Profiles
How we earned our Discover Primary Science Award of Excellence by Scoil Eoin, Ballincollig, Cork
The boys from third to sixth told us about how they earned their Award of Science Excellence.
STEP ONE: Activities from the Discover Primary Science classroom pack
We designed boats from clay and added peas as passengers. We found that the ones with a wider base stayed afloat best. We also tested mandarin oranges to see if they would float with their skin on and then peeled them to see the difference. We made a water fountain with a plastic bottle and a tall jug. We put a straw through a hole in the cap into the bottle and sealed it with blu-tack. Then we plugged the straw with blu-tack and a drawing pin. We half filled the bottle with coloured water and placed it in the jug. Our teacher poured boiling water into the jug, and removed the blu-tack and pin. The air in the bottle expanded and pushed the water out, it made a mess! We also did dancing raisins, making a diver, the electric quiz and lots of other activities from the pack. We made a lot of predictions and got to test them.
STEP THREE: Displaying our work at a science event
We had a Science day in May 2005 in Scoil Eoin and we demonstrated our science work to parents and other classes and teachers. We had tables that showed buzzers, friction and forces and the diver. It was a great success.
STEP FOUR: Explorative activities
We did lots of our own investigations. We worked a lot with magnets, we tested four magnets with paper clips to see which was the strongest. We also tested different items to see which were most attracted to the magnets. We made a sponge alarm. We learned about capillary action by putting celery in a mixture of water and food colour and watching it slowly change blue!
We also made our own traffic lights with cardboard tubes, bulbs and bulb holders, paper clips, masking tape, paint and a battery, and they worked! We tested bread to see how quickly it would get mouldy, the one on the windowsill was quickest and the one in the fridge was the slowest to go mouldy.
We got out and about when we went to City Hall and saw an exhibition on science and we got to make slimey green goo.
What our teacher Mr O'Connell thought...
I registered for the project when science came into the curriculum and we decided in the school we should do something. I'm not from a science background but I got involved. The Principals (both former and current) have been supportive by giving me time out of class and were very encouraging. We planned the project among ourselves to make sure that each year the pupils would cover different experiments and avoid repetition. The other staff members were very enthusiastic. The two third class teachers agreed a programme and so on up to sixth. We found the pack to be a great resource and we had some amazing predictions from the kids as to what the outcomes would be!
DPS was a great way to get started into the curriculum and not get bogged down as we don't tend to rely heavily on prescribed texts. I'd definitely recommend it to other teachers, there is some preparation involved but not as much as you would think, particularly if you get the children to bring in the materials. The enjoyment the children get out of it is unreal. I have no doubt that it's great preparation for second level.
What we thought...
Exciting, fun, discover things, different, interesting!
SO GO AHEAD AND GET INVOLVED. YOU'LL ENJOY IT!!!
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