Profiles
How we earned our Discover Primary Science Award of Excellence by Rushbrook, National School, Cobh, Co Cork
STEP ONE: Activities from the Discover Primary Science classroom pack
We did a lot of the activities from the classroom pack. We built bridges using different designs including arches and corrugated paper and tested them with coins to see which was the strongest. We made electric quizzes and players had to match flags and countries or soccer players and teams. We experimented with strange sounds using balloons and straws among other things and learned a lot about vibrations. We made helicopters, acrobatic clowns and learned about their centres of gravity. We tested our reaction times and we made spiral snakes. We built lighthouses and we even built our own monster using the same principles. We built boats from clay and tested different shapes and designs to see which could hold the most 'passengers' ... some floated very well.
STEP THREE: Displaying our work at a science event
We invited our parents into the school for a science day and representatives of third, fourth, fifth and sixth classes did science demonstrations in the hall. The whole school attended and we went from class to class teaching younger students about science.
STEP FOUR: Explorative activities
We built a bird table in the yard and observed starlings, lots of goldfinches, rooks and jackdaws and a robin. We fed them on bird cake (we made this from fat and seeds) and nuts. We recorded twice every day what we saw and how the birds fed. The bird cake was very popular especially with smaller birds because bigger birds couldn't hang from it.
We also have a garden where we grow potatoes, herbs and strawberries. Our lettuce was eaten by pigeons and slugs. We tried some natural solutions like crushed egg shells and beer traps. The traps worked better than the shells. We grew raspberries and tomatoes and pumpkins, which grew really big, We also measured and monitored our waste by weighing the waste in our bins. We realised we had 47kg in a week, then we started recycling and after a while weighed it again and it was down to 16kg.
What our teacher thought...
After attending the training day I tried many of the experiments on my own class first. I have found that many teachers are reluctant to try science experiments as they don't feel competent in hands-on science.
To overcome this I organised a "Science Day" in the school when every class would spend the day doing science experiments. I made up files or packs for each teacher containing simple instructions, explanations and any materials needed for some of the experiments. Members of my own fifth class went around the school demonstrating some of the experiments and helping teachers of younger classes to do some of the experiments in groups. I found that, because teachers had a positive experience on the day, they said that they felt less "threatened" by the idea of hands on science afterwards.
What we thought...
Science is fun and we loved the strawberries!!!
SO GO AHEAD AND GET INVOLVED. YOU'LL ENJOY IT!!!
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