Science Week Fun in First & Second Class!

Posted by Ms. McNeive On November - 16 - 2020

We had great fun in First and Second Class last week for Science Week.

We created our own Lava Lamps and Fizz Inflators and we had a fun Zoom Meeting with “The Exploration Dome” https://explorationdome.ie/

Our Own Fizz Inflator!

                    

 

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Magical Day at McHale

Posted by Ms. Thomas On April - 11 - 2019

On Friday, March 29th 2019 the children in first, second and third class went on a very exciting trip to the McHale factory in Ballinrobe.

When we arrived we were met by our tour guide and we were all very excited. We went to the board room and we got to look at a video about the history of the company. It was very interesting! After that we had a tour of the showroom and we learned all about the balers and different machines. We have done lots of work on inventions and science this year and it was great to see real inventions and how they are made in real-life. We learned that different materials and pieces are put together to make the machinery. They even use robotic machines to make the balers!

When we came home we typed a story about our trip on our Chromebooks.

We were very lucky to have the fantastic opportunity to see real-life inventions. We had a magical, fun-filled memorable day!

 

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Engineering & Science Rang 1-3

Posted by Ms. Thomas On March - 14 - 2019

We have been very busy here in first, second and third class in Gortskehy with Science and Engineering lately.

We sowed seeds in the classroom. First class sowed cress, second class sowed runner beans and third class sowed baby carrots. We are having great fun watching these grow.

We completed a project on The Leaning Tower of Pisa and we learned lots of interesting facts. We learned that it is a Romanesque building, and that poor foundations caused it to lean. It was designed by engineers. It is a huge tourist attraction and over 1 million people visit it every year. We used our Chromebooks to create a slide show in pairs. We cast our projects to the board and we enjoyed looking at each others work. We created our own version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in art class using match sticks and cotton buds.

We have some big Manchester United supporters here in Gortskehy! We recently looked into the Munich Air Crash for history. It  was a terrible event for Man United. We worked as journalists and wrote newspaper articles about the tragedy. We wrote about the slippery runway and how the aircraft had difficulty taking off, resulting in the accident. We learned that Sir Bobby Charlton survived the accident and played many more matches for Man United. We worked in groups and created a presentation on our Chromebooks and we shared it on the board. Finally, we put our engineering hats on and created models of the aircraft using recycled materials and our imaginations!

During Engineers Week (March 2nd-8th 2019), we put our engineering hats on again! We used our imagination and our knowledge of the world and how things are made to create 3-D drawings. We had to think practically and use our problem solving skills to create these structures. We made everything from baby play gyms, to playgrounds, to underground drills, to water-parks, and lots more wonderful things.

We really enjoyed our recent work as engineers in the middle room. It allowed us to develop our creativity and problem solving skills. We had to share our ideas and work together as a team to come up with our amazing creations. We really enjoyed using the Chromebooks to create our projects and loved incorporating technology into our learning.

Who knows, we may have the next budding engineer in our midst here in Gortskehy – Watch this space!

A snapshot of rang 1-3 at work
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A snapshot of rang 1-3 at work

 

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Gortskehy’s Young Inventors

Posted by Ms. Thomas On December - 19 - 2018

 

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Albert Einstein

 

We had great fun with our creativity and imagination celebrating science week in the middle room recently.

We learned all about Alexander Graham Bell and his wonderful inventions. We worked in groups to complete a mini project on his life.

We then decided that we were going to become inventors and design new things ourselves!

We worked together to come up with ideas. We then made a draft of our ideas on paper. We collected recyclable materials at home and brought them in to share with each other. We worked in pairs to create our wonderful inventions. We used our imaginations and we came up with things like robots that can do our homework, drones that can see everything, time machines, ice cream makers, electric bins, day and night tubes, a car that can drive itself and lots more interesting things!

We really enjoyed this project and learned a lot from it.

Who knows, maybe one of us will be a famous inventor like Alexander Graham Bell in the future!

 

    

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Space Workshop with Dr. Niamh Shaw

Posted by Ms. Naughton On November - 26 - 2018

We were delighted to welcome Dr. Niamh Shaw to our school today, 26th November 2018. She is one of Ireland’s leading science communicators and STEAM specialist (merging Science, technology, engineering, arts and maths).  She is passionate about space and has a life mission to get to space as an artist and an explorer.

Here at Gortskehy, we also have an interest in Space, having just completed our 2 year Erasmus project with the highlight being the launch of the helium near space balloon.  Niamh visited our school after the pupils in the Senior room submitted this video in June and Gortskehy NS was chosen as a winner in the ‘Inspired by Space’ competition hosted by Blackrock Observatory, Dublin.

She spent time in the middle room and senior room talking about her experience with space missions, particularly her simulated Mars mission in the Utah Desert in 2017.  She showed us pictures and videos of her time spent as an analog astronaut.  She also spent time in Russia where she experienced her first Zero gravity flight to explore weightlessness on Earth. Fascinating & inspiring stuff!

It was a privilege for our school and pupils to have Niamh visit Gortskehy NS.  For more information on Niamh’s story check out: http://www.niamhshaw.ie

 

 

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