We celebrated Science Week from the 10th to the 17th of November. There were a wide range of activities in the school to celebrate this special event. Have a look at some of the activities below.
1. Cell Explorers
5th Class students took part in the Cell Explorers Fantastic DNA in a Box experiment in conjunction with NUIG. Cell EXPLORERS is a science education programme based in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences in the University of Galway in Ireland. Their aim is inform, inspire and involve the general public in science by facilitating workshops between young people and trained scientist explainers. Our students were provided with the opportunity to participate in an authentic hands-on science experiment extracting DNA from a banana facilitated by Sara-Beth who is a student at NUIG.
2.Curious Minds Online Science Show
3rd Class Students enjoyed watching the Curious Minds Discover STEM Science Week Show. This 30 minute show discussed the importance of developing a school pond and how it can support Biodiversity on the school grounds. The students then took a visit to our school garden to have a look at our mini pond and see if they could spot any creatures living there.
3. Junior Einsteins Science Show
We were delighted to welcome back the Junior Einsteins Science show to our school this year. The students learned about slime science, bubbling exothermic reactions, an electricity extravaganza, smoke cannons and much more!
4. Joan Power Workshop
Joan Power from Heritage in Schools is a regular visitor to our school. We are so grateful to her for her support and guidance in developing our school garden. During Science Week Joan worked with our 3rd and 4th class students. The students planted pollinator friendly Spring Bulbs, learned about the importance of resting our raised beds for the winter and went on a Biodiversity Trail of the School grounds. Some of the stops included our compost containers, leaf cages, wormery, mini pond, bird feeders and bug hotels.
4. MicroBit
Our Microsoft Dreamspace Ambassadors had their second day of training on November 12th. The Dream Space Ambassador Program is a flagship Dream Space Student Leadership and training program, supported by the Dream Space Team in Dublin and Belfast. As part of this program, Dream Space Ambassadors become Dream Space specialists, offering assistance to fellow students and educators in the form of demos, training, leading small groups, or one-on-one sessions.
Our ambassadors took part in a workshop called MicroBit Next Level. In this workshop the students revised the basic coding blocks and were then introduced to the sound function. The children also worked on a Micro:variable activity to count and display steps in the accelerometer.
Our ambassadors will continue their training over the next few months and will begin to share their knowledge with other students in the school.
5. Bebras
We were delighted to take part in this years Bebras Challenge organised by the Irish Computer Society. The Bebras Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking to students, by allowing them to solve interactive tasks online. It is run in over 60 countries and takes place every November. The students used Computational Thinking workbooks created by the PACT team (Programming+ Algorithms = Computational Thinking) in Maynooth University's Department of Computer Science. The PACT programme is a partnership between researchers in Maynooth University's Department of Computer Science and teachers at primary and post primary schools around Ireland.
Computational thinking is about combining the creativity of human thinking with the power of computing machines to solve problems across a range of disciplines. The focus is not on learning facts about computers but on developing creative ideas and solutions to real-world problems. This develops a core skill which is crucial to a range of 21st century careers that have been impacted by computer technologies.
We are looking forward to welcoming students from Maynooth University to our school on the 7th of February to run a Computational Thinking Obstacle Course with our 6th class students.
6. STEPS
Our 4th class students are taking part in the STEPS Young Engineers Award. The STEPS Young Engineers Award encourages primary school students to develop creative engineering projects to help or improve their local community. Our students have identified problems and are working in teams to come up with a creative engineering solution. They are encouraged to focus on sustainability when creating their solution. They will be visited by a local engineer who will offer them advice on their solutions.
We hope you enjoyed reading about some of the wonderful activities that took place to celebrate Science Week!
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