Plant Science: Photosynthesis AND The Sandpit

Chocolate cake helps with all educational (and not-so-educational) tasks



Constructing the Photosynthesis Formula game. [Download this for free from Ellen McHenry's Basement site here]

Other similar free downloads here

All the best games involve eating sweets

Oi! You've just eaten a hydrogen!

Once you've completed the top part it's a race to turn your carbons, hydrogens and oxygens into glucose, oxygen and water.

Man may have risen up from the primordial soup, but he's only a few steps from returning to his evolutionary roots:

The secret stash of yummy things held in the treasure chest of pinkland.

Arrrrgggghhhhhhhhh (or something like that)

Haircut.

Soon.

Is all I can say.

Wellies, hoody and skinny jeans is obviously the new look.

By the way, I've found a home-made shampoo recipe here, on the Here We are Together blog.

Might solve that pre-teen limp locks issue.

Or maybe not.

I await the scowling verdict.

Wednesday: Flowers, dinosaurs and holograms

We are going to dissect flowers.

Carefully.

i.e. not stab them repeatedly with the scalpel and slice them with the scissors until they are mashed.

Because if you do that CHILDREN you wont be able to see all the parts that I'm going to make you LABEL on an educational printout.

See. It's not that hard.

A trip to a hologram exhibition at a museum.

Spooky.

My personal favourite:

Quick, get the camera. Child doing something educational at museum!

Miss-not-quite-David-Bailey:

dd finds a new use for oven gloves:

Stripeysaurus on the loose:

Just humour your mother. You know it makes her happy:

Plant Science 5: Plant Adaptations (The Fernery and more)

Our continued adventures at the Botanic Gardens.




Outside the greenhouses....







The fountain.

Seeds from the trees

And inside the greenhouses:

A giant citrus fruit.

The fernery:

Ferns, close up.

Just look at this amazing flower.

Ds1 said it reminded him of that really stinky jungle flower that only flowers once every hundred years. Thankfully this one didn't stink!

Plant Science 4: Plant Adaptations (The Palm House and the Lily House)

More photos from our outing to The Botanic Gardens. This time the palm house and lily house.

This bark reminds me of pregnant bellies.

Ooo...these pitcher plant thingymagigs are so cool. Big green pee pots on twisty stems.

Bananas.

The lily pond:

And this is how the pond looks later in the year with the giant lilies:

Plant Science 3: Plant Adaptations (Desert Plants)

It's easy to forget the wonderful resources you have on your doorstep. After watching a few of the online BBC clips about plant adaptations it seems only natural to head off to our local Botanic Gardens.


It might be half-term but the miserable weather keeps the hoards of school kids at bay. It's only us mad folks who venture out to a garden in weather like this.



Photos from the 'Arid House'. No titles required, just an opportunity to marvel at the wonders of the plant world.