We are delighted to announce that we have, once again, been successful in securing our Discover Science Plaque Award for 2019/2020. Congratulations to everyone involved in all of the wonderful Science and STEM work!!

Here’s what the judges had to say:

”Well done on achieving your Plaque of STEM Award! You have displayed a wide variety of STEM skills including problem solving, group collaboration and have encouraged creativity amongst your students. This is evident from the range of individuality in the projects carried out.

I really enjoyed your demonstration of sustainability with the Walking Bus project and further education on cycling to school through the bike skills workshop. Great to see your participation in Engineers Week and Space Week by engaging in themed activities. Your involvement with the local community through the biodiversity projects was also great to see! The STEAM showcase and internet safety days were also excellent – keep up the great work!

Congratulations on your achievement in a very different year for all at St. Peter’s NS. We hope to see your work in the 2020/2021 Awards”

 

 

Welcome to the Discover Science Award section of our website. On this page you will find a sample of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths activities that have happened in the school year 2019-2020.

Step 1 – Science

Hands on experiments

1. Living Things (Plants and Animals)

Senior Infants have been busy exploring the signs of Spring in our school environment. Although we had very little time to explore the theme of Spring in school, we started on a high. There are so many opportunities to continue this at home in the back garden. Here’s a sneak peak of how we started our exploration in the Garden Centre (Aistear). See our photos here.

 

Look out Alan Titchmarsh!!Back in October the boys and girls in 2nd class were very busy planting daffodil bulbs. Here are our pictures .

 

2. Energy and Forces (Electricity): Pedalcents (All Classes)

The Whole school took part in Pedalcents. What an experience this was! Each child had a turn to design their own piece of art while the adults cycled the bikes to create electricity in order to spin the drums. Such a unique and enjoyable opportunity for all! 

Senior Infants photos

First Class Photos

Second Class Photos

3. Materials

 

 

 

Sixth Class looked at how solid, liquids and gases change within the Water Cycle. See photos of experiments here:

Second Class made a mess with papier mache in art, sang about volcanoes in music and finally made yet another mess with the experiment in science!  Click here to see more photos. View video here

Lockdown Science

We experimented during lockdown with a science experiment that Vivienne sent in on Class Dojo. We made squishy soap. It was lots of fun and smelled AMAZING!

4. Environmental Awareness and Care

We all know how important it is to help our environment by walking to school to save emissions and to help our environment. We were very lucky to have our school featured on RTÉ’s Máire and Daithí show and Brenda O Donoghue came to interview our pupils and teachers as we walked to school. You can watch our segment here

 

Buzzing Bees

We didn’t let lockdown stop us learning how to take care of our environment! To celebrate World Bee Day (May 20th) 3rd Class were set a challenge to research bees, how important they are for our environment and how we can protect them. We then created projects that we shared across our Class Dojo.

S.T.E.M

Senior Infants engaged in Space Week. We enjoyed exploring many different aspects as we blasted off into Space! The children were so invested in this topic and we used this to integrate our learning through play, literacy, SESE and the Arts. Find our pictures here.

During lockdown we collaborated with our local GAA club St.Joseph’s GFC to work on biodiversity projects to help our environment. We engaged in a number of competitions to design our own insect hotels, paint rocks and design a bee-drinking station. It was fantastic to see all of the creativity in our locality.

                       

Step 2 -Technology

Fourth class had lots of fun designing and making vehicles using cardboard, plastic and other materials from their homes. We learned about how some vehicles move using wind power. We tested our vehicles using hairdryers and then figured out how to improve our vehicles after testing their speed and distance.  Check out our pictures HERE. We had lots of fun racing our vehicles and measuring their speed and distance!

Fifth Class had lots of fun engaging in an hour of code throughout the year. Pictures here  

3rd Class had lots of fun researching their chosen country and creating a project using Microsoft Word. We had started using Adobe Spark just before lockdown happened.

Step 3-Engineering

Fifth Class had a visit from an engineer who showed them some of the skills used in their job. They completed models using these skills. Picture here

Cycling with Sorcha

Sorcha Brophy from An Taisce visited 3rd and 4th class for a bike skills workshop on Wednesday 18th September. As you can see from the photos the boys and girls were brought up to speed on their bike safety while navigating through an obstacle course set up on the yard.

Sorcha was promoting the idea of cycling to school and being safe on the road and how to use our bicycle properly while exploring how it works. See our photos here

Building Bridges!

The future is bright with such an enthusiastic and innovative group of engineers! We worked in groups to build bridges from recyclable materials. Ms. O’Rourke told us it must be able to cross two desks without falling. The first step was to design the bridges in groups and decide what materials we needed. Once we built the bridges we gave each group feedback on what we liked about their bridges and how they might improve the next time. Every bridge was able to support at least one small toy car and most bridges could cross two desks. One group nearly built a fully functioning table! Check out the photographs HERE.

Step 4-Maths

Maths at Home!

During lockdown we have been using our Maths skills to help with baking and gardening in our homes and gardens. We also had Maths Trails in our kitchens that we did during our STEAM day on the last day of school, you can find a copy of it HERE.

               

3D Shapes in 3rd

  

We had great fun planning and making our 3D shapes using spaghetti and marshmallows. It was messy but fun! We used lots of different skills to create some epic 3D shapes!

Symmetry in Second

Second class have been learning all about Symmetry in Maths this year. The boys and girls in 2nd class produced some really great work. We used our knowledge of symmetry to complete pictures of ourselves. See if you can recognise anyone here.

Step 5-STEM Show and Tell

Whole School STEAM Day

On the last week of school we organised a STEAM Day for the entire school! There were lots of activities organised for the children. They had a chance to share their creations, experiments and projects with their classes through Dojo. You can see some of the organised activities on our padlet HERE.

3rd Class Ghost Rockets with First & Fifth Class

3rd Class shared a spooky set of experiments with 1st Class and some of 5th Class in March 2020. This involved lots of practise and then working closely with the younger and older classes to share a range of STEM skills! We had film canisters and filled them with varying amounts of water. When prompted we added Alka Seltzer tablets and closed the lid. Then…. BLAST OFF! You can see the video HERE, HERE and HERE.

Safer Internet Day 2020

 

3rd Class take Internet Safety very seriously! We learned lots about how to make sure we keep ourselves and others safe on the internet. We prepared speeches and presentations for every class in our school and we also designed posters. You can check our Internet Safety Posters out Here. We created a special page that was shared with parents and our community and you can find that HERE.

Building Bridges – The Showcase!

  

The 3rd Class bridges that we engineered were so impressive that we took it a step further. We worked together as a class to build a bridge and some toys for our local playschool Happy Days. We made trains, hot air balloons and even figures for them to play with! They were so excited when we took it over to them. They asked lots of questions about how we made the different toys. We really enjoyed sharing our work with them and were delighted when their teachers told us they tried to make some toys of their own after our visit!