Seeds of science – Flowers, trees, potatoes and tools for your school
Wednesday 1st February 2017
Science Oxford’s Education Outreach Manager, Sophie Batin, gets prepared for spring and sows the seeds for green spaces projects!
It’s the perfect time of year to apply for free plants, trees and gardening tools for your school. Whether you have a gardening club, an eco-society, a heathy eating focus, a neglected space or just a class that you’d like to get working positively outdoors, here are some great free resources to get you started;
- Children love watching things grow so why not order a tree pack, complete with seeds, growing instructions and class guides. Tree packs of native species are available from:
- If you’re keen to learn more about the biodiversity at your schools why not contact the Earth Restoration Service. They’ll work with your school to survey existing biodiversity in school grounds and decide which plant species will best support butterflies in your area.
- For an easy project that doesn’t take up too much space, why not try growing potatoes with Grow Your Own Potatoes? The registration deadline is very soon but the website not only provides all the growing tools you need but also lesson plans and resources to support your teaching.
- There’s nothing so satisfying as a sunflower measuring competition. Another quick project is growing sunflowers with The Big Sunflower Project. Perfect for younger children, sunflowers are simple to grow and can support maths and literacy with measuring and descriptive writing.
- Schools thinking about an ‘outdoors’ project for the summer term can apply now for funding from the Big Lottery fund for grants of between £300 and £10,000. Funding has previously been awarded for a variety of projects in schools including developing wild gardens, outdoor play spaces, nature trails and sensory gardens and lunchtime nature explorer activity boxes. If you need help with your science-focused application, contact me at [email protected].
- Finally, only available to Oxfordshire schools currently, you can sign up here Conservation Foundation for the next free gardening tool giveaway.
So there it is – six easy ways to bring the outdoors indoors! And we’d love to hear from you if you’re doing any planting projects this year – tweet photos of your planting projects to us @scienceoxford #seedsofscience
Happy planting!
Sophie Batin
Education Outreach Manager
Science Oxford
