Our final round of STEAM activities this week....
First off, Mr Conor Roche came in on Monday morning to talk to us about sustainable energy.
Last week was another busy week.. 5th Class hosted the annual Science Fair on Tuesday. Always such a great event and there was no shortage of fantastic experiments to look at and take part in.
Lots of Slime, Oobleck, lemon volcano's, colour explosions, dancing raisins, lava lamps, cardboard camera, self inflating balloons, storm in a jar, rainbow eruptions, LED cards and a water usage calculator ……….
All our scientists were fantastic at explaining and demonstrating their experiments to their visitors from throughout the school to the Mums and Dads.
Thank you also to our parents and second year students who came in to run our annual Science Fair on Thursday. Each year so many different aspects of STEAM are demonstrated and this year was no different:
Science and the senses, sets and fractions, how to light a bulb with a lemon, oil & water marbeling, decoding the 'recycling' symbols and what exactly do you put in each bin! Upcycling - how to make clothes for your dogs / toys / yourself using old / worn items - don't throw them out, upcycle them!...
We also made 'Bee Bombs' which we will plant out by Bugingham Palace and decorated a Tree with ideas on how we can help the environment!
Everyone got to visit and take part...….. another super, interesting, interactive day.
We had visits too from Jenny, Sharks4Kids, Dr Svetlana Kilgannon and Martin Scott talking to us about sharks, our teeth and the importance of dental hygiene, turtles in the Cayman Islands and famous female scientists!
Nicci Daly - Irish Hockey player and Motorsport enthusiast - came in last week to discuss her career as an engineer within the Motorsport Industry and how her passion for that came from her Dad. She also spoke about being on the Irish Hockey Team which was truly inspirational.
Colin Hunt, CEO of AIB, gave us a detailed talk on 'Climate change and sustainability'. He described how AIB customers are rewarded for being 'Green' via lower interest rates on borrowing. He also spoke about the four Beehives they have on the roof on their building. The 'AIBees' make honey that help with pollution and this is also given to the Banks customers.
Heather Scott came in to speak to the girls about art and science. She told us about her research in stained glass windows and showed us many windows she has studied over the years. Heather also explained to us that art can tell us about how our climate is changing.
She showed us paintings of a large glacier in the alps which no longer exists. She also compared paintings of Venice to modern photographs which showed how the water level has risen significantly in the town.
The Cool Planet Experience team were in to workshop lots of different ideas with us. Some of our Montessori Boys and Girls made their own Greenhouses. We will watch over the next few weeks how their seeds grow...
Meanwhile our Preparatory classes took part in a hands on investigation into producing plastic free edible water bottles (as used in the London Marathon last year)… a possible solution to the worldwide plastic problem!
4th & 5th class girls created their own 'spinner's' using solar power and a version using batteries. They learned all about creating circuits...….
