St. Fintan’s
National School
School Science Log 2012
– AOSME Number
– Roll Number
– Address
– Telephone
– Main Contact
– School Principal
DUB 53
19549 I
Carrickbrack Rd,
Sutton,
Dublin 13
01-8391067
John Moreau (Room 10)
Seán O’Connor
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This is St. Fintan’s 5th application
for an Award of Science Excellence
A key goal during this
year’s AOSME was to
involve every one of
the 15 classes in the
school from Junior
Infants to 6th class.We
just about managed
to achieve that!
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The emphasis is on learning about
science through experimentation,
observation and fun!
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Some self-assessment
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Including all classes instead of the usual three or four was doable, but demanding. It
did, however, broaden the reach of the Discover Science Program into the school.
We were much too late starting into the Greenwave programme, and this will need
much more effort in future. Next year we propose to get moving with Greenwave
much earlier.
The infant vegetable patch, was the most successful component of our AOSE
program this year.
4th class exhibited at the Young Scientist and Technology and exhibition this year.
This was the youngest class we’ve ever entered, but with enormous parental backup,
it was a fantastic day and very worthwhile.
The maths integration activities are another area where we need to do more formal
planning.
Two items in this Science log such as the visiting fisherman and the school vegetable
patch are stretching the rules a little, but they are only included as supplementary
items. We’ve tried to be as faithful to the AOSME requirements as we could.
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•And now for
the serious
stuff….
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St. Fintan’s National School
Discover Science and Maths Award
Submission for 2012
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Category 1: Prescribed Activities/GreenWave
Category 2: Visiting Scientists/Field Trip
Category 3: Young Scientists Exhibition
Category 4: Maths & Science Integration
Category 5: Science Week related Activities
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CATEGORY 1
Greenwave and actvities relating to
the Forces and Energy Strand!
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Greenwave/Forces & Energy Index
1. Insulators and Conductors (3rd Class, Ms.
O’Reilly)
2. Floating, Sinking, Buoyancy and the
Dancing Raisins (3rd Class, Ms. Tarbett)
3. Creating a Vortex and an Airlock (4th Class,
Mr. Moreau & 3rd class Ms. O’Reilly)
4. Amazing Triangles (1st Class, Mr.
McGetterick)
5. Greenwave activities (6th Class, Mr.
McInerney)
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Conductors and Insulators (1)
• In this experiment the children
initially explored the simple
circuit.
• They then used their simple
circuits to test a number of
items to see if the items were
insulators or conductors in
electrical terms.
• This experiment was carried
out by Ms. O’Reilly’s 3rd class.
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Conductors and Insulators(2)
• The first day of the lesson
involved the children
studying the simple
electrical circuit. A
challenge that we do
every year is to ask the
children to make a circuit
using the minimum
number of components.
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Conductors and Insulators(3)
During the second day of the
lesson, the children explore
the concept of conduction and
insulation. Each pair brings to
school a list of items such as
golf tees, match sticks, food
tins, paperclips etc. We use
the simple circuit to test which
of these are conductors and
which are insulators.
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Conductors and Insulators(4)
• At the end of the lesson,
the children get to explore
the insulation/conduction
characteristics of lots of
unusual items !!!
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Floating and Sinking (1)
• Ms Tarbett’s 3rd
class spent two
long lessons
investigating the
buoyancy
properties of
objects. They
made some
unusual findings!
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Floating and Sinking (2)
• The size of the object
you were testing
didn’t matter. It was
what the object was
made of. So, the tiny
stone and paperclip
sank, but the large
candles and wood
blocks floated.
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Floating and Sinking (3)
The serious fun started
when we dicovered that a
citrus fruit floats, but when
you peel it, it sinks. We
decided the peel must be
like a sort of lifejacket! We
guessed there might be air
bubbles inside the peel to
help it float.
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Floating and Sinking (4)
Zac suggested making
a lifejacket for a metal
screw to help it float.
And it worked!!!
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Floating and Sinking (5)
We completed the activity
by doing the “Dancing
Raisins” activity from the
DPS website. More fun by
observing and learning!
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Airlocks and Vortices (1)
• This was a simple
experiment, although the
making took quite some
time. The idea came to us
from the Waterford IT
stand at the BT Young
Scientist Exhibition.
• We purchased 30 “Vortex
tubes” from a supplier
and then the fun began.
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Airlocks and Vortices (2)
The basic idea is to connect
two large plastic bottles with a
vortex tube as shown. One of
the bottles is half full of water.
It took several days of trial and
error to realise the seal
between the vortex tube and
the bottles is vital. The only
way to get a perfect seal was
to use “Plumber’s tape” which
you can buy at a hardware for
a few Euro
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Airlocks and Vortices (3)
• If the seals are perfectly
air tight, when you turn
place the bottle with the
water on top, as shown,
the water cannot fall
down, as there is a airlock created. The air
below simply has no
escape!
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Airlocks and Vortices (4)
So the only way to
“release” the air, is to spin
the top bottle which
creates a vortex or
whirlpool as shown. Once
a vortex is created the air
below can escape up the
middle of the vortex.
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Airlocks and Vortices (5)
We spent a long time discussing
vortices in nature, i.e. natural
whirlpools or tornados. Overall this
experiment was lightweight in
terms of discovery based science,
but it was a lot of fun in terms of
making, doing and observing.
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Airlocks and Vortices (6)
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Airlocks and Vortices (7)
Recently we’ve been
discussing Titanic
because of the 100 year
anniversary. It’s been
said, but never fully
proven, that a vortex
created by the sinking
ship sucked down many
of the passengers with
it.
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Amazing Triangles(1)
The Amazing Triangles
is something of a
favourite of Mr
McGetterick. The
opposite photo was
taken last year!!!
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Amazing Triangles(2)
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2.
3.
This year, Mr McGetterick’s
1st class began this lesson
by studying, on the
whiteboard, photos of the
Eiffel tower.
By observation the children
noted that the shape most
commonly observed was the
triangle.
This fact was key to the
maths integration later.
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Amazing Triangles(3)
•Then we settled down to work
constructing triangular pyramids.
•We took breaks to discuss the
triangular faces of the pyramid
and the difference between 2D
and 3D shape, as appropriate to
the class level.
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Amazing Triangles(4)
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Greenwave (1)
•Unfortunately we were late getting
the Greenwave part of the AOSME
going.
•However, by now we’ve established
a rota of 5th and 6th class children who
take a daily temperature reading from
our Greenwave thermometer, which
is located in a porch at the top of the
school.
• Readings are taken daily at midday.
•The average temperature is
computed weekly by the pupils
themselves and then entered on the
Greenwave website.
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Greenwave (2)
•In terms of observation,
4th class kept an eye on
the two hazel trees
beside the bicycle shed.
•On March 26th we
reported the new leaves
on the Greenwave
website.
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CATEGORY 2
Field Trips and Visiting “Scientist”
1.
2.
3.
Field Trip to Botanic Gardens (4th
Class)
Night Time trip to Dunsink
Observatory (3rd and 4th Classes)
Visiting Fisherman, Sean Doran
(4th classes)
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Field Trip to the Botanic
Gardens(1)
• On September
12th, Mr. Moreau’s
4th class had a
wonderful field trip
to the Botanic
Gardens in
Glasnevin.
• Trip report
follows…
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Field Trip to the Botanic
Gardens(2)
Trip Report by Sam Crawford:
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Today we visited the National Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. The gardens are open to everyone,
free of charge. The Botanic Gardens conserve many endangered plants and have six species of
plant that are extinct!
Our guide for the day was called Martina. She led us around the gardens and told us about the
different plants.
When we arrived we went into the Maize Maze, that was made of wheat and corn. I found it a bit
disappointing because it wasn’t as dense and tall as I thought it would be.
The Botanic gardens have many interesting trees including the Giant Sequoia, and the California
Redwood, the tallest trees in the world. There was also a Cork Oak that had a very twisted bark.
The Cork Oak is usually found in Spain, Portugal and California. I liked the Asian Gingko tree
because it dates from the Jurassic period.
The Botanic Gardens have an impressive collection of greenhouses. The greenhouses are
temperature controlled and have special sprinklers. The main glass house is the Giant Palm
House; it houses the poisonous Jade Vine and the Banana Plant.
We went to the vegetable patch where we had a vegetable hunt to try to find 20 different varieties
of vegetable. There were parsnips, pumpkins, cabbage and lots more.
During our visit we saw the “Sculptures in Context” exhibition, Ireland’s largest outdoor exhibition.
It was an interesting and fun day.
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Night-time trip to the Dunsink
Observatory (1)
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Night-time trip to the Dunsink
Observatory (2)
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This year Sorcha Kavanagh, Mum of
Alanah in 3rd class child bumped into a
past pupil of our school, Gráinne
Costigan(see picture), who works for
the Dublin Institute of Advanced
Studies, who run the Dunsink
Observatory. Gráinne invited the 3rd
and 4th class boys and girls, along with
their parents to a night time visit to the
observatory.
The trip was originally scheduled for
May 2011, but disaster struck when
the observatory was closed by the
Irish Army as a security precaution for
Queen Elizabeth’s visit!!
However, all was not lost and the field
trip went ahead on October 25th, 2012.
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Night-time trip to the Dunsink
Observatory (3)
From the St. Fintan’s NS School Newsletter : Advanced Studies At Dunsink Observatory.
Recently, 3rd (Ms. Tarbett) and 4th class(Mr. Moreau) had a wonderful night-time trip to the Dunsink Observatory.
The trip was hosted by the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, who have owned and operated the observatory
since the 1930's. The trip was organised by Sorcha Kavanagh (Mum of Alannah Greaves in 3rd class) and
Gráinne Costigan, a researcher at the institute and also a past pupil of St. Fintan's NS.
The trip was open to parents and children alike, with a substantial number of parents attending on the evening.
The evening began at 730pm in the beautiful surroundings of Dunsink with a talk by Paul Dawson on the history of
the observatory and the great scientists that worked there. This was followed by a presentation by Gráinne
Costigan on how starts are formed. Finally there was another talk for the children on the planets in Earth's solar
system.
The evening concluded with a tour of the famous South Dome, home to the Grubb Telescope. For a time in the
19th century, this was the largest telescope in the world!
The children, parents and teachers would like to thank Gráinne, Paul and the staff at the Dublin Institute of
Advanced Studies for the welcome we received and the enormous efforts they went to, to make the subject
accessible and interesting for the children. We’d also like to thank Sorcha Kavanagh for taking on the organisation
and planning of the trip. It was a fascinating evening for young, and not so young, learners alike!
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Visit by Fishmonger
Seán Doran(1)
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Visit by Fishmonger
Seán Doran(2)
Fish monger and former
fisherman Seán Doran, of
Doran’s on the Pier came into
4th class in November to make
a presentation to the children
on:
– Different species of fish
– Different methods for catching
fish
– Samples for tasting of many
fish
– The health benefits of seafood
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Visit by Fishmonger
Seán Doran(3)
Fish monger and former
fisherman Seán Doran, of
Doran’s on the Pier came into
4th class in November to make
a presentation to the children
on:
– Different species of fish
– Different methods for catching
fish
– Samples for tasting of many
fish
– The health benefits of seafood
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Visit by Fishmonger
Seán Doran(4)
Report by Jack Murray
(Note: Jack’s Mum Eleanor organised the visit!)
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Yesterday afternoon (27/10/11) we had a very special talk about fish presented by Seán Doran. Seán is
a very nice man and he told us about fish like
Shellfish = Scallops, Mussels & Octopus
Redfish = Salmon and Trout
Flatfish = Plaice and Sole
Oily Fish = Sardines and Mackerel
Large Oily Fish = Swordfish and Tuna
Whitefish = Cod and Haddock
Seán also told us about trawling which is actually another word for fishing. There are different nets to
catch different species of fish. Also, baby fish should be able to escape but not always.
There are different methods to trawling. There are nets that are round as a purse and others that aren’t a
net at all. Some boats have to drag their nets deep, others at medium depths and others just at the
surface.
He showed us examples of different fish like: Salmon, Sea Bass, Mackerel, Sole and Plaice, Cod,
Haddock, Prawns and Mussels.
Finally Eleanor (aka my mum!) passed out taste testers of certain fish like salmon etc for us to eat.
Afterwards we were given posters to place stickers onto once we ate certain fish at Doran's on the Pier.I
thought it was a great afternoon.
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CATEGORY 3
The Young Scientists Exhibition, 2012
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Young Scientists Exhibition, 2012(1)
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The Primary Science Fair is a
non-competitive science show that
takes place at the BT Young
Scientist Exhibition each year in
the RDS.
The Young Scientist project is a
key part of the science program at
St. Fintan’s NS and In 2012, we
participated for the 9th successive
year !!
What makes the Primary Science
Fair special is that it allows the
class to explain in public their
science project. Every year, it is
often the “quieter” children who
shine in their ability to explain their
work to total strangers!
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Young Scientists Exhibition, 2012(2)
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2.
3.
The title of this year’s project was studying
yeast. The class studied what foods yeast
likes to eat (e.g. sugar, flour, honey etc)
and what conditions yeast likes best.
We also analysed the gas produced when
yeast eats! We “discovered” it’s CO2.
Full report of the day at the RDS
follows…..
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Young Scientists Exhibition, 2012(3)
A report of my day at the RDS by Mimi Cuddy.
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Last Saturday, January 14th, 4th class from St. Fintan’s entered the Young Scientist
Exhibition.
Our class was split in to the morning and afternoon shifts. I was in the afternoon.
Our project was called Experimenting with Yeast.
There were a lot of primary schools in our section.
Each person in our group spent about an hour and a half on our stand explaining our
project about yeast.
When we were off the stand, we were allowed to visit other exhibits.
I loved our project and our teacher worked very hard with us. Thank You.
My favourite stand was the RTE stand. You got to play around with reading the
Weather Forecast.
The experience was the best time of my life!!
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Young Scientists Exhibition,
2012(4)
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Young Scientists Exhibition, 2012(5)
James, Charlie and Sam were interviewed on the radio about our Yeast Project
!!!!!!!!!!
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CATEGORY 4
Maths Integration
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Maths Integration
•
The following slides show three
examples of Maths integration during
Science lessons. These are:
1. 2D/3D Shape
2. Averages
3. Measurement
(Amazing Triangles experiment)
(Computing Average
temperature over a week
(Greenwave))
(Measuring depth for potato
planting)
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Maths Integration 1
3-d Shapes
• During the Amazing Triangles
experiment (Category 1), 1st
class revisited some 2-D and
3-D shapes work done in
Maths class.
• We used the pyramids to
observe that the faces of 3D
shapes are in fact 2D shapes.
• We also revisied some basic
facts about triangles, as per
the 1st class curriculum.
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Maths Integration 2
Computing Average Weekly
Temperature.
• We’re now recording daily
temperatures at 12pm in
the school.
• On Fridays Morgan, Carla
and Kevin from Ms.
Furlong’s 5th class work
out the average
temperature for the week
to 1 decimal place.
• NO CALCULATORS
ALLOWED !!!!!!!!
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Maths Integration 3
Measuring length when potato planting.
• When the infant classes
were potato planting
recently we used a nonstandard measure of
length (as per
curriculum) which was
roughly equal to the 4inch depth to which the
potatoes should be
planted.
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Maths Integration 3
Measuring length when potato planting.
• Other examples of
measuring the planting
depth using non-standard
units with the infant
classes.
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CATEGORY 5
Science-week activities
1. Filtering water for human
use as part of the water
cycle(Ms. Furlong’s 5th
class)
2. Exploring Alkalis and
Bases (Ms. McGinn’s 5th
class)
3. Growing food and flowers
in the new school
vegetable patch (All 4
Infant classes)
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Filtering Water (1)
• Ms Furlong’s 5th class
had already studied the
basic idea behind the
water cycle, when they
then undertook and
experiment in filtering
dirty water. The idea is to
mimic the filtration
process that Dublin’s
Liffey water undergoes
before it is piped into
people homes.
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Filtering Water (2)
Step 1: Constructing Filters
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Filtering Water (2)
Step 2: Making “Dirty Water”
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Filtering Water (3)
Step 3: Filtration
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Filtering Water (4)
Comparing results
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Alkalis and Bases(1)
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This experiment is a Ms. McGinn
special. Most older classes in her
charge enjoy this activity. This
year was no exception. However,
as can happen the photos of the
experiment as conducted by the
current 5th class have been
accidentally deleted. We’ve
enclosed a report written by two
fifth class boys, Scott and Alan ,
as evidence of work carried out.
Opposite are two photos of the
experiment as carried out by last
year’s 6th class!
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Alkalis and Bases(2)
Science Report on Acids and Bases by Scott Bastow and Alan Keogan
Many acids and bases are sitting in your kitchen cupboards. Acid are corrosive and bases are caustic, and if they are used incorrectly
they could be dangerous and cause a lot of damage.
Experiment
We made our own PH scale out of red cabbage water, we mixed the cabbage water in with some household items like, “Johnsons baby
shampoo, normal shampoo, white wine, washing up liquid, bread soda, 7-up, lemon juice, tap water and vinegar”.
Prediction
We predicted that items would change colour when we put them into the red cabbage, and that there would be colours that meant
whether the item was an acid or a base.
Materials
Red cabbage, hot water, 10 x jars, knife, milk carton 2lt, sieve and a jug.
Method
(1.We used the knife to cut up the cabbage.(2. Then we used the hot water to make the red cabbage into juice.(3. We put the items into
the red cabbage juice and watched the reactions take place.
The results : Red / pink = acid
Blue / green / yellow = base
White wine = pink
Washing up liquid = red
Bread soda = blue
Normal shampoo = pink
Baby shampoo = red
Lemon juice = red
7-up = pink
Vinegar = red
Tap water = blue
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Alkalis and Bases(2)
Alan and Scott’s Copybooks
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School Vegetable Patch(1)
• The school vegetable patch
was inaugurated last May.
We’re starting off small with 4
raised beds, one for each of
the infant classes. We hope to
grow vegetables and flowers
for as much of the year as we
can. To date we’ve grown
Onions, Tulips, Daffodils and
Wallflowers. Only recently the
daffodil and tulip bulbs were
“harvested” to make way for
early potatoes.
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School Vegetable Patch (2)
(Spring flowers and bulbs)
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School Vegetable Patch (3)
(Harvesting daffodils to make way for early
potatoes)
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School Vegetable Patch (4)
Weeding is an
important part of
gardening, but we’ve
always got lots of
help!
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School Vegetable Patch (5)
Shane and Dan
“Chitted” the potato
seed ready for planting
by the Senior Infant
Classes. (Note: This
means removing all but
one healthy stalk from
the seed potato)
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School Vegetable Patch (6)
Potato planting, April, 2012
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