Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 4th, 5th and 6th Classes set off on the bus to explore the natural habitat along ‘The Land of the Giants’ around Clare Lake.. Before we set off, we discussed water safety and the children discussed how we stay safe around a body of water. Even with the damp weather the children were very excited.

We found some minibeasts, lots of natural vegetation and birds! We saw ducks, geese and dogs out for their walk! We found lots of snails. We saw bees and flies particularly near the water’s edge. We found Marsh Marigolds, Daisies, Daffodils, Dandelions, Bullrushes, Yellow Iris, Ivy and many trees including Fir, Birch, Ash and Scots Pine.

The children worked in groups and had fun filling out their Eco Safari journals. The whole experience was again very enjoyable and educational, the children are all great ‘Guardians of the Land’. Please take a minute to view a short video of our Eco Safari below, thanks.

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Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 1st and 6th Classes went on a very successful Eco Safari last week here in Gortskehy. Before we set off, we discussed road safety and the children put on their hi-vis vests. The excitement was palpable. We then explored the natural hedgerows that exist close by our school.

The children were very enthusiastic and interested, we brought magnifying glasses and collection jars to help with our search. We found lots of minibeasts, natural vegetation and even a fossil! The children worked in groups and had fun filling out their Eco Safari journals. The whole experience was so enjoyable and very educational. We are looking forward already to our next Eco Safari. Please take the time to view the video of our safari.

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Here is a video of our space balloon flight which was launched on Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 from Frank and Mary Clarke’s farm. It reached an altitude of 28km. There are five layers to our atmosphere – Troposphere (up to 20km high), Stratosphere (20-50km), Mesosphere (50-85km), Thermosphere (85-600km), Exosphere (600-10,000km). Our balloon reached the Stratosphere.

Around 20km high ice-crystals are visible and the temperature drops to -51°C. In the Stratosphere the temperature actually increased with altitude to -40°C  as ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun is absorbed by the ozone layer. Had our balloon reached the top of the stratosphere the temperature would have risen to about -15°C  before falling sharply again in the Mesosphere. It landed 125km away between Castlepollard and Athboy on the farm of Eamon and Margureite Kelly.

Thanks to Frank and Mary Clarke, our sponsors CMS Distribution and DeCare Dental and chase car drivers Mary Lydon, Jan Wilkins and Angela Walshe.

The video of the flight is 360° so view it fullscreen to pan around. Control the 360 degree fullscreen video on your phone or tablet by moving your device.  To view it on a VR headset visit https://youtu.be/XPfoCtv5NSA or search for “Gortskehy in Space” using your VR YouTube app.

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Video: Space balloon flight https://t.co/G0CPxSR6Ss via @gortskehy. So proud of my old N. S. Congrats to all involved.

— Andy Tierney (@Jamesatierney) July 14, 2017

CMS expansion now reaches space! Courtesy of sponsorship of the @gortskehy #space balloon flight. We have video > https://t.co/u3lWRMhBpm pic.twitter.com/CeWIUJcBGL

— CMS Distribution (@CMSDistribution) July 25, 2017

3D prediction of the flight path.

Some of the towns the balloon flew over.

This intrepid school from Hollymount lauched a space balloon! https://t.co/BuFA61KSbq @AllThingsMayo @gortskehy pic.twitter.com/88kCl4EPuF

— Mayo.ie (@MayoDotIE) July 15, 2017

This week is Engineering Week so I wanted to share with you some very exciting news and photos from our class. We are extremely lucky to have acquired three Ozobot Evo’s in our school. These little bots will prove an invaluable resource for all the children in our school.

Evo is a smart and social robot that teaches kids to code. Evo entertains you straight away with its LED lights, quirky sounds and moves. Evo uses Infrared Proximity Sensing to avoid obstacles and it is controlled from the app on your phone.

Hundreds of schools across the world have adopted Ozobot into their curriculum. Students using Ozobot within these schools are learning sequential thinking, logical reasoning and coding concepts. These critical life skills enable children from all walks of life to succeed in the future digital age.

The children have given our bots names these are Jimmy, Johnny and Double Trouble Rob. Please watch the video below to observe the children in my classroom learning through play with Evo.

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As you can see from the video the children are so interested and excited in discovery play with the Ozobots. We will have Ozobots sessions with the middle classes and senior classes as well. Thanks a million to the Sixth class pupils and transition year students who helped out during the set-up and programming of the Ozobots. Also a huge thank you to Ms. Dooley for all her help and work with the little bots, she made all this wonderful exploratory play possible. This is the start of the next generation of computer scientists, engineers and inventors from Gortskehy!!!

Some spectacular results today from our Science lesson. We discussed the ‘Supermoon’ appearance last night and we talked about craters on the moon’s surface and how they were formed by meteorites a long time ago. So then we went outside to investigate the formation of craters! The children really loved this lesson and made connections between the types of craters (hollows in our flour), a little meteorite (light ball) or a heavy meteorite (marble) will make on impact. It was a team effort and you can see our very own ‘moon surface’ the children created above.