The Great Plant Hunt

Can we re-use our mini seed bank?

If you have already used your mini seed bank to dry seeds - well done! - but now the silica gel might need drying out so that it is just as good next time. If your indicator beads mixed in with the silica have turned from orange to green, then this shows that it all needs drying out. To regenerate the desiccant, spread on a baking tray and place in the oven at 100°C /212°F for 1-2 hours or until the indicator beads have turned from green to orange. Avoid over-cooking as this will discolour the indicator. Allow the silica gel desiccant to cool slightly before replacing in the bottom of the plastic drying box and sealing the lid. However, do not leave it in the open air for more than a few minutes because the warm silica gel will quickly absorb moisture. It's as easy as that!

I don't have any mystery seeds

If you don't have the mystery seeds needed for one of the Plant Detective activities (for 10-11 year olds), we'll let you in on a secret! The seeds come from the Rumex acetosa, or common sorrel to you or me. You can either buy common sorrel seed online, or use the identikit to go out and collect your own (from June onwards)! You can find the Identikit, and species guide on the teachers page. Happy plant hunting!

What is The Great Plant Hunt?

The Great Plant Hunt is an exciting new project from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, funded and commissioned by the Wellcome Trust to mark the 200th anniversary in 2009 of Charles Darwin’s birth. The Great Plant Hunt aims to encourage primary school children aged 5-11 to explore the natural world around them. It takes place in the classroom, online and in the great outdoors!

Funded and commissioned by the Wellcome Trust, this £2 million project from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, aims to give every primary school child free resources and the chance to have a fun and rewarding experience which they can follow through their primary education. In addition, state primary schools will receive a treasure chest. Clearly mapped to the primary science curriculum, the chest includes fun resources for use in the classroom, online and in the great outdoors. They can be used by individual teachers or as a whole-school activity.

No Treasure Chest - no problem! All you need is here

It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a physical treasure chest (distributed to primary schools in March 2009) as everything you need to take part is easily accessible on the website. You can even print and assemble your very own chest to store all the downloadable resources! (at the bottom of the Teachers’ Area )

Start by visiting the Teachers’ Area for an introduction to the project and watch the celebratory video for some inspiration.

You can then visit the individual year group pages for fun and educational activities to suit the ages and abilities you teach.

What’s in the treasure chest?

The treasure chest includes a teachers handbook, booklets full of colourful activities for each year group, a Darwin storybook, fun stickers, magnifiers, a plant identikit and a fantastic plant press and mini seed bank. Each year group has a set of dedicated resources with activities closely linked to learning outcomes and curriculum-linked across all four UK regions. The year groups are: Darwin's Lookouts (ages 5-6); Darwin's Discoverers (ages 6-7); Darwin's Thinkers (ages 7-8); Darwin's Collectors (ages 8-9); Darwin's Investigators (ages 9-10) and Darwin's Plant Detectives (ages 10-11).

Moved school?

If you've moved school during the summer and would like to join The Great Plant Hunt at your new school, you'll need to re-register with your new school and contact details. If you use your new school's official email address, your new registration will happen immediately, otherwise there'll be a short delay while we verify your school and contact details. Follow this link to set up a Great Plant Hunt account at your new school.

I've forgotten my password or username

If you have forgotten your username and/or password, navigate to any of the teachers' pages and locate the blue 'login in' box. At the bottom of this login box, you will find a 'Forgotten username or password' link. Following this link will display a web page with the option to be sent a username reminder by email. The email will also contain a secure link to enable you to reset your password.

I've lost my class usernames and passwords

If you have lost your class usernames and passwords, navigate to any of the teachers' pages and locate the blue 'login in' box. At the bottom of this login box, you will find a 'Forgotten username or password' link. Following this link will display a web page with the option to request a reminder of class usernames and reset your class passwords. This information will be sent your registered email address.

Changing your geographical region

Each time you visit the Great Plant Hunt website, you need to identify which region of the UK you’re based in - Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales or England. If you choose Northern Ireland or Scotland, the navigation within the site will be displayed in the Northern Irish/Scottish format (P2, P3 etc). The alternate format, Year 1, Year 2 etc is displayed is you choose England or Wales. If you make a mistake and choose the wrong region, you can easily change it by navigating to any of the teachers' pages, scrolling down the page to the footer and clicking on the ‘Change Region’ link.

What sort of web browser should I be using?

The Great Plant Hunt has been designed to be viewed in the most popular web browsers: Internet Explorer versions 6 and above and Firefox 2 and above on a PC and Safari 2 / Firefox 2 and above on a Mac. For best results, please use one of these browsers. In addition, some features of the site rely on JavaScript so for best results, please ensure that JavaScript is enabled. Web browser settings to enable JavaScript can be found in the tools menu. The site also requires Adobe Flash Player (version 8 or above) to be installed. Flash Player comes pre-installed in the common web browsers. Download the latest free Adobe Flash Player

Why is Kew doing this?

As one of the world leaders in natural sciences, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is keen to encourage an early interest in the study of plants. Each year, nearly 100,000 children find fun and inspiration at Kew's two properties at Wakehurst Place, Sussex, and the Royal Botanic Gardens in West London. By engaging children in real science, we aim to help them appreciate not only the work of Darwin, but also to value the work of real-life plant hunters who play a vital role in helping us understand the natural world around us.

Do the resources apply to regional curricula?

This is a UK-wide project so the resources have been carefully mapped to the primary science curriculum for schools in the UK – England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Where's my treasure chest?

Treasure chests were sent to all state maintained primary schools and state maintained primary special schools in March 2009. Delivered by Parcelforce Worldwide, the chests were addressed to Head Teachers. If you think you are eligible for a free chest and have not received one, please contact us.

Can I buy a treasure chest?

Although the treasure chest is not for sale, don't despair as all teaching materials and resources are available to download - so you can make your own treasure chest of resources to run The Great Plant Hunt completely free. To 'do-it-yourself', use the links (found at the foot of page here: http://www.greatplanthunt.org/teachers) to print out all the booklets, print and make your own box, make a plant press and put together a mini-seed bank. Soon we'll update the website with how to buy the storybook and the mini seed bank.

Can independent schools take part in The Great Plant Hunt?

Absolutely! Although independent schools won’t receive a physical treasure chest, it’s easy for anyone to take part. All teaching materials and resources are available to download - so anyone can make their own treasure chest of resources to run The Great Plant Hunt completely free. To ‘do-it-yourself’, use the links (found at the foot of page here: http://www.greatplanthunt.org/teachers) to print out all the booklets, print and make your own box, make a plant press and put together a mini-seed bank. Soon we'll update the website with how to buy the storybook, a seed bank and a plant press.

Independent schools are invited to apply for school accounts. Simply click on the 'Register for a school account' button on any of the teachers' pages and on the next page, you'll find a ‘contact us‘ link. Click on this, fill in the form and we'll see to the rest.

Why do you need a school email address to register for an account?

You can use the website without a school log-on but it’s worth registering so you can take part fully in The Great Plant Hunt. You can also win prizes for your school too! For security reasons, please use a school email address whenever possible. Email addresses ending in .sch.gov.uk are recognised as official and registration will be instantaneous. Once you’ve signed up for an account, we’ll send you an email and once you have clicked on the link, you have full access. If you use a non-school email address, we have to ask for some more information so we can verify you are a teacher.

What's on the website?

The website - www.greatplanthunt.org - is a fun online resource for children and teachers alike. Three colourful, animated characters, Lily, Ash and an aged tortoise called Joseph, help bring learning alive from their treehouse in the grounds of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Resources online include short films of real-life plant hunters from exotic far-flung places, all the classroom activities to download, resource banks to support assembly and classroom activities, animated treehouse spaces for each year group and fun sorting and observation games.

Setting up other teachers in your school account

1. Register for your own account or have your registered details to hand if you already have one.
2. Make sure that the teachers who you want to add have also registered too. They can do this on the Teachers index page here: http://www.greatplanthunt.org/register. Or, at the end of each registration process, there is an prompt to register other teachers. This restarts the registration process.
3. You will have to ask the other teachers to check their email and confirm their registrations by clicking on the link in the confirmation email. If you’re using a single school email address to register everybody, then you need to confirm every teacher’s registration email yourself.
4. Once another teacher is registered and confirmed, log yourself in with your own username and password (not theirs!) from the teachers index page here: http://www.greatplanthunt.org/teachers
5. On the right hand side, there’s a menu of things you can do in the teachers admin area
6. Near the bottom, is an option to “Assign teachers to year groups”. Click on this to see a list of all the teachers from your school who have registered – here you can change their year group.