How to Register
You will need to provide the following information:
- Your Name.
- Your School Roll Number.
- Your Email Address (We may need to contact you individually using your email address, so in case there are other teachers in your school we suggest that you provide your personal rather than school email address).
- Your phone number (preferably a mobile number).
Once you have registered
Identify as many of the six species near your school as you can. Print the Spotter's Guide to help you with this. The guide will tell you the information that you need to record so bring it with you when you are going out to observe your species.
Decide on which species you are going to record. You may record a selection, or all of the species. This year we are looking for six "Official Records" - one per species, and as many observations as you make.
Once you've made your sightings, submit them here »
Don't have your Greenwave wallchart or brochure? Use the links below to download them.
Click here to download the Greenwave Wallchart.
Click here to download the Greenwave Brochure for 2010.
There are a number of additional activities which you can also participate in, related to measuring the weather. You can measure the average temperature, the average rainfall and, new for 2010, the wind speed in your area.
Take part in Nature´s Calendar, the mass experiment recording how Spring & Autumn arrive in Ireland at http://www.biology.ie.
What is the Greenwave?
Scientists tell us that if we look at Europe from outer space we will see a green wave moving up across it in springtime.
This is caused by the opening of the buds on the trees and hedges. It begins in the south of Europe in February and it moves up across Europe as temperatures rise. It moves at the same speed as we might walk - four miles per hour, or one hundred miles a week (we´d only be walking in daylight). According to this, spring would take three weeks to walk across Ireland from Mizen Head to Malin Head.
It is much colder in the centre of Ireland than it is along the coast. The sea keeps the coast warmer than counties in the centre of Ireland. So maybe in Ireland spring moves inland from the coast. The Greenwave mass experiment sets out to see what happens. Does spring move from south to north across Ireland or inland from the coast to the centre. At what speed does it move and when exactly does it happen?
In 2009 the method of recording sightings was refined. Official Records and Observations were introduced to encourage increased accuracy and a reduced number of repeated records. The result was over 800 Official Records and over 500 Observations.
Why take part in the Greenwave project?
By taking part you will be actually doing real SCIENCE, i.e. studying and recording when plants and animals react to warming and lengthening days in spring.
We introduced a temperature measurement task to Greenwave in 2008 and rainfall measurement for 2009. These tasks have both been successful so we've decided to add wind speed measurements for 2010.
Taking part in the Greenwave Project is a practical way to support the teaching of the Plants and Animals Strand Unit in the Living Things Strand of the SESE curriculum. Students will have the opportunity to develop the following skills: Observing, Classifying, Recognising Patterns, Estimating and Measuring, Recording and Communicating. Find out more»
And remember... by taking part in Greenwave your school earns credit towards the Discover Primary Science Awards of Science Excellence! Log onto www.primaryscience.ie for more information.