Science - 1st & 2nd Classes 2017/2018

5th June 2018
We have been learning about different sources of light in science this week. We investigated Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and how they are good for the environment as they use a lot less electricity than standard bulbs. We had lots of different LEDs and grouped them according to the colour light they emitted.

25th May 2018
Chris brought us in an empty eggshell which he had found. It measured 5cm by 3cm approx and was pure white with no markings. We checked it out on the internet and reckon that it is belonging to a woodpigeon.

24th April 2018
We are learning about the effects of heat on matter this week. We carried out two experiments to demonstrate some effects.

​1. We placed a balloon over the mouth of a glass bottle and carefully put the bottle into a basin of boiling water. The balloon started to inflate......Wow! This is because the air in the bottle gets heated by the boiling water. When anything is heated the molecules in it get more energy and start to move about more and cause it to expand. In this case the air expands and starts to inflate the balloon.

​2. In the second experiment we took two glasses. We put cold water into one and boiling water into the other. Then we dropped two drops of food colouring into both glasses at the same time. We noticed that the colouring in the glass of hot water spread much quicker than that in the glass of cold water.

21st March 2018
Spring has sprung and we did a concept map on the season.

13th February 2018
We carried out some experiments today which investigated forces in molecules and water. 

We dropped water onto a 1 cent coin. The water formed a "dome" shape. This is caused by the molecules at the surface of a water drop clinging tightly together. This is called ​Surface tension

We half filled a ziplock bag with water and sealed it. Then we stuck sharply pointed pencils through the bag. Amazingly, no water came out.

This is becasue the bag is made of long chains of molecules called polymers. When the pencil is pushed through the polymers they make a very good seal around the pencil and so the water can't come out.

We half filled a glass with water. Then we put a Match Attax card over the mouth of the glass. Then Mr. Musgrave carefully turned the glass upside down while holding the card in place.

Brave Oisín "volunteered" to stand under the glass. When Mr. Musgrave took his hand away the water did not spill all over Oisín. Wow!

This happens because even though we don't feel it the air around us exerts pressure. The pressure of the air on the card is enough to stop the weight of the water from pushing the card down.

​We carefully placed a paper-clip onto the surface of a bowl of water. The paper-clip floated. This is because the force of the surface tension caused by the molecules of water at the surface 

24th January 2018
We have been learning about the history of photography this week. 

The first photograph was taken nearly 200 years ago in 1826 by a man called Nicéphore Niépce.

The first photograph featuring a person was taken in Paris in 1938 by a man called Louis Daguerre.

Below is an old Kodak Brownie Camera from the 1960s. This used photo sensitive film which you had to get developed (usually in a chemists). One of the photos below shows the negative film and the photograph developed from it. Thanks to Ms. Butler who brought in the Brownie camera.

Digital photography has mostly replaced films now. Most people don't use cameras anymore. Instead they take photographs on their smart-phones.

January 2018
We are studying why certain things float and others sink this week.

Did you know that an orange will float but a peeled orange will sink?

17th November 2017
Below is an incredibly detailed image of the moon taken especially for Manister National School on the TARA Telescopes in Blackrock Observatory, Cork during Space Week at the beginning of last October. Blackrock Observatory have sent us a large print of the image which is on display in our classroom.

There are lots of craters visible on the image. There are way more craters on the moon than on earth as the earth has an atmosphere  which burns up any asteroids before they hit earth - lucky us! The moon has no atmosphere so is frequently hit by asteroids resulting in the many craters you can see.

November 16th - Can eight balloons support the weight of 11 pupils?
As part of Science Week we investigated how many pupils a balloon could support before it burst. To do this first we put just one balloon under an upturned table and Shane stood on the table. The balloon burst.

Then we put eight balloons under the table and Shane got up on the table again. We had four pupils holding each of the legs of the table for safety. This time no balloon burst. This is because Shane's weight is distributed across eight balloons rather than one.

Then we tried to find out how many pupils the eight balloons would support before they burst. One by one we got up on the table.
2 pupils - OK.
4 pupils - no burst balloons yet.
6 pupils - it's getting squashed on the table but the balloons are holding out.
8 pupils - some nervous faces but no burst balloons yet.
10 pupils - we can't believe it but still no burst balloons.
11 pupils - the first balloon bursts.

Who would have thought 8 balloons could support the weight of eleven pupils. Again this is because the downward force of our weight is distributed across the eight balloons rather than being concentrated on a single balloon.

​The same theory explains how you can walk on a layer of eggs without breaking them or how people can lie on a bed of nails without getting injured.

November 10th - All about hedgehogs.
We have been learning all about hedgehogs and found some very interesting facts. Did you know that:-

• Baby hedgehogs are called hoglets.
• A hedgehogs spikes are called quills.
• Hedgehogs have between 5000 and 7000 quills.
• Hedgehogs have poor sight but good sense of smell. They can smell a worm up to 3cm under the surface.
• Hedgehogs are blind when they are born.
• If you give a hedgehog milk it will make it sick. Try dog food or cat food instead.
• A group of hedgehogs is called an Array of Hedgehogs.
• Adult hedgehogs are about 25cm long.

See our word-web below for some other information.

We then drew our own hedgehogs. 

Here is a video of some cute and funny hedgehogs.

November 6th - Do Plants Need Light to Grow?
We set some lettuce leaves two weeks ago and put two pots on the window and two pots in a press to find out if plants can grow without light.

Results:-
- Window: Plants are a good green colour and are growing well. See photo on the left below.
- Press:      Plants grew but were pale and weak and are now dying. See photo on the right below.

Conclusion:-
Plants need light to grow.

October 20th - Oisín in Tír na nÓg
We have been reading the famous Irish myth about Oisín and Tír na nóg and created our own 17 frame storyboard frieze to tell the story.

October 12th - The Inside of a Castle
We have been learning about the different parts of medieval castles castle in geography today.

We made a word web of words we knew about castles beforehand (black) and added the new words we learnt (red).

This is a plan map of a castle and shows the names of the various rooms.

This is a model of a castle that a previous class in the school built.

Soil Investigation
We investigated the soil in our school yard.

Firstly we made a Word Web of all the words we could think of which were related to soil. Then we collected soil samples from different parts of the school grounds. We then mixed the samples with water, gave them a good shake and left them for a number of days to see what would happen.

We noticed the following:-

• Not all soils are the same. The soil from the vegetable bed was very different to the soil from the strawberry bed. Mr Musgrave told us the soil in the strawberry bed was actually compost and not soil.
• When we shook the water and soil in the jar the water became dirty. This was because small bits of soil were floating in the water.
• After an hour the water had become clearer but was still cloudy. After two days the water was almost completely clear. This was because most of the small bits of soil in the water had fallen to the bottom.
• After two days we could see three layers. The bottom layer was the soil. In the middle was clear water. At the top was bits of leaves, grass and other bits of vegetation.
• There was a lot more bits in the top layer of the compost sample. This is because compost has lots of vegetation that is not fully turned into soil yet.
• The sample from The Den had lots of pine needles in it. This was because there is an evergreen tree near here and this drops the pine needles onto the soil.

Thursday Sept 28th.
We have been learning about milk and how it gets from the cow to our table. Milk is very important for your bones as it has lots of calcium in it which your bones need to grow strong.
​
One of the uses of milk is to make butter. We made our own butter using whipping cream and jars with lids. After lots of shaking the butter forms a ball in the jar. We poured out the leftover liquid (called butter-milk) and put the butter into a bowl. Then we had our own butter with with crackers - yum!

Watch us saying a tongue twister called Betty Bother's Butter.

Tuesday Sept 12th.
We have been hearing a lot about hurricanes Harvey and Irma on the news so decided to find out a little more about them. Here are some interesting facts about hurricanes:-

• Hurricanes are huge storms. They can be twice the size of Ireland.
• The centre of the hurricane is called the eye and this is calm.
• Hurricanes are named after people. The names follow the alphabet and they go girl, boy, girl, boy... etc.
• Hurricanes form over warm water near the equator so will never happen near Ireland.
• Hurricanes can reach speeds of up to 320 kilometers per hour.

We made some Hurricane Art which you can look at here.

We made our own "Hurricane in a Bottle". A tube of air, called a vortex, is made between the two bottles. This enables the water to go down the outside and the air to go up the inside at the same time. Without this vortex the water would just stay in the top bottle as the air in the bottom bottle would block it. Here is Peadar demonstrating it.

Tuesday Sept 5th.
We went on a mini-beast search in the school grounds today. We found:-

• Caterpillar eggs on the wall and under a window ledge
• Caterpillars eating our cabbage plants and kale
• Woodlice under stones and under an old roof tile
• Worms in the vegetable beds
• Spiders around the windows
• Lots of daddy-long-legs
• A fly caught in a spider's web
• Midges
• Flys on the wall
• Midges
• Flys
• The remains of an old chrysalis

There is a wonderful bio-diversity of wildlife in our school. We will keep an eye on the caterpillar eggs to see what happens them over the winter.