Thankfully our annual STEM Fair returned to the school hall this year and everyone was thrilled to be part of an in-person event again. Our theme this year was 'Biomimicry' and we learned so much about how we can learn and find solutions to problems in the human world by looking closely at the natural world. Have a look at our STEM Fair video on the left.

Our sixth class students completed their STEM Fair Projects last week and were given the additional fun task of presenting their ideas to the teacher Dragons' Den! The Dragons were hugely impressed with the standard of work put in by all teams. The students had to come up with a Biomimicry themed idea which set out to solve a problem we might experience in the human world, using inspiration from the natural world. The winners in each class received easter egg prizes!

Our Third and Fourth Classes have been working hard on their stop motion animation projects. We had the privilege of having local artist, Suin O' Connor on hand to guide students in the process. Our students used the app 'Stop Motion Studio" on iPads and whilst we paid for the pro version (Eur 4.99 per apple ID) , the free version is also very suited to use in schools. The app is also available for macOS, android and windows. Stop Motion movies can be done in 2D or 3D format. You might want to begin with 2D using an overhead tripod pointing down to a floor space or tabletop that will hold your cut out characters on a prepared backdrop. The steps involved in creating your own stop motion movie are 1. Scripting your story: remembering to have a clear beginning, middle and end, interesting characters, a problem and a solution, and identify where your setting will be. 2. Storyboard your story: On a sheet of paper, draw 6 same-sized boxes, roughly draw your story from box 1 to 6 and under each box make important notes about each scene, briefly say what is happening, draw arrows to indicate movement of items/ characters, and indicate how long the scene should take. 3. Start making your scene settings, your characters and make any other props you might need. 4. Set up your scene 1 and refer back to your storyboard to make sure you are following the original story plan. Begin with a trial run of taking photos for your first scene so you get the hang of it. Take the photos in the stop motion studio app and progress the movement of your story as you wish.

The storyboard sample on the left is sourced from VideoEditingSage.com and below that we have included one of our student projects for you to enjoy!

This year we are so happy to returning to the VEX Robotics competition having missed out of course last year owing to Covid restrictions. Our regional finals for this year were originally planned for January but have been moved to May instead and we have been very busy building our new robot and making the changes to our arena so that it is updated to the new game, Pitching In!

We will update here when the regionals have taken place so stay tuned!