Best of luck to Evan & Cathal (5th class) who have been accepted to the NUI Galway Youth Academy Spring programme.  The 6-week programme is a wonderful opportunity for primary school students to get experience of learning in a University.

Evan will study Biotechnology & Biomedical Engineering –  “Biolegos: Engineering with the Building Blocks of Life“.

Cathal will learn about Irish law in the course “The World of Cops and Robbers: Learning the Law”.

We look forward to hearing all about Evan’s & Cathal’s unique experience and learning a thing or two from them too!

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

Here is a space quiz we created on the classroom computers for our Erasmsus+ project. Everyone in the room added two questions and we made it into a game where you get points for each correct answer. See how many points you can get! 🙂 Click here to play the game fullscreen.

This week we built our very own bug hotel here at school. The children really enjoyed this activity and learnt more about biodiversity along the way. They all worked hard to find suitable materials and construct an attractive dwelling place for the insects in Gortskehy!

What is a bug hotel? A bug hotel is a manmade structure created from natural and recycled materials to provide shelter for insects.  They can come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the specific purpose or insect it is catering for. They usually consist of different sections that provide insects with nesting facilities –  offering shelter or refuge for many types of insects. Many insect hotels are used as nest sites by insects including solitary bees. Other insects hotels are specifically designed to allow the insects to hibernate, notable examples include ladybirds and butterflies.

Good materials to construct insect hotels with can include using dry stone walls or old tiles. Drilled holes in the hotel materials also encourage insects to leave larvae to gestate. Different materials, such as stones and woods are recommended for a wide range and diversity of insect life. Logs and bark, bound reeds and bamboo are also often used. The various components or sizes of holes attract different species.

Building a bug hotel will not just benefit wildlife in our area but we will have the pleasure of being able to watch a host of different creatures making their homes and learn all about their fascinating behaviours. A bug hotel offers free accommodation to its occupants. In return, when it’s time to go they’ll be right on site to go about their pollination and pest predation. The good news is a bug hotel costs nothing just a little time and effort. Please watch the photostory attached to see the children creating the bug hotel.

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.

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.

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

Here is a video of our trip to the RDS for the 2012 BT Young Scientist Exhibition.  We were the only primary school from Mayo selected to perform an experiment at the exhibition.  We discovered that every liquid you see will probably be either acidic or basic.  Water is neutral.  Scientists use something called the pH scale to measure how acidic or basic a liquid is.  Our experiment investigates the qualities of acids and bases in liquids.  Furthermore, how acidic or basic our soils are determines what we can grow in our gardens.   We built and programmed a robot to help with our experiment.  It uses colour and ultrasonic sensors.  Watch the video to find out more!

Well done to @Gortskehy who flew primary schools' flag for Mayo at BT Young Scientist Exhibition. http://t.co/Sm7mA9NV

— Mayo People & Places (@Mayo2Day) January 26, 2012

Our train was delayed for an hour and a half but we’re finally on our way!

Bainigí sult as! @gortskehy "On our way to the RDS Young Scientist Exhibition" foilsithe ag Máistir Ó Beirn.

— Gaeilge Mhaigh Eo (@GaeilgeMhaighEo) January 13, 2012

@gortskehy lucky ye, we would love to go.

— castledrumns (@castledrumns) January 13, 2012

 This is a video on how we made our MissionV world.  We used Imprudence, Scratch for OpenSim, Audacity, IrfanView, Google Images, Microsoft Publisher and Diane used Adobe Photoshop.

We would like to thank Lisa and Aishling, transition year students, for their help in making this video and the screencast.

Amazing use of technology by @gortskehy students…. Any schools in Ballincollig doing stuff like this? http://t.co/StkPTSSh

— In Ballincollig (@inballincollig) December 10, 2011

We invited a student on work experience in our school to visit our MissionV world.  She took a screencast of her tour.  We added music and some text.  Here it is . . .

Amazing work from @gortskehy Well done! http://t.co/b1OxhjXD

— Clontuskert NS (@clontuskertns) December 22, 2011