School children around Ireland have been asked to embark on a project to monitor the path of spring as it washes over Ireland like a 'green wave'.
Although the cold blanket of snow covering so much of the country in recent days has covered the tiniest traces of green, within weeks young shoots will grow and spring flowers will bud.
The Greenwave 2009 project, unveiled today by the national Discover Science and Engineering (DSE) programme, is a mass science experiment by Irish national schools to track the movement of spring across the country.
Students will record sighting dates of six species that are indicators of spring on the Greenwave website and the results will be mapped to see whether spring moves from north to south or inland from the coast to the centre.
Last year some 2,500 sightings were submitted from schools across the country.
Greenwave project manager Oonagh Meighan said it was a way of getting children interested in science.
“They will study how plants and animals react to lengthening days in spring; investigate the signs of global warming; and measure levels of rainfall.”
She said taking part in the Greenwave project was also a practical way to support the teaching of the plants and animals element of the school curriculum.
“These simple skills will help them develop the analytical thinking required for maths and science at second level.”
According to the organisers, every year a green wave caused by the opening of buds on trees and hedges can be seen moving across Europe from outer space in springtime.
It begins in the south of Europe in February and it moves up across the continent as temperatures rise.
The phenomenon travels at about the same speed as humans walk - four miles per hour - hence the description of a green wave. Based on that speed, spring would take three weeks to walk across Ireland from Mizen Head to Malin head, according to DSE.
In addition to the species examined last year - ash, horse chestnut and hawthorn trees, the primrose, the swallow and frogspawn - participants will also be asked this year to record the rainfall from February to May.
The information gathered will help to examine whether climate change is causing flowers to bloom earlier and how Irish wildlife is affected as a result.
The best photos submitted by children of their sightings will also be judged and eligible for prizes. Met Éireann meteorologist Gerald Fleming and botanist and broadcaster Eanna Ní Lamhna will be the judges. And each winning school will receive a digital camera and printer.
Ní Lamhna said: “Climate change is having an effect on our environment. The Greenwave project measures how spring moves across Ireland and also how early in the year the species chosen react. It is an excellent scientific project for schools, as meaningful scientific data on climate change needs lots of records taken from all over the country year after year, so that the changes are noticed.”
Mr Fleming said: “Nature is all around us, always changing. Ireland has some of the most changeable weather on earth; We can feel these changes, and so do the birds and the animals, while the trees and plants too respond to the elements. The Greenwave project helps us to notice these changes by asking us to observe and measure them; to observe the first frogspawn, the primroses, the first swallow, and to measure the rain that falls.”
He said measuring rainfall was one of the most important jobs in meteorology.
“Every day, tens of thousands of weather observers all over the world go to their rain gauge and empty their collection containers into a graduated cylinder to measure how much rain has fallen - just like the Greenwave participants can do.”
Schools can register for the experiment online at www.greenwave.ie
Materials are also available in Irish for gaelscoileanna.