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 2,933 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.
   

1st: Sana Patel - Fulwood & Cadley Primary

2nd: Markus - Stanford Primary - Age 9

3rd: Emilia Porter - Fulwood & Cadley Primary

Runner's up:

• Marielle Matter - Westwood Primary - Age 9
• Emlyn Piette - Westwood Primary - Age 10
• Aleena Raza - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Lucy Turner - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Davina Vadhere - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Bradley Cox - Stanford in the Vale Primary - Age 9
• Abigail Boswell - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Hasan Patel - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Tom Betheridge - Fulwood & Cadley Primary
• Mairelle Mattar - Westwood Primary - Age 9
• Hasan Ali - Sherwood Primary
• Charlie Smith - Ysgol Nant Y coed - Oed 9

Many Thanks

Professor Plant

www.museumwales.ac.uk/scan/bulbs

Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant

Facebook Professor Plant

Objects are evidence of somewhere, something, or somebody and as such all have stories to tell.

Recently a class of adults studying creative writing at Carduff University attended a workshop here with me in the Clore Discovery Centre. They took on the role of a curator and wrote their own creative labels for some of their favourite objects in the gallery. Here are a few examples:

Iron-Nickel Meteorite (Approximately 4.5 billion years old)

 I wandered lonely, in a cloud of fragments, beyond the Martian orbit, since the beginnings of the Solar System some four-and-a-half billions of years ago. A passing satellite, en-route from Earth to who knows where, disturbed my orbit, and I fell towards the distant sun. Later, I felt the pull of Earth, and spiralled down into its gravity well – faster and faster until in fiery glory I blazed across the sky, a meteorite. Though reduced in size, I fell to earth. A fragment of the ancient history of the Solar System – a messenger from outer space – here I lie in The National Museum Collection.

David Edwards

What is it? Popular wrong answers include a drinking vessel or a paperweight!!

 It is an axe head. Bronze Age man hafted it to a wooden handle and used the D shaped loop on the side for strapping.  Butchering, wood-cutting and self-defence are among possible uses for this versatile tool.

 Mike Dolan

A snakestone fossil

thought to be magic,

I was a cephalopod

with head and foot fused.

In life I relied

on plain hydraulics

a siphuncle curled

like a twirling straw

adjusted the pressure

in my chambered coils,

let me rise and fall

as I dodged ichthyosaurs.

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

Twitter http://twitter.com/Professor_Plant

Facebook Professor Plant

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.

Inspired by the most inquisitive visitor ever who came and really tested my knowledge yesterday (perfect mental warm up for all the questions we'll get about the collections over the holidays) I thought it would be useful to give some suggestions for things to consider when exploring objects.

All objects have some kind of a story, and objects are all evidence of somewhere, something, or somebody ans as such all have stories to tell.

So when you're looking at an object for the very first time, thinking about some of these will guide your exploration:

Is it real or a model?

How old is it?

Is it man made or natural?

What might it have been used for/by whom/when/for what?

Does it remind you of anything you've seen before?

Some of our busy school visitors investigated and explored objects in the gallery, through careful questioning and research they discovered lots about their objects. Here is a selection of the labels they wrote