STEP 1 - SCIENCE - 2021/2022

 STEP 1 - SCIENCE 

Living Things: North Pole

Ms. Beecher’s Class visited the North Pole!

Pupils in Ms. Beecher’s Class experienced some of the cold of the Arctic, by making an iceberg and snow during messy play. The children listened to the story Save the Arctic by Bethany Stahl. The story explored how the Arctic is changing and how we need to make changes to ensure the animals survive. Pupils explored the iceberg (ice) and snow (shaving foam) and the animals living in the Arctic. These included the walrus, pelican, seals, reindeer, wolves and polar bears

 

Environmental Awareness and Care 

Ms O' Connor's Junior Infants 

We learned about the importance of keeping our school and play places clean. We appreciate that we have a very important role in taking care of the environment around us. We know that we share our environment with lots of plants and animals and we understand that littering and not cleaning up after ourselves may cause harm to them. We went on a clean up operation, picking up any litter that we found in our yard.

Energy and Forces - 5th and 6th Class 

The children created a simple electrical circuit. They used a battery, wires, electrical clips and bulbs to create the circuit. They had to construct the circuit in the correct manner in order for the current to flow through the circuit and in turn cause the bulb to light up. They also used the circuit to test the conductivity of a range of materials. 

Maths Questions that were discussed.

 1) Would the length of leads/wires used affect the circuit? Calculate the voltage of the current by increasing or decreasing the amount of batteries used in the circuit.

Mr Faherty's 5th and 6th class really enjoyed learning about and creating circuits, it was great fun!

Materials - Ms Meaney's Senior Infants & 1st Class 

Miss Meaney's class really enjoyed learning about and constructing houses!

Science Investigation	Teacher Led 1.       Teach the different type of houses – cdn to label the pictures correctly. 2.       (Twinkl powerpoint) 3.       Talk about what it is like to be homeless. Talk about items that we want/need if we had to move out of our house.	Matching, labelling, investigation skills, prediction.	Can children understand that some people do not have a home of their own. Be able to identify items that we need/want.	Explore with me.
Arts and crafts	Cdn to create their own house, using a range of art materials. They must cut out a range of shapes, including 2 D shapes.	Visual arts – cutting and sticking. Maths – 2D shapes	Can cdn use materials to create a shape like a house?	Selection of art materials, glue, scissors.

Materials - Ms Beecher's Class 

The children made soup to mark Food Dudes Week. The children helped peel carrots to make a carrot soup. They really enjoyed waiting for it to cook and especially loved eating it with brown bread and butter 

Space Week 2021 

Mrs Diviney's 4th and 5th class enjoyed learning about Space during Space Week this year (4th - 10th October) Space Week - 4th and 5th Class 

Science Week 2021 

Miss Meaney's class enjoyed making coloured spinners this year during science week:

Ms Corr's Senior infants were learning about colour during Science week, look at their cool experiment!

"Senior Infants carried out the skittles colour mixing experiment during Science Week. We placed skittles around the edge of a plate in a circle and poured warm water into the middle of the circle until it reached the sweets. We were amazed to see the colours mixing when the sugar from the sweets dissolved in the warm water and caused the colours to meet and mix!"

Science Events run by other organisations (live, online!)

Mrs Keane's 1st class were very excited to take part in an online lesson during science week. 

Science Week - Super Science with Mark the Science Guy.

First Class joined with a number of schools in Galway for Super Science with Mark the Science Guy.

We watched him doing 2 experiments.

Experiment 1

In the first experiment the children watched Mark setting his hand on fire without burning it!

He used a flat container, washing-up liquid, butane gas and a lighter

1.       Mark put some water in the flat container.

2.       He put the butane gas bottle under water to release butane.

3.       This created bubbles in the water.

4.       Mark scooped up the bubbles and set fire to them with the lighter.

5.       The butane gas in the bubbles lit up in flames.

6.       The washing -up liquid protected Mark’s hands and they didn’t burn.

Experiment 2

The Unpoppable Balloon experiment/Fire Resistant Balloon

1.       Mark filled a balloon with air and tied a knot on it.

2.       He held the lighter under the balloon.

3.       He put on his safety glasses because it was time to pop the balloon.

4.       He held the balloon a foot or two over the top of the flame and slowly moved the balloon closer and closer to the flame until it popped.

5.       We noticed that the flame doesn’t have to even touch the balloon before the heat melts the latex and the balloon popped.

6.       Mark proved what we already know.

He repeated the experiment but this time the bottom of the balloon had a layer of water inside.

1.       Fill the balloon to the top with water and then blow it up with air.

2.       Hold the water-filled balloon at the top while you slowly lower it over the flame.

3.       Everyone thought that it was going to pop, but it didn’t.

4.       Mark actually allowed the flame to touch the bottom of the balloon, but it still didn’t pop.

5.       He removed the balloon from the heat and carefully examine the soot on the bottom.

6.       There was soot, yet the balloon didn’t pop.

How it works:

Water is a great substance for soaking up heat. The thin latex balloon allows the heat to pass through very quickly and warm the water. As the water closest to the flame heats up, it begins to rise and cooler water replaces it at the bottom of the balloon. This cooler water then soaks up more heat and the process repeats itself. In fact, the exchange of water happens so often that it keeps the balloon from popping . . . until the heat of the flame is greater than the water’s ability to conduct heat away from the thin latex and the balloon pops. But watch out! If you turn the balloon so that the candle flame is close to the side of the water balloon, the balloon will pop because the water is not conducting the heat away from the surface of the balloon. At least the water will help put out the fire!
The soot on the bottom of the balloon is actually carbon. The carbon was deposited on the balloon by the flame, and the balloon itself remains undamaged.

Hosted A Science Speaker In Our School - In Person

David McGrath (Heritage in Schools Specialist) visited our school in October this year. David did activities with classes on the tides, identifying marine organisms and talked about living marine animals. He did a workshop on tides, a workshop on seaweed and a workshop which involved an experiment on shells. It was a great learning opportunity and linked really well with our Green Flag theme, the Marine! 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class all got the opportunity to engage in one of David's workshops, it was fantastic!