Usually at this time of year we would have the school hall filled with all sorts of experiments and demonstrations by students from Junior Infants up to 6th Class. The smell of vinegar would be wafting up the corridors and we would have parents in to view the amazing work being done and the fantastic discoveries being made. Sadly this could not happen this year, but we would not allow Covid to dampen down our scientific spirits one little bit! Each class had their share of science activities throughout the week and learned a whole lot about the world that they did not know before.

Infant classes learned about hot and cold - very apt as we have all the doors and windows in our classrooms open to increase ventilation. 

Sounds like 1st class had a really exciting time - they built rafts to test for the Three Billy Goats Gruff to cross the river AND they made magic potions that exploded!

2nd class did a range of experiments to test their different senses. 

4th Class made parachutes and tested them outside - one even floated all the way over the top of the school!

5th Class learned about space and they also built rockets, testing for aerodynamics. 

In 6th class, each mini-pod co-operated to do an experiment or demonstration for the whole class. We had erupting volcanoes, colour experiments with Skittles, the obligatory Coke and Mentos experiment and we learned a lot from a failed experiment to make slime!

The culmination of 6th Class's unit on States of Matter was making Gloop, using cornflour and water - a right mess but well worth the clean-up time. 

5th and 6th participated in a fascinating Zoom discussion with astrophysicist Cathriona Jackman who has been heavily involved in many areas of research, including planetary magnetospheres, magnetic reconnection, planetary X-ray and radio emissions, machine learning, Space Weather.