SMPPS STEM BLOG 2019/20

ESB Science Blast , 3rd Class, March 2020

3rd Class wowed the judges at ESB Science Blast in the RDS on Monday 2nd March with their science projects.

Our pupils investigated the science behind simple questions such as:

What colour food do birds prefer?
Do woodlice prefer light or dark?
What are the best conditions for growing Spring Bulbs?
How do worms make compost?
Can we delay the decay of a leaf?

Dr Ken demonstrated the science behind circus acts such as forces and motion. We learned how to juggle on the Moon and in Space. Ryan showed us how to balance a peacock feather on your hand using push and pull.

Marty Jopson from the BBC invited us on a safari of his invisible worlds. We looked at minibeasts under the microscope. We even got to see one of our teacher’s living cells!

We had such great day - Science really is so much fun!

SMPPS Vex Team impress Judges at National Competition in Cork

5th and 6th class pupils from SMPPS proudly represented their school at Dell Technologies National VEX IQ Robotics competition at CIT on Wednesday 12th February. Our team did not come away empty handed on the day. The Judges Award was presented to our team for special recognition of our team displays and exemplary effort and perseverance at the event.

600 students from schools all over Ireland participated in the National Finals of the 2020 Dell Technologies VEX IQ Primary School Competition hosted in conjunction with Cork Institute of Technology (CIT).The pupils brought Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Technology (STEAM) skills to life by undertaking a game-based engineering challenge to design and build robots.

The robotics challenge gives both primary and secondary schools a fun, engaging and hands-on opportunity to design, build and programme a robot in teams.

STEM Week Activities 2019/20

The Beekeeper Came to Visit 4th Class

The Hive

The Honey

The Beekeeper

Juliet Collins our Visiting Scientist (1st Class)

Investigating Chromatography

Skittles Experiment

Fun with Science!

All the colours of the rainbow

Paddy Madden talks to 2nd Class about Nature in Autumn

Paddy has worked with Heritage in Schools since its inception in 1999 as a pilot project. He is a founder member and director of SEED (www.schoolearthed.ie) which promotes school gardening in Irish schools.

Paddy is a former primary teacher and a former lecturer in SESE in a College of Education providing courses on wildlife gardening, organic vegetable gardening and educational trails.

In 1996 he wrote "Go Wild at School" which is currently in its 3rd Edition.

Websites: www.blackrockec.ie and www.schoolearthed.ie

Who lives in the box?

Our Engineer Talk

By Neassa McDermott 5th Class Pupil

On the fourth of November we had the engineer Patrick Flynn give us a talk about Engineering.

He told us about Engineering in the past and present and about what he did as an Engineer.

The first thing he told us about was Engineering in the past. He explained that Newgrange was built nearly 5000 years ago and that they to build it so that on the 21st of December every year the light of the sun shines right through the passage tomb into the centre chamber.

Then he told us about the Box Tunnel which was built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He built many other bridges and tunnels but this was his most famous one because it seemed to come off the track a little bit.People wondered why this was until they noticed that in April the light of the sun started to shine through the tunnel.They thought that this was because it was his birthday in April but the light shone through the tunnel 3 days before Brunel's birthday.They later found out that 3 days before Brunel's birthday was his sisters birthday.They now think he did it as a birthday present for her.

After that he told us about some projects he had worked on in the past. He told us about how he had worked in Dublin Zoo and in Dublin Airport. He explained to us that there was no typical day as an engineer and also about some of the jobs he had to do in the zoo and in the airport here are my favourites.

1.When he was working in Dublin Zoo he had to take measurements in the reptile house so that he could renovate it but they weren't allowed to remove the animals while doing this so when it came time to measure the Nile crocodiles house they were quite nervous.So they were riding to the reptile house to do the measuring but the zookeeper stopped at the kitchen on the way. The zookeeper got a whole chicken.When they finally got to the reptile house the keeper threw the chicken into the enclosure.5 minutes later he said it was safe to go in. When they got in the crocodile just lay there looking at them working. They soon had all the measurements they needed and the crocodile[whose name was Benji]got a new home.

2.While he was working in Dublin Airport,he had a special job,removing snow. It was New Year’s Eve a few years ago and there was very heavy snow.So he had to spend 22 hours clearing snow with a snow plough and showing others how to do the same. He said that he had to ask people to drive tractors and if they did this well they could use a snow plough.

3. Once when he was working in the Airport he found a dead bird on the track. They brought it into the airport to figure out which bird it was.When they had examined the bird they found out that it wasn’t a bird from Ireland but a foreign bird that got caught in the engine and brought it to Ireland.

It was a very interesting talk. He taught us that there is no typical day as an Engineer.I hope that when I’m older I am just as good at engineering as he is now.

BEEBOTS with Infants - The 'Bumbulance' Visits SMPSS

Scratch Jr App - 1st Class Learn to Code

1st Class had great fun programming their sprites to have a race.

ScratchJr is an introductory programming language that enables young children (ages 5-7) to create their own interactive stories and games. Children snap together graphical programming blocks to make characters move, jump, dance, and sing. Children can modify characters in the paint editor, add their own voices and sounds, even insert photos of themselves -- then use the programming blocks to make their characters come to life.

3rd Class had a Dance Party! @hourofcode

What is the Hour of Code?

The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts. Check out the tutorials and activities. This grassroots campaign is supported by over 400 partners and 200,000 educators worldwide.

https://hourofcode.com/ie

STEM and our Green Flag - Biodiversity

This year as part of our Green Flag we are exploring Biodiversity in our school. We will be looking at the trees, plants, flowers, animals and minibeasts that live on our school grounds and exploring ways to increase biodiversity in our school. 3rd Class will also be working on Biodiversity projects that they will present at ESB Science Blast in the RDS later in the year.

Third Class STEM Challenges

Challenge 1: Tall Tower

Today each group were given 2 sheets of newspaper and 30 cm of sellotape. Their challenge in groups was to build the tallest free standing tower (not allowed to sellotape to the table) The children absolutely loved it and it really got them collaborating together. We measured at the end (84cm being the winner!!) no other materials allowed and their time limit was 10 mins.