Profiles
How we earned our Discover Primary Science Award of Science ExcellenceSt Patrick's National School, Greystones County Wicklow
The boys and girls who were in first, third and fifth classes when they won their award tell us how they did it.
STEP ONE: Activities from the Discover Primary Science classroom pack
We worked in pairs to test our reaction time and we put raisins in lemonade and watched the bubbles carry them to the surface. We dyed cloth with red cabbage and investigated indicators. We built lighthouses and made circuits, we even built switches - one student built a model with lights and a buzzer. We made helicopters and coloured them in. We bent the blades in different directions and saw what happened. We put water, oil and syrup in a jar and they had different densities so the syrup sank to the bottom, the water stayed in the middle and the oil floated on top. We dropped in food colouring too. Some of us made rainbow spinners and connected them to batteries to make them spin. We made electric quiz boards and asked things like 'what is the longest river in the world?' We made a lighthouse and that took ages because we did the waves and all.
STEP TWO: Invite a speaker, visit a Discovery Centre
Some of the parents in the school that use science in their jobs agreed to come and talk to us about it. We had a lady come in and talk to us about feet! She looked at our feet and explained how tight shoes or high heels can be bad for your feet. One Dad who is an architect came in and told us about designing bridges and buildings, and the machines they use on building sites. We also had a lady who works in an ambulance come and talk to us about the science in her job.
STEP THREE: Displaying our work at a science event
We held our own science week in our schools. We had an exhibition in the hall and each class worked on a theme such as the human body, light, magnets, water and electricity. We made displays and demonstrated to different classes. We invited our parents too and even had some games set up for people so it was great fun.
STEP FOUR: Explorative activities
Fifth class worked a lot with magnets. We made a game where we attached magnets to model fish and to a fishing rod to see who could catch the most and we made patterns using iron filings and magnets.
We are a green school and we make our own compost. Dermot Gavin raised our flag for us.
'Anyone 4 Science' and 'Educate me' visited our school. We went on a lot of trips including one to the forest. We went to the RDS and saw a show. They put a headache table and water in a canister and when it fizzed-up, the gas made the top pop off.
What we thought of Discover Primary Science...
Exciting, interesting, amazing, entertaining, cool and fantastic, shockingly fun. It's hard when you start but then you get the hang of it and it's fun!
What our teacher thought ...
I got involved with the DPS project last spring , when I attended a Training Day for teachers. Although I do have a particular interest in Science, it is not necessary for any teacher considering taking part to be a science expert. The Training Day was very 'user-friendly' and practical and the pack of lesson ideas and plans very straightforward to apply in the classroom.
The children were most enthusiastic throughout. We invited parent volunteers to come and talk to various classes about their science-related work and we found that this added greatly to the success of the project. I have no hesitation in recommending to other schools to take part. We certainly found it to be a postive experience and are building on what we did last year.
SO GO AHEAD AND GET INVOLVED. YOU'LL ENJOY IT!!!
Link to Top of Page