sunflower

So here we have it, the Psychology Sunflower challenge. As the winter starts to ebb away,the days get longer, the sunshine starts to appear. We step out of the dreariness of the dark, dank, winter moths and say hello to brightness.

I am challenging my fellow teachers, regardless of subject area, to grow sunflowers. Something of a natural experiment, if you like. The details above, are taken from the latest article of The ATP Magazine. Later this year, I am hoping to carry out a workshop at The ATP conference that looks at gardening and well being.

The instructions for the challenge are are simple. Place a sunflower seed into a pot of moist compost. You can even make your own paper pots if you wish! rather informative video here of how you can make those. Keep them moist and warm, but not damp enough to rot away. These should germinate quite quickly, and get quite tall. Once the threat of frost in your area has passed, you can transplant them outside.

Once outside, provided that they are well feed-they do get hungry-your sunflower will do it’s best to reach for the sky. You might even want to give it a name, and see just how tall it will grow. They are happy in both pots and in the open ground.

Here’s hoping that lots of folks get involved, and it would be lovely to see how the sunflowers are going.