Table of Contents

SCIENCE

Science Interactive Quiz

Click here to go an interactive quiz based on our Science page.

SCIENCE

Science Week throughout the school

Junior Infants have spent the last few weeks investigating food during Science Week, Aistear and Food Dudes. We looked at healthy and unhealthy foods. We investigated our taste buds by tasting sour, sweet, bitter and salty foods. We tried some healthy fruit and vegetables. We did some experiments with food-we made a Skittles rainbow, an explosion using Coke and Mentos, we danced along with some raisins and made a giant jelly baby by soaking it in water! In Aistear the boys have had fun making some prints using food and setting up a restaurant.

Announcing our Maths, Science and Engineering Award 2021

Good news! We heard this morning that we have been awarded the SFI Discover Science and Maths Award for the school year 2020/2021. In June we submitted our log of evidence which displayed all the science, maths and engineering work we completed last year. Although it was a challenging year we managed to do so much thanks to all the hard work of staff and pupils. Our plaque of excellence will arrive in October and it will be displayed for all to see.

Here is some feedback from the judges who awarded the SFI Plaque of Excellence to the school.

Congratulations to all in Scoil na mBuachailli , Cloch na gCoillte on receiving your SFI Plaque of STEM Award 2020/21
It has been a challenging year for all of us and has impacted on our work goals. You used remote learning time eg. Scratch and of course you enjoyed PHOTON, the robot. Walking on air was successful since no balloons burst, the space books were well received. You took part in The Tree Council’s excellent webinar for Tree Week. We missed not getting photos of your garden to show off your good work. We look forward to your Log in 2022. Well done, thank you and keep up the good work.

Many thanks to all the staff who worked so hard during lockdown and in school to complete science, maths and engineering tasks with the boys. Many thanks to Ms. Regina Fitzmaurice for all her hard work in compiling the log of evidence.

Many thanks to Ethan Mc Auliffe Aherne, Paulos White and Paddy Kavanagh who spoke so well on the school intercom to tell all the pupils about our award.

Well done to everybody! We all look forward to another year of science, maths and engineering this year.

LIVING THINGS

The Outdoor Classroom

by Andrew Hickey

On Monday the 14^th of February Jessica Mason came to Scoil na mBuachaillí to help us with are outdoor classroom. We made are outdoor classroom next to the willow tunnel. First we did sound mapping then we brainstormed all the things we heard including birds, trees and cars. We also learned about how we shouldn’t dig during gardening as it takes away the nutrients from the soil. Then we took away all the weeds from the garden and found a suitable place to make the outdoor classroom. Then we dug a trench and planted blueberries and other flowers. We put the weeds in the compost bin.

SnB visits Darrara Agricultural College

ENERGY AND FORCES

Rang 4 studying & making Space Telescopes

The James Webb and Hubble telescope

This week 4^th class did a project on the James Webb and Hubble telescope

The Hubble: The Hubble was sent into space in1990 to take pictures of planets .The Hubble is the size and weight of a school bus .The Hubble will stop working in 2030 and will slowly start to disintegrate for the next ten years The Hubble gets energy from solar panels on the top of it.
The James Webb : The James Webb telescope was sent into space on Christmas day 25/12/21. It is being sent to space to take pictures of the sun and of new galaxies. The James Webb is as big as two full sized tennis courts. The James Webb’s base is as thin as hair and protects the telescope from burning up when it gets too close to the sun. It was sent into space in a rocket. Slowly pieces started to fall off as it got further until all that was left was a thruster. Before it was sent they would have to practise folding it out so when in space it would not fall apart. It runs on solar panels.
The Hubble and the James Webb run on solar panels. The Hubble’s engine is inside it and the solar panels give it energy. There’s a box on the back of the James Webb and solar panels give it energy.
In class we made models of the Hubble and James Webb telescope. This is how we made them.
The Hubble. You will need: tin foil, paper, cardboard, a black colour, Tooth picks, toilet rolls, and glue or tape

Method: You stick two toilet rolls together with glue or tape. Then you cover it with tin foil then you use the tooth picks to make the solar panel plates [make with cardboard or paper] then try and make a cool back round[with paper or cardboard]and then you’re done.

The James Webb. You will need: Five sheets of paper, ten tooth picks, cardboard, one sheet of yellow paper, and glue or tape.
Method: use six tooth picks to hold up the five sheets of paper then use the yellow sheet of paper then use the tooth picks [colour the stick’s black] to make four sticks and make a black circle then use the cardboard to make a black box on the back then you’re done.

We enjoyed learning about space telescopes and making models of them.

By John McCarthy.

MATERIALS

Floating and Sinking Experiments in Rang 1

These are the first class boys enjoying floating and sinking experiments. They are testing objects from the classroom to see if they will float or sink.

Science experiment based off our story of the week ‘Puffling and The Egg”

ENVIR0NMENTAL AWARENESS & CARE

National Spring Clean Day

Global Classroom in Rang 6

Dubai Zoom with JSS Private School for The Global Classrooms Project!

For the global classrooms project, we were partnered with JSS Private school in Dubai. On Wednesday we came to school early because Dubai is four hours ahead of us. First, we each told them one thing about our school. Ms Mac Auley used a power point with pictures on the board as we explained about our school. We told them about the sports, debating, school uniform , foosball, pingpong, GAA , Thorntree project, soccer , wardens, our music room , running track , black book, basketball, JEP, the kiln, Scoilavision, gardening, rugby, GOTW, swimming, surfing /kayaking, Chess and Zumba just to name a few activites in school.

Then they each told us about their school and their experience at school and surprisingly, their school was very similar to ours. They have P.E on Tuesday and Thursday, just like us and they also have a music room, Lego and an art room. The only thing we wish we had that they had was a swimming pool! We are hopefully going to do another zoom with them around Christmas time as well. And we also have penpals who we have written letters for which we will send to Dubai and they will send letters back!

Global Classrooms Workshop

By Dylan Mulcahy

Last week 6^th class had their Global Classrooms Zoom Workshop to talk about our Global Goal 12 -Responsible Consumption and Production. This was led by Brigit O’Driscoll from An Taisce and Claire Mc Donnell from Green Schools. Our partner school JSS Dubai will be having the same workshop as us and we will be sharing our ideas on Zoom.

They started by asking the question “Does waste exist?” We found out that waste doesn’t exist in the natural world. Our aim is to create a product that doesn’t create waste or that reuses or repurposes waste materials for new products. Ware doing a project called Designathon where we design and create a prototype to solve the Global Goal 12 – Responsible Production and Consumption without creating any waste.

We discovered there are many problems around production like air pollution, creation of tons of waste and running out of time to solve the problem. Solutions to the problems, such as Up cycling repurposing items such as furniture or wet wetsuits or ripped clothes to new uses. Sharing which is like GoCar where you rent go car around a city so you don’t have to buy a car. The idea of a clothing library where you have old clothes that you wash then hand it to them and swap for some other clothes you might be interested in. Locally people have Clothes Swap using this idea. Closed loop is solving the problem of waste by having zero waste or reusing the materials such as edibles water bubbles, edible plastic straw, shoes made out of waste materials like fishing nets and mushrooms from coffee grounds and houses made out of containers.

We were divided into groups of two or three to think of a product design under the headings food, building, clothing or electronics. We had to attempt to create a product with zero waste or one that reuses waste products to create our prototype. We sketched out the design of our product and in the next few weeks we will be sent a Designathon Maker’s Electronic Kit which has led lights, engines, electric parts and much more so we can start making our project. We will keep you posted on our products but here is a sneek peek of the names of some of our products:

The M.O.M , Site recycle, Sea Forces, Sea Clothing & Plasthiginí. Our products range from seaweed for cows to machines that organize metal!!

Our Designs

Green School’s Committee unveil new water bottle filler

Green News – Water Refill Station
Harry Ellis Green Schools Committee
In early 2020 6th class and the Green Schools Committee submitted an application
to the schools drinking water refill station competition funded by Cork County
Council’s environmental awareness office .
We are one of the 15 schools to be awarded with a water refill station. As a
winning school we will receive a free water refill station at a total prize value of
approximately €1,500 . This is a contactless machine, it is operated by a sensor
which recognises when a bottle is placed underneath whilst also counting the
number of refills This will help our school reduce the use of single use plastic
bottles in our classrooms. We look forward to using it with our reusable water
bottles.

TECHNOLOGY

ENGINGEERING

Max makes a robot

Engineering Week in Senior Infants

Senior Infants thoroughly enjoyed all the activities throughout the week. They designed their own dream playground and constructed a Lego bridge. They made their own boats out of recyclable materials and had great fun testing if they would sink or float. They finished the week by designing and creating an egg zipline.

Engineer’s Week in Rang 5B

For engineers week 5th class were virtually visited by a scientist who talked to them about the physics of building a waterwheel.

The boys then built and tested their own waterwheels with simple materials. The results were excellent with every group building a model that worked!

We also spent some time working with the schools LEGO sets where the boys built complex models.

Lego time

As Engineers week is coming in March we decided to dust of the Lego boxes and start getting them ready. Kevin Oforji, Paulos White, Ethan Mc Auliffe Ahern and Paddy Kavanagh are the Lego Boys for this year. They are in charge of the Lego with Ms. Fitzmaurice. They are also hoping to make a stop motion movie with Lego so watch this space.
We will keep you posted on all the things we create for Engineers week.

Rang 5 are doing circuits

In 5A class this week, we learned about electricity. We made circuits that turned on lights and even buzzers! We also learned how to be safe around electricity.

Lego time in Junior Infants

Lighthouses in Rang 5 B

Rang 5 have been busy making lighthouses recently. They also created circuits with switches, batteries and lights.

5th class lighthouses by Ethan O Donovan

For science week 2021 our class made lighthouses. To make the lighthouse you needed to first make a circuit. You got a battery pack and some wires you had to get one of the wires and attach it to the north side of the battery pack then you had to get another wire and attach it to the south side you would then put both wires through the switch and then put them to either side of the bulb. Next you had to make the lighthouse with bottles, old kitchen paper rolls or Pringle cans. Then we painted the outside and decorated with rocks and moss. Then we had our very own lighthouse with a working circuit.

MATHS

The Maths Trail

6th class took advantage of the sunshine and completed Ms Fitzmaurice’ Senior Maths Trail. We had to calculate area, percentages and search for angles in the environment. We even learned about counties when we recorded and classified the cars in the teachers carpark.
We started by looking at the school gate and simply counting the bars. Then we counted the number of cars their registrations and the difference between the oldest and the newest car. We then had to go around the school where we looked around to find 2-D and 3-D shapes we had to find shapes such as circles, squares, trapeziums, triangles, rectangles, hexagons, pentagon. We searched for 3-d shapes such as cube, cuboids, sphere, cones , pyramids and cylinders. We also had to count windows that were open and ones that were closed and put them into percentages and measure objects all in a race. We also had to find different types of angles in the environment.
We measured objects such as a wooden fence but we used our selves to measure the wooden fence and then used a trundle wheel to measure the actual length. We also measured a basketball hoop height from the ground. We calculated the area of the glasshouse and the perimeter of the beds in the garden. We had loads of fun doing taking part in the maths trail.