hide. The afternoon finished with us using this material to finish the dead hedge. As an artistic final touch, we used some lime cuttings to add extra height and a certain je ne sais quois to the finished hedge.

As these pictures show, the day was a huge success! The weather could not have been better and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The 2 sections of dead hedge we wanted to build got done, and I’ve already earmarked some projects for future volunteers! The amount of work done in a day was incredible, it would have taken me and Bernice a lot longer to do without the help of the volunteers. A huge thank you to everyone who helped us and the other projects too!

Ninety five schools across the UK will be awarded Super Scientist Certificates from Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales this year, in recognition of their contribution to the Spring Bulbs – Climate Change Investigation.

Huge Congratulations to all these schools! They are listed below, is your school listed?

Thank you to every one of the 4200 pupils who helped this year! Thank you for working so hard planting, observing, measuring and recording - you really are Super Scientists! Each one of you will receive a certificate and Super Scientist pencil, these will be sent to your school around the middle of May.

Many thanks to the Edina Trust for funding this project and helping to make this all happen!

Winners 2014

Well done to our three winners for sending in the most weather data! Each will receive a class trip of fun-packed nature activities.

• Ysgol Clocaenog in Wales
• Abronhill Primary School in Scotland
• Dallas Road Community Primary School in England

Runners Up

Each school will receive a gift voucher to purchase lovely things for your gardening projects.

• Ysgol Gynradd Cross Hands in Wales
• Wormit Primary School in Scotland
• The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School in England

Highly commended

Each school will receive certificates, pencils, flower seeds and herb seeds.

• Abergwili VC Primary
• Archbishop Hutton's Primary School
• Arkholme CE Primary School
• Balshaw Lane Community Primary School
• Bleasdale CE Primary School
• Burscough Bridge Methodist School
• Carnforth North Road Primary School
• Christchurch CP School
• Combe Primary School
• Coppull Parish Church School
• Cutteslowe Primary School
• Darran Park Primary
• Freuchie Primary School
• Gladestry C. in W. Primary
• Glyncollen Primary
• Kilmaron School
• Raglan VC Primary
• SS Philip and James CE Primary School
• St Athan Primary School
• St Blanes Primary School
• St Ignatius Primary School
• St Mary's Catholic Primary School, Leyland
• St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School
• St Michael's CE (Aided) Primary School
• St Nicholas Primary School
• St Patrick's Primary School
• Stanford in the Vale CE Primary School
• Ysgol Bro Eirwg
• Ysgol Deganwy

Schools with special recognition

Each school will receive, certificates, pencils and flower seeds.

• Auchengray Primary School
• Britannia Community Primary School
• Cawthorne's Endowed Primary School
• Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor
• Culross Primary School
• Greyfriars RC Primary School
• Holy Trinity CE Primary School
• John Cross CE Primary School
• Llanishen Fach Primary School
• Red Marsh School
• St Anne's Catholic Primary School
• St Laurence CE Primary School
• Woodplumpton St. Anne's Primary School
• Ysgol Gynradd Dolgellau
• Ysgol Terrig
• Ysgol Y Plas

Schools to be awarded certificates

Each school will receive Super Scientist Certificates and pencils.

• All Saints' CE Primary School
• Balcurvie Primary School
• Ballerup Nursery
• Blenheim Road Community Primary School
• Brockholes Wood Community Primary School
• Brynhyfryd Junior School
• Catforth Primary School
• Chatelherault Primary School
• Cleddau Reach VC Primary School
• Cobbs Brow Primary School
• Coed-y-Lan Primary School
• Flakefleet Primary School
• Glencairn Primary School
• Golden Hill School
• Henllys C/W Primary
• Hillside Specialist School
• Ladywell Primary School
• Lakeside Primary
• Lea Community School
• Manor Road Primary School
• Manor School
• Milford Haven Junior School
• Newport Primary School
• Pinfold Primary School
• RAF Benson Primary School
• Rogiet Primary School
• Rougemont Junior School
• Scotforth St Paul's CE Primary School
• St Bernadette's Primary School
• St Gregory's Catholic Primary School
• St John's CE Primary School
• St Nicholas C/W primary school
• Trellech Primary School
• Tynewater Primary School
• Woodstock CE Primary School
• Ysgol Bro Tawe
• Ysgol Glan Cleddau
• Ysgol Iau Hen Golwyn
• Ysgol Nant y Coed
• Ysgol Rhys Prichard
• Ysgol Santes Tudful
• Ysgol Sychdyn
• Ysgol Y Berllan Deg
• Ysgol Y Faenol

Daffodil Drawing Competition 2014

Congratulations to the following pupils who produced some excellent botanical drawings! Winners will receive Bird watching kits with mini binoculars.

• 1st: Abbey – Coppull Parish Church School
• 2nd: Louise – SS Philip and James CE Primary School (Pink 3)
• 3rd: Amelie – Stanford in the Vale CE Primary School

Well done, you have all done an AMAZING job.

Professor Plant

Last week we created a storm in the galleries at National Museum Cardiff with our Easter workshops. Families who took part got to make their own pop-up landscapes inspired by John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831. This activity was part of the Aspire programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund.

Here are some of the mini masterpieces created.

We were impressed by the variety of skies! Some were stormy and brooding. Others filled with colour and light. Butterflies, bees, and a murder of crows all made an appearance – and, of course, some beautiful rainbows.

If Constable were alive today he surely would have approved! For him the sky was the most important part of a painting. It creates feelings, mood and emotions. I wonder what mood our families were in when they created theirs?

Whatever mood they were in at the time, they left the workshop feeling happy! Families were asked to complete the sentence ‘the workshop made me feel...’, and to hang it on our specially-created comments cloud. ‘Happy’ was the most popular response! Here are some others:

The workshop made me feel…

• Happy happy and I loved it a lot - Jack
• Interested because I like learning about Constable
• Hapus fel y gog achos rwy’n hoffi celf a chrefft
• Welcome ♥

Find out more:

Explore Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 with this interactive guide.

Download a free pack for teachers from our Learning Resources page.

Download our Landscape and Lights family trail

Aspire

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows was purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation, the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, National Galleries of Scotland, and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, 2013.

To secure the painting, a unique partnership initiative was formed between five public collections: Tate Britain, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and the National Galleries of Scotland. This initiative, named Aspire, is a five-year project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Art Fund enabling the work to be viewed in partner venues across the UK. National Museum Cardiff is the first venue to display the work.

If you had been visiting London last week you would have noticed it was very smoggy, as if you were looking at everything through a dirty cloud! But what exactly is smog, and how is it different to fog?

What is fog?

Fog is a cloud on the ground! It is a natural part of the weather. It is lots of very tiny water droplets floating in the air. Fog helps plants by providing moisture and does not harm you if you breathe in.

What is smog?

Smog is a kind of air pollution. Smog is created when fog mixes with smoke and chemical fumes from cars and factories. Some of the chemicals in smog are toxic – this means poisonous! It is harmful to plants and animals and can be dangerous if breathed in.

The recent smog in London is a mixture of fog and pollution and a third ingredient – sand from the Sahara desert! The Sahara desert is a huge desert in Africa. Some of the desert sand is very, very small, like dust. Sometimes wind storms sweep up the dust and blow it thousands of miles to the UK. It’s amazing how far it travels!

Unfortunately, this mixture of fog and pollution and desert dust means that the London smog is not good for your lungs, and has made some people ill. Smog is one very good reason why we should all try to reduce air pollution!

So what can you do to help reduce air pollution?

Think about air pollution… What causes it? Can you think of 3 things you can do to reduce it? Why not talk about it in class and then click here to check your answers.