RDS Primary Science Fair

Our fifth class pupils exhibited their project at the RDS Primary Science Fair in Mary Immaculate College today. The investigation, entitled ‘Which Tea Bag is best – Circular, square or pyramidal?’ was very well received by attendees of the fair. The children have been working on the project since before Christmas and were great ambassadors for the school in the exhibition centre today as they expertly fielded questions about their study. Below is the feedback they received from their judge  Paul Collins:

I loved the chosen question and how close to a lot of people’s hearts it is. It was amazing how many people were interested in the results before I got to chat to the children at the stand so the initial discovery of the question is great. The answers to my questions were treated with very clear and concise responses. The charts were laid out well and organised. Getting the local community involved was an excellent approach of getting information and providing free tea in the process. A great use of methods and visual presentations -charts/videos and weighing the product – the weight stood out to me in the comparisons of brewing times. All I say say is keep up the great work and the use of your inventive methods. Well done.”

 

The children were able to view some of the other projects on display and spent some time observing scientific demonstrations and experiments. They were presented with an award for their hard work on the project shortly before the end of the Fair.

 

If you want to find out more about the results of the project, please call into the school where it will be on display in the coming months.

Minister of State for Tourism & Sport, Patrick O’Donovan, viewing the project.

 

Broadcaster George Hook, a big Barry’s Tea fan, asks questions of our pupils.

 

 

Halloween Art

The school’s walls are starting to fill up with Halloween art!

 

3rd and 4th class created some spooky painted skeletons using cotton buds as paintbrushes. Some of us even decided to make X-rays of our hands!

5th & 6th created some Halloween at dusk paintings.

5th & 6th also had some fun creating some slime using cornflour, water and food colouring.

Here are some of the pumpkins on display in the junior infant classroom.

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Third & Fourth Class Herbertstown Projects

Exploring Herbertstown

 

The 3rd and 4th class have been very busy for the past 2 weeks collecting and presenting their group work projects on Herbertstown. We found out some really interesting facts about our local area, carefully drew maps of the main street and even made some models of different parts of the village! The projects are now on display in the school corridor – feel free to have a look when passing.

 

Space Week!

Herbertstown became a mini-Cape Canaveral on Thursday with the launch of 10 bottle rockets!

 

To celebrate Space Week, the fifth and sixth class pupils designed and created bottle rockets in anticipation of Thursday’s launch date. The pupils had studied the space race earlier in the week and some of the designs took on an ‘Apollo’ theme. Others took a more original approach. In all, 10 groups created rockets.  The rockets were crafted using a 2 litre drinks bottle which was then adapted to meet the design of each group.

 

Here’s the science bit:

The rockets need to be half filled with water before a hose is fixed to them. Air is pumped into the bottle until the air pressure inside the bottle becomes too great. This pressure forces the bottle’s cap to release and the force of the escaping air & water helps the rocket to beat gravity and take flight.

 

On Thursday, members of third and fourth class were asked to give each rocket a score based on its design and then its performance in flight. The entire school came out to watch each rocket being launched and there was great excitement at each ‘lift off’! Congratulations to Group 1, who had the best overall score for their rocket.

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