Evidence of Herbertstown National School’s commitment to achieving an award for STEM Excellence.
Step 1 – Science
Step 2 – Technology
Step 3 – Engineering
Step 4 – Maths
Step 5 – STEM Show & Tell
The project, which investigated ‘Which spuds cook the best?, was highly praised by the ESB Science Blast judges and the pupils were busy fielding questions on their study throughout the day from the many visitors to the stand.
The children also got to enjoy some of the activities on offer at the science fair including science demonstrations and VR technology experiences.
They were able to have a good look at any of their finds using the school’s pooters (insect-catchers!).
Third/fourth class have been studying area and perimeter this week in maths and went outside to draw squared metres.
A further study was conducted to determine the area of the pitch which is next door to the school. Beforehand, a few pupils had stated that they had always been told that the pitch was the same size as the one in Croke Park. This seemed like the perfect time to investigate! It turns out, the pitch in Herbertstown is indeed the same size as the hallowed sod in Croke Park! (if not fractionally bigger!)
Fourth class will be exhibiting the results of their project into ‘Which Spud Cooks the Best’ at the ESB Science Blast in May but Third/Fourth class have extended this study to include growing some potatoes to help better understand how potatoes find their way to the dinner table.
March 21st
We watched a video to learn how to plant spuds. It said spuds came from South America originally. It said to plant a seed potato. It said the seed potato should be planted in a drill. We got seed spuds but we can’t plant them yet. We need to dig the vegetable plot up and leave the seed potatoes in a dry, cool place. We put them in an egg carton. When they grow we will cook them! Christian
28th March
We prepared our vegetable garden for sowing our potatoes. We loosened up the ground using a shovel and fork. We removed the weeds and stones as best we could. We added farmyard manure to the soil. When the manure is mixed up with the soil it will add nutrients and will condition the soil. It will help produce more potatoes. Sinéad
April 11th
Today we planted 9 Maris Piper spuds in the garden. We made 3 drills of spuds, whcih were about 40 – 50cm apart. Then we watered all the drills and flattened the soil with the fork. David Mul.
Captain Cason was paying his second visit to Herbertstown NS having spoken to the then 5th & 6th class in 2017.
The airline pilot answered the children’s questions and talked about how he came to be a pilot. He brought some videos and pictures with him to help illustrate what his job entails and told many stories about his experiences both as a cargo pilot and as a commercial or passenger jet pilot.
Cpt. Cason said afterwards that he really enjoyed the visit and was very impressed by the children’s questions.
3rd and 4th class are investigating magnets and their influence on the earth and people’s lives. Today they had an opportunity to investigate magnetism and magnetic fields.
They also had a lot of fun looking at how south and north poles of magnets attract and how similar poles repel.
The infants are using some assorted educational apps and 6th are on hand to help out or give advice if needed!
Well done to all our pupils who completed activities on Mathletics during March and helped the school to 18th place in the world in the Mathletics rankings. The school was also the second highest placed school from the Republic of Ireland. Pupils from Herbertstown NS could be seen at the top of the individual daily charts during the challenge and 2nd class, 3rd class and 4th class all finished in Ireland’s top 10 classes, with 3rd class being Ireland’s best performing class.
Well done to our two top performing pupils during the challenge who amassed almost 30,000 points between them!
Our third class visited the Irish Cement factory in Mungret for a tour of the facility. Concrete is the second most commonly used material in the world (after water) and the children got to view how the cement is manufactured.
Below is an account of their experiences and a gallery of photos from the trip.
Today 3rd class went to the Irish Cement factory in Mungret, County Limerick. They organised a bus to come and collect us at the school at 10.ooam. So we all got on the bus!
When we got there they brought us into reception. In there we met Elaine, Caoimhe and John. They said they would be our guides for the day so they showed us a slide show and a video about how cement is made. Elaine showed us some rocks: Limestone and shale.
Next we went down to the quarry and saw a big truck. We all went into the shovel and for a picture. They told us that every Thursday the guards come while they blow up a bit of the quarry. Then we went to the kiln and put our arms up to see how hot it is. Then we went back and took off all our safety gear. They gave us all a bag with goodies in it before we went back to school.
Molly
After the quarry we went to the kiln. The kiln is very hot. The rock has to reach 1450 degrees for the rock to melt. It can get to 2000 degrees, hotter than a volcano!
Ciarán
A kiln is a big round machine like a cylinder. Elaine told us to put up our hands and feel the heat!
Liam
The first stop on the tour was the quarry where we saw the loading shovel. It was massive! It had a bucket that could hold over 20 people.
Sinéad
A bee man called Benny came to our school to talk to us about bees. He said bees are good for the environment but their population is slowly decreasing. He also brought in a hive to show us, the main parts of a hive are the brood chamber, the stand, the super and the frames. There are three types of bees, the queen and the worker bees who are the females and the males are called drones ,but the drones don’t work. A bee can travel up to 5 km for food. A good queen bee can lay around 2000 eggs a day. In winter bees don’t hibernate, they must fly every 6 weeks. If you happen to own a hive you must put a mouse guard in front of the bottom so mice don’t get in during winter. After winter most of the drones will be evicted from the hive because they barely do anything. When you get a queen bee you must clip her wings so she doesn’t fly away. You would find the queen bee in the queen cell which is located in the brood chamber. Benny said that he feeds his queen bee with something he calls royal jelly. It is important you stay quiet if you are near a hive so you don’t scare the bees away from the hive. About a week after Benny came to our school he sent down tests for us to complete. Erika got the highest score in the test. Tadhg, 6th Class
A bee man called Benny came to our school to tell us about bees. He said that they are actually good for the environment. A female bee is called the worker and the male bees are called drones. When the female bees get cross the male bees will be evicted from the hive. The total distance the bees covered to make a jar of honey is 100KM. To keep mice out over the winter we usually use a mouse guard. The Queen cell is found in the brood chamber. The Queen lays approximately 2000 eggs a day. We know the Queen bee from the rest because she is the biggest and a spot is painted with paint. The gap at the front of the hive is 9mm. The frame of honey in the super is made from timber and wax. Aoibhinn, 5th class.
