Blog: Learning

Hello!

I've been pretty quiet blog-wise but not work wise! Oriel 1 is now shut so I've been taking my art and craft activities further afield, trying out different locations on the site in St Fagans: National History Museum and going to Hay festival, Tafwyl, as well as doing some outreach work with schools.

Our quilting club is still going and our next meeting will be on 20 July and will be all day! from 11 until 1 and 2 until 4 (though you are welcome to just come along for some of it). I have also started up a knit and sew group, it's just a chance to come along and meet new people and exchange ideas and the next one of those is on 28 September from 11 until 1.

To keep up to date with what we're up to quilt and craft wise, have a look at our facebook page

We've also taken part in a few Craftivism projects and hope to do more of those over the next few months too. Again, there's a facebook page for that, although we don't just meet in the museum and take part in lots of other events!

And the other newish thing that I've been involved with is the St Fagans book group (yep, there's a facebook page for that too) which meets every month (next meeting 20 july) to discuss novels that have links with the site or have links with Wales. We also invite speakers to come and give us some context for the books too - so, for instance, when we read 'The Rebecca Rioter' by Amy Dillwyn, Sioned Hughes (curator: Politics, Trade and Religion) talked to us about the Tollhouse in St Fagans, when we 'read' (I'm yet to finish it) 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by Hemingway, Heulwen Thomas talked to us about the Welsh links with the Spanish Civil War, and last meeting when we disussed 'The Hill of Dreams' by Arhtur Machen, writer and Machenite Catherine Fisher talked to us about Machen's life and times. The current book we are reading is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and we'll then be joined by Dr Madeleine Gray who'll be giving her historical take on the novel whilst we visit the church.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of these things please let me know! my email address is sian.lile@museumwales.ac.uk and I'd love to hear from you.

I have to get back to my crochet bunting now!

We’re very excited about our newest specimen on display here in the Clore Discovery Centre –an ichthyosaur skull that was found not far from here at Lavernock (near Penarth).

The skull is going to be on display throughout the summer and this is where you come in.

Instead of us writing an information panel based on what we know about the specimen, we’d rather find out what you would like to know.

So over the next couple of months come into the museum, investigate the specimen and leave your suggestions for what you’d like to discover about the ichthyosaur in the ballot box we’ve set up in the Clore Discovery Centre.

We’ve also got some exciting family workshops lined up where we’ll be learning more about the Jurassic seas that our Ichthyosaurs lived in.

 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @cloreexplorer

Saturday 6^th July 2pm

Sunday 7^th July 2pm

Saturday 13^th July 2pm

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 3,979 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

Facebook Professor Plant

I announced the Winners and Runners Up of the Daffodil Drawing Competition a couple of weeks ago, and now their fantastic drawings are now up on our website for you all to see!

In this competition I was looking for botanical illustrations – these are pictures of plants drawn in a scientific way. This means I was looking for beautiful pictures but they also needed to have clear labels to show the different parts of the Daffodil.

1st, 2nd and 3rd prize winners will receive a bird watching kit with mini binoculars. Runners Up will receive flower seeds for the garden.

Click here to view this year’s Winners and Runners Up.

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/3956/

Many thanks,

Prof P

Hi Super Scientists,

4116 of you have helped with the Spring Bulbs investigation this year – which is truly FANTASTIC! I am very, very busy this week getting your certificates ready to send out to you!

But for some of you the investigation is not over yet… your flowers are still not open.

What do you do if your flowers have not yet opened?

Please keep sending in flower data! If your flowers have not opened and you would like to carry on with your investigation then please do! When they open you can still record the flowering date and plant height on our website.

So why have a deadline?

I have to write a special report every year that gives a summary of all the data sent in so far. I need to write that report now. All records sent in before the deadline will be included in this years report.

What happens to records sent in after the deadline?

Records sent in after the deadline will be added to our database and will be included in next years report. All the records that you send are very important and will help the investigation to be more accurate in the future. I promise you that your data will not be lost or wasted.

Who are the people in the photo??

I would like to introduce you to Nick and Pat Bean who own the farm, Springfields Fresh Produce, where your daffodil bulbs come from! These are pictures of them in a field of Tenby daffodils that they have grown on their farm.

Whose has sent in flowers records for the first time?

Thank you to the following schools for sending in their flower records: Gladestry C.I.W. School, Williamstown Primary, St Athan Primary, Ysgol Hiraddug and Bwlchgwyn CP School in Wales, Hawthornden Primary School, Ladybank Primary School, Tynewater Primary School and Torbain Primary School in Scotland, and Larkrise Primary School, Britannia Community Primary School and Thorneyholme RC Primary School in England.

Well done too to all the schools that keep sending in more and more flower records to make our investigation more accurate!

Many thanks,

Prof P