Blog: Learning

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.  

Hi bulb buddies!

Big Garden Birdwatch results

Which are the TOP 10 most common birds in your garden? Nearly half a million people helped the RSPB (Royal Society for Protection of Birds) with the Big Garden Birdwatch 2014. They counted over 7 million birds! Did you help? If not then maybe you can do some bird spotting and join the Big Garden Birdwatch next year? To find out which birds were in the TOP 10, click here. 

Which schools have had their first flowers?

Trellech Primary School in Wales, and Britannia Community Primary School in England sent their first flower records. Well done and thank you to these schools!

One of my colleagues her at National Museum Cardiff sent me this photo of daffodils growing in her garden, can you see anything strange about them? The photo is a little fuzzy but if you look closely you will see that some of the stems have two or even three flowers! How unusual! Have you had any unusual plants?

Thank you to SS Philip and James CE Primary School for sending me this lovely photo of all their flowers, don’t they look wonderful? In the third photo you can see that they also had some unusual flowers - some of their daffodils did not fully open. This is very interesting, can you think of any reasons why they might not have opened? Did this happen to your flowers?

Daffodil man!

Would you like to see a funny photo of Daffodil man? Click here. His real name is James and he is wearing a suit of daffodils to raise money for charity! Well done daffodil man!

Your comments, my answers:

Prof P: I had lots and lots of comments from Dallas Road Community Primary School so I thought I would put them all on the blog this week, thank-you all for sending me your messages! Congratulations to all of you, even if your flower did not grow, was stepped on, got broken or died, you are ALL Super Scientists! Prof P.

Dallas Road Community Primary School: 

I think it didn't open because the daffodil was hovering over it and so it didn't get enough sun and rain. :(

I think my daffodil was in the shade so it did not open.

Someone cut its head off

It didn't open because somebody stepped on it

It died

Someone broke the bud off

Mine did not open!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Bulb disappeared

It was a bit floppy so we did not get chance to tie it up. But it is still open.

I am quiet sad my daffodils have not opened but they are growing so I will believe that soon they will and they are really tall.

My daffodil is growing very tall but it is a bit floppy.

My crocus is beautiful some of them are starting to die but still i'm happy because some are still growing and some have opened and some of them are fully beautiful i'm really happy about every crocus. My crocus's are quiet tall some are small as well

my crocus is really beautiful i have got another 3-4 crocuses opening i really enjoy seeing my plant grow.

My crocus has flowered well and is growing quite tall which is good and happy about it all.

I did not get a daffodil so it did not grow.

Daffodil has broke and I had to tie it up.

My plant head fell off. I haven't seen it since so I don't know if it has grown back.

My daffodil didnt open. I dont think mine had enough sunlight

Prof P: Culross Primary School sent me messages to tell me they had named their flowers, thanks Culross! Here are some of the names they gave their Daffodils and Crocuses: Danny, Dafty, Crocy, Abby, Croaky, Dave, Chris, Cassy, Ceeper, Bob, Jim.

Many thanks,

Prof P

The Spring Bulbs deadline has arrived! I would like to say a HUGE thank you for working so hard to get all your weather and flower records in to me on time.

Which schools have had their first flowers?

Balcurvie Primary School, Chatelherault Primary School, Glencairn Primary School, St. Blanes Primary School, St. Patrick's Primary School, Tynewater Primary School and Wormit Primary School in Scotland, and Brynhyfryd Junior School, Cleddau Reach VC Primary School, Coed-y-Lan Primary,St Athan Primary, St Mellons Church in Wales Primary School, Ysgol Bro Eirwg, Ysgol Iau Hen Golwyn and Ysgol Y Plas in Wales, have all seen their first flowers open. In England, Bleasdale CE Primary School, Combe Primary School, Cutteslowe Primary School and Flakefleet Primary School, all sent their first flower records.Well done and thank you to these schools! 

Keep sending in your flower records!

As I said in my blog last week, if your plants have flowers but they have not opened yet, please keep watching them and send me your records when they open. They will not be in time to be in this year’s Spring Bulbs Report, but they will make next year’s report more accurate.

What if you didn’t have a flower?

Thank you to all the pupils who have sent me a record to say their plant did not flower, or that their flower did not open (you can do this by clicking ‘Didn’t open’ in the Flower Record). I know it can be a bit disappointing if your plant does not flower. But please don’t be sad! One thing that a Super Scientist must learn is that experiments don’t always work out the way we want them to! This does not mean that the experiment has failed. For a scientist it is JUST AS IMPORTANT to record when something does not happen, as when it does.

You will get a Super Scientist certificate and pencil if you worked hard and helped with the Super Scientist Investigation – whether your flower opened or not!

Wildflower Meadow at National Museum Cardiff

Here at National Museum Cardiff we are experimenting with growing a wildflower meadow. Do you have a wildflower meadow at your school? We have planted some seeds and bulbs and the first flowers to appear have been crocuses and daffodils! Here is a picture of them. It doesn’t look much like a meadow yet does it? But hopefully by the summer it will look very different. The muddy circle is where we have planted lots of red Poppies to remember the First World War. This year it is the 100^th anniversary of the start of the First World War and here at Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, we will have events and exhibitions that tell the stories of the people of Wales during the War. Click here to find out more.

Your questions, my answers:

Dallas Road Community Primary School: Hi Proffeser Plant!! Prof P: Hi everyone at Dallas Road!

Pinfold Primary School: nearly all the bulbs have opened. The mystery bulbs are blooming very well. The crocus is growing purple flowers. Prof P: What were your mystery bulbs Pinfold?

Glyncollen Primary School: Hello Professor Plant, We're excited because our bulbs have now sprung and we can't wait to get our certificates. From, Year 4. Prof P: Congratulations Year 4! I look forward to sending them to you, you are Super Scientists!

Ysgol Terrig: Our Bulbs have opened and they are 15cm tall :). Prof P: Great measuring Ysgol Terrig.

Rougemont Junior School: What a warm a dry week Professor Plant, our crocuses are all blooming as are our daffodils. Prof P: All the colours look so lovely don’t they?

St. Ignatius Primary School: We have uploaded our weather records for this week but unfortunately our bulbs have not flowered just yet. We are disappointed as this is the last week and we can see them coming along but not as quick as we would have hoped. We will continue to keep an eye on them and let you know when they have flowered. Our teacher will need to do this next week as P7 are off to Kilbowie in Oban for an outward bound trip. Prof P: Please don’t be disappointed P7, your results are still really important, even if your flowers didn’t open by the deadline. Enjoy your trip it sounds like fun!

Kilmaron Special School: We are using the findings of our daily temperature readings and rainfall as evidence in our SQA National 1 Measurement unit. Prof P: That is fantastic Kilmaron, I am so glad it is helping you with your qualification.

Stanford in the Vale Primary School: Thank you very much we really enjoyed it and are datherdils are blooming and are very healthy and strong through all of these conditions. Stanford in the vale gardening club. Prof P: I am so glad you enjoyed it Stanford, that makes me very happy!

St. Blanes Primary School: Hi Professor Plant, the start of the week felt much warmer. It's the first time we saw the temperature in double figures! Prof P: I hope you enjoyed the warm weather.

Gladestry C.I.W. School: it has grown well i'm a mum. Prof P: Congratulations! You must have looked after your baby bulb very well.

Chatelherault Primary School: Some of our plants are starting to bloom the daffodils are showing the most. The crocuses are still growing but not as much as the daffodils. Prof P: That is very interesting as crocuses usually flower before daffodils.

Ysgol Gynradd Cross Hands: Dyma ein blodyn cyntaf gan LM o Ysgol Gynradd Cross Hands. Mwy o haul plis!Prof P: Llongyfarchiadau LM o Ysgol Gynradd Cross Hands!

The Blessed Sacrament Catholic Primary School: my plant is just the same as the plant I got at my home it has grown twenty cm. Prof P: It’s wonderful to hear that you are growing flowers at home too, well done!

Many Thanks

Professor Plant