e-Newsletter
National Sea Life Bray
National Sea Life Bray has just opened a new exhibit entitled "GIANT OCTOPUS", featuring Ireland’s first Giant Pacific Octopus. The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the world, and this exhibit gives visitors the chance to come face to face with a creature that has been the basis of many myths and stories about sea monsters. Visitors are invited to learn all about this amazing octopus as well as its "smaller" cousins.
W5
Nature Quest: 1 May - 5 September
W5's brand new exhibition, Nature Quest, has 19 interactive games, challenges and resources to engage, entertain and educate you without getting your feet muddy! These new interactive exhibits will help you to develop the skills to creep up on a butterfly and out-trump your friends in a mammal top trumps game.
Come and explore the coast and countryside which surrounds us to discover more about the animals and plants that live there. Journey into our virtual pond to discover the life cycle of a frog and paint a butterfly on a small screen then release it and watch it fly away on the big screen.
Challenge your friends at dominoes – with a food web theme! Create a fish, design an insect – and then take a closer look at the real thing! Could you survive as a bird? Find out in our garden survival game.
This project has been part funded by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.
Animated Adventures: 1 May - 5 September
Wallace and Gromit make a fantastic return to W5 in this amazing exhibition which tells the story of the making of the feature film ‘Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit'.
Visitors will discover how ideas are developed, stories are written and how the famous duo are brought to life through animation, with original sketches, drawings, photos and short film clips from the world famous Aardman Animations studio.
The exhibition features original character models, props and seven incredibly detailed, full size sets which were used in the making of the movie.
Also included in the exhibition are a series of interactive exhibits to encourage visitors to try animation for themselves, including colouring cels, stop frame animation and adding sound effects.
This is the last opportunity to see this amazing W5 touring exhibition.
Irish National Stud
Japanese themed week-end running over 3 days, Friday, Saturday & Sunday 14th – 16th May 2010
- Demonstrations; Sushi; Ikebana (the art of arranging flowers in Japan) each arrangement must represent the passage of time, the season and harmony with nature.
- Tea Ceremony in the Osborne Centre, I.N.S.
- Art Competition – Theme ‘Japanese Gardens Centenary’ – Entries must be handed into the Visitor Centre by Saturday 8th May 2010.
How to book
Entry forms for the Colouring Competition, Kimono Competition and Art Competition may be picked up at the Visitor Centre. Tickets are now on sale for the demonstrations which are taking place over the Japanese themed week-end and may be purchased at our Visitor Centre or alternatively log onto
www.irish-national-stud.ie. Tel: 00 353 (0) 4552 1617.
Dublin Zoo
"Just Forests" Wood of Life Exhibition. April 1st-30th NOT TO BE MISSED!
The Wood of Life is a hands-on exhibition consisting of large colourful panels highlighting what is happening to the world’s forests, why it’s happening and what people can do to help and encourage better forest management and responsible time sourcing. Visitors can see first-hand samples of wood from around the world showing the diversity of wood species.
The exhibition takes place in the Robert’s House at Dublin Zoo and is open to all visitors (normal zoo opening times and admission rates apply)
Kerry Earth Education
We have just been accepted for our teachers’ summer course - Organic Gardening - The Living Classroom.
Biodiversity & Growing Food in The School Grounds
How to plan and develop a school environmental garden - including practicals.
Venue: Gortbrack Organic Farm
Dates: July 1st to 7th, August 16th to 20th
Ballymun Rediscovery Centre
Rediscovery Centre Ecostore
Coming soon to Ballymun
- Restored and Redesigned Furniture
- Community Repaint
- Rediscover Fashion clothing, homeware and accessories made from 100% recycled materials
- Lots more eco goodies from the Rediscovery Centre
Lifetime Labs
April 26th – April 30th
Story of Energy Workshops - Lifetime Lab welcomes Guzzler
Expert facilitators commence by giving a short presentation with the aid of 3 colorful display panels and cover the topics of energy sources, climate change, CO2 and what we as individuals can do to reduce the amount of energy we use. This is followed by some fun energy experiments. For example, did you know you can make a battery out of a lemon? After that, students play Guzzler's Energy Challenge, where the aim of the game is to collect as many energy points as possible - and avoid the dreaded Sin Bin!
Teacher Notes
- One class only per workshop (max 32 pupils)
- Workshops are free of charge
- 3 workshops per day 9.30am,11.00am and 12.30pm
- Session lasts approx 90mins
- We request accompanying teacher remain with class during workshop.
Please let us know if you are interested in taking up this offer and we can confirm with you a suitable time and date. We will allocate the available workshops on a first come first served basis.
To book your school tour, or for more information, please contact lifetimelab@corkcity.ie or 021 4941500
May 11th
Compost Makers and Wildlife Shakers
A two hour workshop to encourage students to take an active role in composting and wildlife gardening in their school grounds. Students will be introduced to composting using a compost bin and wormery (40 mins) and following this will make ‘Compost in a Bottle’ (20 mins) to take back to school to show their fellow students what they learnt. The second half of the workshop will look at simple ways schools can encourage wildlife into their school gardens from making log piles to building insect hotels (30 mins). To finish students will identify some freshwater invertebrates they could expect to find in their school pond and make a bug box for their school garden out of recycled material.
To book your school tour, or for more information, please contact lifetimelab@corkcity.ie or 021 4941500
May – June
Lifetime Lab School Tours
The old waterworks offers lots of exciting activities for school tours. Explore the importance of water and the technology used to distribute water around Cork City. Participate in our experiment involving the water treatment process and discover how much water is used by a person each day. Your visit is completed by transforming into environmental detectives solving clues from our interactive exhibits and working examples of renewable energy before unwinding in our playground and gardens.
To book your school tour, or for more information, please contact lifetimelab@corkcity.ie or 021 4941500
May 26th and 27th
An Taisce Green Flag presentation
Lifetime Lab will host the award ceremony of the “Green Schools” programme. Students from over 85 primary, secondary and special schools all over Munster will receive their “Green Flag” for successfully completing the scheme. Green-Schools is an international environmental education programme , environmental management system and award scheme that promotes and acknowledges long-term, whole school action for the environment.
July 5th – 9th
Summer Course for Teachers
Lifetime Lab is hosting two Department of Education approved summer courses for primary school teachers from the 5th to 9th July 2010.
1. Exploring Science at Lifetime Lab
Aimed at teachers of 3rd – 6th classes this course will explore the SESE Science Curriculum and help build teachers’ knowledge and confidence in the teaching of science. Teachers will participate in practical hands-on activities using everyday items that can be used in the classroom to develop science skills and concepts and encourage discovery and investigation. The course will explore the use of interactive whiteboards and other ICT tools in the teaching of primary science.
Topics addressed will include Materials, Sound, Light, Magnetism and Electricity, Forces as well as Digestion and The Five Senses. The course will provide hands on experience in carrying out of science investigations and fair testing as well as design and make activities.
(This course is approved by the Department of Education and Science)
Cost: €50
To register contact Lifetime Lab at:
Tel: 021-4941500
Email: lifetimelab@corkcity.ie
2. Green-Schools Summer Course
The Green Schools Summer Course is designed to take a practical approach to the SESEG area of the National Curriculum and will help teachers to integrate the Green Schools programme into the curriculum. The course will develop an appreciation of the connections between local natural history, built environment, impacts of everyday actions on our environment and environmental management. It will provide practical solutions to environmental management within school and communities as well as providing relevant computing skills to enable optimum exchange of information and best practice examples.
The course will be based on daily lectures and field excursions complimented by slide presentations, demonstrations and workshops. Each day there will be an opportunity to discuss how to incorporate acquired knowledge into the classroom. (This course is approved by the Department of Education and Science)
Cost: €50
For further information and to register for the ‘Green Schools Summer Course’ please contact Birgit O’Driscoll.
Tel.:085 1530064
E-mail: bodriscoll@eeu.antaisce.org
Web: www.greenschoolsireland.org
July
Anyone 4 Science Summer Camps
Summer camps will be held over a three week period in July. There will be camps for 7 – 12 year olds and a special new camp for 5 – 8 year olds. During the summer camp we will study botany, investigate plastics and recycling, experiment with levers and pulleys and have an introduction to food science.
Most days the children will make something which they can take home with them.
Dates are as follows
- July 12th – 16th, July 19th – 23rd, July 26th – 30th (age 7 – 12)
- July 12th – 16th, July 19th – 23rd, July 26th – 30th (age 5 – 8)
To register, contact Lifetime Lab at: 021-4941500 or lifetimelab@corkcity.ie.
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