Learning
August 2012
Summer Snaps! Wildlife Photography Workshops @NMC
Over the past two weeks we have been running family activities linked to the Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Exhibition here at National Museum Cardiff.
Over 400 of you took part and it has been a fantastic fortnight of photographic fun! I've been busy uploading as many photos as possible to the NMC Photo Club Flickr page and I have to say they look great! When you visit the Flickr page the photos are organised into sets on the right hand side of the page so if you took part all you need to do is click on the date of your visit to the Museum and look for your name!
The photos will be going up on the screen in the Clore Discovery Centre in the Museum on Saturday the 8th of September so if you came to the workshops pop in to see your pictures on display at the National Museum!
I'd like to say a big thank you to Cat, Lauren and Catherine for all their excellent work in running the workshops and I'd like to thank everyone who came along to take part as well. Thanks!
Museum Challenge
Ten young people gave up four days of their summer holidays to help make our whale and turtle displays more family-friendly.
They signed up to the challenge through Cardiff’s Summer Learning Festival, which invites 12-15 year olds to learn new skills in their spare time. They learned how to evaluate and exhibition, pick a good story, write interesting text and select objects to make a family friendly display.
Diolch i / Many thanks to:
Jasmine Coombes, Emily Frankish, Aled Gomer, Thomas Griffiths, Samantha Hardy, Stephen Lloyd, Simon Naylor, Maxwell Piper, Anna Rees, Mollie Shand.
July 2012
Improve numeracy & get free bulbs for your school!
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales is looking for new schools to be involved in this exciting project and receive free spring bulbs.
Spring Bulbs for Schools (KS2)
Plant bulbs in your school grounds to study climate change. Join this UK wide investigation and improve science and numeracy skills. For more details visit www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/scan/bulbs
The application only takes a minute to complete and the project is FREE to all schools who apply by the 30th July.
June 2012
looking at buildings with 'families learning together'
I met a lovely group this morning from 'families learning together' who took part in one of my looking at buildings sessions.
I sent them out to do some sketches and they came back with these beauties! We then turned the sketches in to 3d models and they were really wonderful!
craftivists
photo by jennifer roberts
photo by victoria stephens
On saturday, the Craftivists (well, the wonderful Sarah Corbett) came to Oriel 1 to help us make mini protest banners dealing with asylum seekers and refugees.
In the gallery at the moment we have an exhibition called Refugee House which is a recreation of a typical refugee or asylum seeker dwelling in Cardiff.
One of the intentions of the exhibtion is to raise awareness about the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Wales and the rest of the UK.
We thought making banners with other Crafitivists would raise even more awareness about the issues - while stitching slogans and quotes on our mini banners we could really think about the words and discuss their meaning, and when we hung the banners up afterwards other people could read the quotes and perhaps want to investigate more.
It was a really interesting day and I met lots of lovely new crafters, we've hung up most of the banners, but there will be more to come - let me know if you see any!
oh and do go and see what other things the Craftivists do and see how you can get involved.
Thanks to Reynette from Oasis who gave us a bit more of an insight into the lives of refugees and asylum seekers in Wales by telling us about her work and experiences at Oasis Cardiff.
May 2012
Fascination of Plants Day
Pupils from Roath Park Primary and Pontyclun Primary had great fun exploring plants and plant science at the National Museum Cardiff to celebrate The Fascination of Plants day.
They had a go at dissecting a plant, explored plants under the microscope, and found out about the work of plant scientists at the National Museum Cardiff and Cardiff University. They also learned how to survey for plants in the local park.
Plus, Flathom Island education team joined us with some real live slow worms, and the Marine Conservation Society helped pupils explore issues affecting local wildlife.
This event for schools was run by education staff and plant scientists from Cardiff University, the National Museum Wales and Eco-explore, and was part of an international celebration of plants around the world. We hope to run a similar event next year, where more schools will be able to participate.
Thanks to all involved!
Spring Bulb for Schools: Results 2005-2012
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.
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See if the flowers opened late in schools that recorded cold weather.
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See how temperature, sunshine and rainfall affect the average flowering dates.
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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
Cardiff Creative Writers
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.
Anne Bryan
April 2012
Every object tells a story
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
Noah's Ark
Mural of Noah's Ark in the Church in St Fagans: National History Museum
These photos are from february half term, but I'd forgotten to put them on the blog until now (in fact I thought I had put them on the blog already but I must have just popped a few on twitter...).
It may be hard to tell but the art work is based on the mural of Noah's Ark in the church here in St Fagans: National History Museum. I drew the ark on a large piece of paper and asked the children to add animals to it - some they had drawn themselves and some coloured in from pictures provided. I also drew a couple of pictures of a devil and a dragon based on those in the church and they went down a storm! I must remember to bring those nasty creatures back round about halloween!
There will be drop in art sessions over the may bank holiday, so please come by and say hello!
Sian
categories
Historic Photography Project (Esmee Ffairburn)
Learning
recent entries
Daffodil Drawing Competition 2013
Peregrines on the Clock Tower 2013
Natural science collections in Welsh museums – a Distributed National Collection
Professor Plant’s Promise: Late flowers won’t get left behind
