Science Week in Room 8

Science Fair

We had a science fair in our school hall as part of our Science Week. It was fantastic!We got to show everyone in the school our chromatography investigation and we saw all the experiments and investigations the other classes did.

                     Fourth class did an investigation on triangles and how it an excellent shape to help support structures. So we tested it out with cards!

     

5th class did an investigation on gravity and made parachutes with different materials to see which one would make the best parachute; the ones made of plastic made the best parachute

   The girls in 5th class  had a cool questionaire that could tell you which side of the brain you use most

Creeping Colours- Chromatography

As part of Science Week we did an investigation called chromatography, big word isn't it? It means the separation of chemicals.

 Different inks and dyes are used to make the markers we use at school, so we decided to investigate these markers to see what inks are used to make black, brown, green and purple

Here's how we did it:

We put a dot of black, brown, green and purple markers on four different pieces of filter paper.

We put a very small amount of water into the bottom of a jug

We then gently lowered the filter paper into the water making sure we didn't let the dot of ink touch the water.

We waited and watched and began seeing the colours in the makers separate out. We couldn’t  believe how many  inks are used to make such dark colours!!

Dublin Zoo comes to Scoil Mhuire

Jim from Dublin Zoo paid a visit to us in Scoil Mhuire to tell us all about the animals at Dublin Zoo. He told us so many interesting things about the animals and we got to see some of their skins and even an elephants foot!! We also saw some fossils and a tortoise.     

                                   

54321... Blast Off!!

Room 8 made a foam rocket



Before we made our rockets we learned a little bit about rockets by looking at some rocket launches on You Tube. We could see lots of smoke coming out of the bottom of it and teacher explained that these are gases and they push rocket up into the air and out of the Earth’s gravity. We also learned that rockets are used to send space machines into space.(K and S 2nd Class)

Making the Rocket

Materials needed:

Foam piping

cardboard

duck tape

scissors

rubber band

metre stick

cones

Step 1:

To make our rocket we cut a square piece of cardboard in half to make two triangles. When that was done we we cut a slit in the top of one triangle and a slit into the bottom of the other and fitted them together. (K and J 2nd class) 

Step 2:

We cut four slits into the foam piping spaced as evenly as we could and slid the triangles into the foam part of the rocket.( K andT 2nd Class)

Step 3:

Then came the hard part!We had to use duck tape to make sure the cardboard stayed in place and to stick a rubber band to the top of the rocket. The rubber band is what gives the rocket the energy force that you need to launch the rocket The duck tape was so hard to cut!All our scissors kept getting stuck to it!But we got there in the end and we were ready to launch our rocket.( K and E 2nd Class)

Step 4:

We went outside to a field beside our school and began putting out cones that were a metre apart. This was to help us measure how far our rockets would fly when launched. We measured out 5 metres.( F and A 2nd Class)

Step 5:

It was difficult at first to launch the rockets properly, so we did a few practices before the official launch. Then we all lined up and did our own 

countdown to our rocket launch! Once we launched them we ran to our rockets and looked across at the cone in line with the rocket to measure how far it had travelled.( Isabel 2nd Class)

Maths: Measure- Length

                Spatial awareness: 2D shape

Zookeeper Visit

A Visitor From Dublin Zoo!!

  

Jim from Dublin Zoo came to visit our school and talk to all the boys and girls. He brought lots of cool things to show us!!

This is an elephants tooth. Did you know elephants only have 2 teeth??

This is an ostrich egg. The ostrich is the biggest bird in the world. Did you know ostriches can't fly?? But they can run really fast!

This is a leopard skin. Jim told us that leopards are really clever. Did you know they can climb trees??

Jim also showed us an elephants foot and tusks. Did you know that elephants walk very quietly even though they are so big and heavy??

This is a turtle. They live in the sea. They come out of the sea up on to the beach to lay their eggs. They bury the eggs in the sand and then go back in to the ocean. Did you know that turtles never meet their mammy or daddy?? We think baby turtles must be very brave!

This is a tiger skin and a mountain lion skin. They were much softer than we expected. Did you know the smallest tiger in the world is the Sumatran Tiger??

Senior Infants Room 4 at the Science Fair!

THIS WEEK IS SCIENCE WEEK IN SCOIL MHUIRE!

We visited the Science Fair today. We learned about magnets, balloon rockets, light houses, string telephones, gravity, string telephones, building houses from cards and much much more. Here are some pictures!