On November 13th Class Hawk from Trelai Primary joined us for Kids in Museums Takeover day. They tested out some new activities and trails that have been developed for the Artes Mundi exhibition. In the afternoon they worked on developing their own ideas for activities. These were presented to Artes Mundi who will be incorporating some of them into new resources for children. The class came up with some excellent ideas for activities that could be done in any gallery space which we wanted to share, you can see them below.

Thanks and a big hand to Class Hawk and Mr.Cole for all your hard work and excellent fun!

CLASS HAWK'S IDEAS

Pick some words that describe the space you are in/the works on display and make a word-cloud from them

Use this to make a rap

Find the names of artists and works and make a word search for them

Describe how the works of art make you feel using pictures

Make masks inspired by the works on display

Have an I Spy game to play in the space where we have to find things on a check list  - these could be parts of a work of art or words like the names of artists

We like activities that helps us move slowly through the space and appreciate the work

In June this year the Natural Sciences Department received a rather special donation from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; a life size model of a giant millipede, Arthropleura, that would have lived in the Carboniferous Period, 300 million years ago. Arthropleura is the largest invertebrate (creepy-crawly) ever known to have lived on land, reaching up to 2.6 metres in length, but despite its monstrous proportions it is thought to have been a harmless herbivore.

The model was originally on display in Kew Garden’s Evolution House but when the space was dismantled in preparation for the HLF funded restoration of the Temperate House, it was no longer needed. So it was donated to Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, thanks to the generosity of Chris Mills, David Cook and Jonathan Farley at Kew.

The Arthropleura model was in need of some substantial conservation work when it arrived at AC-NMC. It had been on open display for many years in a glass house alongside living plants and was damaged and rusty. The humid display environment had caused the surface paint to flake away and several spiders and snails had taken up residence on the underside of the model!

The first job was to give the model a good wash with hot soapy water and remove the dirt and cobwebs! Then all the flaking paint was scrubbed off, the damaged areas on the legs and head were rebuilt with an epoxy putty and the surface textures recreated. The nuts and bolts of the removable antennae had rusted together, so the metal parts were replaced with new stainless steel threaded rods.

Once the repairs were complete the model was carefully painted with acrylics and then coated in a durable varnish, making it once again suitable for public display.

Some of the Natural Science staff had become rather attached to the impressive 1.5m long millipede model whilst it underwent conservation work in the lab and named it Arthur the Arthropleura! We also decided to have a bit of Halloween fun with Arthur… so he “escaped” and went on the run around the museum galleries! We posted pictures of his adventures on the @CardiffCurator Natural Sciences Twitter account and had a fantastic response from our followers. Arthur the Arthropleura is now a social media star and is a really wonderful addition to our collections!         

Helo gyfeillion gwyrdd!

Gobeithio’ch bo chi gyd wedi mwynhau plannu eich bylbiau.

O’r diwedd, mae’r hydref wedi cyrraedd Caerdydd. Mae wedi oeri ac mae’r dail yn troi gan greu lliwiau oren, melyn a brown hyfryd.

Mae’r hydref yn hwyr yn ein cyrraedd eleni. Roedd mis Hydref yn gynhesach ac yn wlypach nag arfer, felly cadwodd y coed eu dail gwyrdd yn hirach nag arfer.

Roedd tywydd Calan Gaeaf yn arswydus o anarferol! Mewn rhai mannau o’r Deyrnas Unedig, er enghraifft de Lloegr a gogledd Cymru, roedd y tymheredd dros 20°C.

Yng Ngerddi Kew, yng ngorllewin Llundain, roedd yn ddychrynllyd o dwym – 23.6°C! Dyma’r tymheredd uchaf i gael ei gofnodi yn y Deyrnas Unedig ar Galan gaeaf erioed. Gobeithio nad oeddech chi’n rhy boeth yn eich gwisg ffansi!

Dwi’n meddwl fod y tywydd rhyfedd yma’n ddiddorol iawn, ac rwy’n edrych ymlaen at glywed pa bethau anarferol rydych chi wedi’u darganfod yn ystod eich arbrofion bylbiau’r gwanwyn.

Ydy’r hydref wedi’ch cyrraedd chi eto? Ydy’r dail yn newid lliw ac yn cwympo? Beth am dynnu llun hydrefol a’i anfon ata i mewn e-bost? Mae’n bosib y byddaf yn ei ddangos yma ar fy mlog.

Cofiwch y dylech chi fod wedi dechrau cofnodi tymheredd a glaw ar eich siartiau tywydd. Ewch i fy nhudalen cadw cofnodion tywydd ar y wefan i weld nodyn i’ch atgoffa beth i’w wneud.

Diolch!

Athro’r Ardd

A planting day of bulbous proportions!

Eleven thousand and three hundred bulbs were planted by school scientists across the UK to kick start the Spring Bulbs for Schools investigation. Seven and a half thousand pupils from one hundred and seventy nine schools got planting to investigate climate change.

Here is a map to show you where the bulbs were planted.

Here are some of the pictures they sent in. Follow their progress and the questions they raise as they record the local weather and flowering through the winter and into the spring.

Professor Plant

‘From ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night…’

Last Friday, Natural Sciences staff celebrated Halloween in grand style with a host of truly ghoulish and grizzly specimens out in the main hall at National Museum Cardiff. The National Herbarium was transformed into a ghoul filled graveyard, and a large mosquito model leered down from the entomology (insects) stand, any moment threatening to jump on the jugular of an unsuspecting member of the public. Younger visitors to the OPAL stand were encouraged to stealthily walk through a spider’s web without disturbing its occupant, and learn about glow in the dark scorpions. Meanwhile the biggest creepy crawly that ever lived, Arthropleura, a 300 million year old extinct giant millipede, escaped from the Palaeontology (fossil) stand and went off to explore the Impressionist galleries.

Despite all of the fun, visitors gained an insight about some of the 6 million specimens that are held behind the scenes at the museum, and the incredible work of the staff that care for them.  From bats to giant squid, volcanic rocks to fungi, we covered them all. One of my favourite parts of the day was taking visitors behind the scenes on tours of the Entomology and Molluscan sections to see insects and shells and the Spirit store (not ghosts, but where we keep our specimens preserved in fluid such as sea worms and crabs). It is such a rewarding experience to see the excitement of people visiting the collections for the first time, and proudly talking about all of the great research work that we do.

If you missed it, don’t worry! We have a whole host of open days and curator led sessions coming up. See our What’s Onto find out more!