Elly Morgan from Oriel Y Parc delivered a workshop on Mongolia to children from Roch after school club.  The round house at Oriel Y Parc has been converted in to a traditional Mongolian ‘Ger’ which is the home of a nomadic herding family.  The exhibition is called Tsagaan Sar (White Moon) and it is celebrating the Mongolian New Year.

The children learned about the Mongolian culture and made traditional sharing bowls out of clay.  Using their bowls the children hunted for mini beasts, flowers and leaves  in the grounds of Oriel Y Parc.  They each had to collect one thing from outside which they considered special.  They put a drop of water into their clay bowls to make clay paint.  They used this to paint a picture of their special item.

The plant above is a fern.  This was collected by Connie as her special item.  There are around 12,000 different species of fern!  Ferns do not produce flowers or seeds like other plants.  Instead they produce spores which are reproductive structures that are adapted for dispersal and surviving unfavourable conditions.

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Silent World aquarium brought their travelling collection of reptiles, amphibians, marine creatures and mini beasts to the Merlin Theatre in Pembrokeshire college.  The event took place over two days with four schools attending.  The pupils participated in three different work shops each before finishing the session off with some snake handling.

Mary Immaculate

Glan Cleddau

Mount Airey

 Portfield

Some of the Silent World collection

Many thanks to Silent World for delivering fantastic workshops and to Pembrokeshire College for letting us use the Merlin Theatre!

For more information on Silent World To You click on : SW2U

If you would like to see the rest of the pictures from the two day event then check out our facebook page.

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Pembrokeshire College hosted a variety of activities as part of the BBC Stargazing LIVE season.  120 primary school pupils linked to the Buzz club took part in a rocket building workshop as well as a session in the Planetarium where they learned all about our solar system.

Jupiter is the largest planet is our solar system, it’s known as a gas giant because it is composed primarily of gas and liquid matter.  When looking at the picture of Jupiter above, on the left hand side you can see a spot.  This is called the Great Red Spot and it is a giant storm system that is larger than the Earth!

Constellations are patterns of stars in the sky that have been named after mythological characters, objects and animals.  There are 88 recognised constellations.

The Great Bear constellation is also known as Ursa Major which is its latin name.  Within this constellation is the Plough which is also known as the Saucepan and the Big Dipper.

Orion was a great hunter but he had a big ego.  Orion’s Belt can be clearly seen in the picture above on the right.  In the night sky if you look through binoculars below Orion’s Belt,  a stellar nebula can be seen which is where hundreds of young stars and exoplanets are forming.  Through the binoculars it looks like a blurry star.

Pleiades is a star cluster which is also called the Seven Sisters.  They are found in the constellation of Taurus.  It is clear from the picture that the stars are blue in colour.  This means that they are young stars and they are the hottest because they have lots of hydrogen to burn.  As a star comes closer to the end of its life it becomes red in colour and they are the coolest stars because they are running out of fuel (hydrogen) to burn.

The activities continued into the evening with workshops delivered to the public.  Dark Sky Wales and their team carried out hands on workshops on robotics and rockets.

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On Tuesday 17th January 2012 there will be a FREE stargazing event held at Pembrokeshire College. The Darwin Centre are working in association with Dark Sky Wales and the BBC to bring you a variety of activities….

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YES!! Goldfish can see colour better than humans!  Many thanks to all of those that attended the fantastic lectures by Professor Ron Douglas from City University London. A big thank you to Colour Group GB for sponsoring Ron to come down and deliver the lectures.

Kestrels prey on well camouflaged Field mice, but unfortunately for the Field mouse, Kestrels can see in UV.  Urine reflects UV so a Kestrel can spot a Field mouse from its urine trail!

How fast does a light have to flash before it is seen as continuous? If a light is flickering above 60 times a second (60Hz) then humans can’t tell but a chicken can see up to 105 flashes a second and a fly or a bee can see up to 300Hz!

Question: Out of the following animals which see no colour?  Dog, bull, frog, bee, squid, cat or do all of them see no colour?

Answer: Squid see no colour!

Once again thanks to Professor Ron Douglas for delivering the lectures and a special thanks to the Colour Group GB for sponsoring Ron to come and deliver the lectures for us.

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On Saturday 3rd Decemeber we spent the day at Heatherton world of activities with a group of young carers aged 12-17.  The morning was spent completing the high ropes adventure course, the afternoon was spent on the various activities that Heatherton offers such as archery and lazer clay shooting.

Many thanks to Heatherton for a great day.

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Many thanks to all of those that attended the Pembrokeshire’s Coastal Landscapes Lecture by Sid Howells.  It was a great evening.  And a big thanks to Sid for delivering the lecture.

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Students from Van Hall Larenstein the University of Applied Sciences in Holland braved the weather and headed out on the Milford Haven water way with us, Dailing Sailing and geologist Sid Howells.

The students explored the geological features of the Haven as well as the industrial ones.

 

Dragon LNG  is a key energy provider for the UK.  Its terminal consists of a jetty, storage tanks, re-gasification facilities combined with gas export capabilities.  The terminal operates at the highest level of efficiency using commercially proven technology, equipment and materials.

SemLogistics is one of the largest storage and terminal facilities in the UK.  The facility stores petroleum products including crude oil, gasoline blendstocks and jet fuel.

RWE npower (pictured above on the left) is a new gas fired power station in Pembroke.

Valero (pictured above on the right) is an oil refinery in Pembroke.  The refinery is one of the largest and most complex in Western Europe.  It makes products that include gasoline, diesel, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petrochemical feedstocks.

The students on the port side of the Dale Princess (pictured above on the left) were absolutely soaked whereas those on the starbaord side (pictured above on the left) were lucky.

South Hook LNG is the largest Liquefied Natural Gas re-gasification terminal in Europe.  The South Hook re-gasification terminal is where the LNG is converted from a liquid back to a gas and it is then delivered to UK homes and businesses via the national grid.

For more information on Van Hall Larenstein click here

or for more information about Dale Sailing click here

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