We went on a mini beast hunt. We found spiders, ants, flies, slugs, beetles, woodlice and a hairy molly! We used a key to identify the mini beasts. We found out that a spider is not an insect because it has 8 legs not 6. We also learned that all insects' bodies are in three parts.
Dale Treadwell from Biodiversity Ireland (and RTE Junior!) came to our school to plant some trees. We also learned about bats, hedgehogs, insects and bees. We got to look at an earwig, a woodlouse, a centipede, a water beetle and a spider. We listened to bats and even learned a bat song! Then we went outside and planted lots of trees!
Experimenting with Materials
We discussed different types of materials that clothes are made out of and whether they are natural or manmade. We then brought in our coats and sorted them according to various criteria.
Then we designed our own coats. We chose heavy, warm materials for winter coats and light materials for summer coats.
Experiment: Finding the best material to make an umbrella.
The junior classes discussed what materials would be best for making an umbrella. They decided that it would need to be waterproof. We found out which materials were waterproof by putting them in a glass of water and seeing which material soaked up the least amount of water.
We concluded that tinfoil and plastic are both waterproof. We decided that plastic would be the best material for an umbrella.
Ms. Carey's class experimented with pulling objects on different surfaces. They learned that a force called friction causes the object to be more difficult to move on some surfaces. They found that the mat caused the most friction while the table caused the least friction.
Having fun with magnets!
Experiment: To find out which is the strongest magnet.
The children hung
paperclips from the magnets to find out which one was the strongest. Junior and Senior Infants counted the paperclips as they were attached.
We recorded our results.
This year we hope to get a Primary Science Award. We are already busy doing experiments.
During Science Week the senior classes went to a science show in UL. They had great fun!
Some of the children even got to help to demonstrate an experiment!
