Nature projects

Activities that can be done with nature can be found here.

Crystal Growing and Gardens

There are a number of kits available on the market for creating crystal gardens or growing crystals, often using alum. But growing crystals of some types of chemicals is actually not that hard and can be done using sugar and salt. The knack is to create a super saturated solution of the chemical (eg sugar or salt) by keep dissolving spoonfuls of the chemical crystal in a jar of hot water until no more will dissolve. Leave this to cool down.

Hang a small crystal of the same chemical by a piece of fine thread in the solution. This acts at the 'seed' crystal and will grow larger as the solution gets colder and over time evaporates.

Crystals will form as the water cools down since chemicals are more soluble in warm water than cold, but the knack to forming nice large regular crystals is slower evaporation.

An quick alternative is to bring back some sea water next time you go to the coast and leave this to evaporate in a dish... same effect.

Triops

Great fun.... Triops are fast becoming one of those little wonders and I know they keep the youth at club fascinated. Looking a bit like the old trilobite or miniature horseshoe crab, they are 'living fossils' having existed 350 million years ago and still alive today. Living in temporary ponds for their individual short life spans ( 6 to 12 weeks), their microscopic eggs can exist in a diapause (suspended state) for many years until the right conditions occur for them to hatch. Within days the tiny larvae are visible, which almost in double in size everyday to become 4 cm adults within 3 weeks. All they need is about half a litre of spring or rain water at room temperature (20 - 27 ^oC) and about 12 hours light per day which can be easily arranged by the use of a desk lamp connected to a timer switch. The water does not need aeration as they are adapted to living in puddles.

Why's it called triops? Because although you 'see' the two dark compound eyes there is a third eye which is just light sensitive.

There are a few suppliers appearing in the UK. One of the main ones being Interplay who will supply direct or via various retail outlets (even The Gadget Shop!)

Sea Monkeys

'Sea Monkeys' are fairy shrimps and probably better known than Triops, but another creature whose eggs go into diapause until the conditions are right for them to hatch. I've not tried them but I understand they are just as easy and great fun. They also can live a lot longer (2 years!) given the right conditions. Look out for the kits available. (click here)

Create a Wildlife Garden

Building wildlife gardens, nature areas, ponds etc is not a new idea. The area could just be a border devoted to wild plants or a whole section of a garden or available plot of land, however in the past often the plants being introduced were nature friendly, but did nothing to conserve the native plants in the area, which were needed by animals and insects. So the additional twist here is to create a garden that also has native plants for your area in it. To get the best out of the wildlife area it's important to choose plants that suit the growing conditions, ie sunny or shaded area, sandy or clay soil, alkaline or acidic, near water, etc.

Click here for an example list of native plants which are food and nectar sources for butterflies and moths giving a rough idea of the importance various plants have in supporting wildlife. (Source taken from the British Wild Flower Plants. A fuller list of plant - animal associations is available on their website)

If you live in the UK, the British Wild Flower Plants has a searchable database hosted by the natural history museum, of plants native to your area by your postcode.

Postcode Plants Database (http://fff.nhm.ac.uk/)

Page last updated: 02 March 2008