Our Army Visitor

Visit from an Army
Sergeant, 23rd January, 2008

One of the Dads in our class came to tell us all about being in the army. He showed us some army things and he explained how they all work. He uses a lot of science in his job. Here are some of the science topics he covered in his talk:

· Torches: how it takes 40 minutes to get your night vision working. If you use a torch then your night vision is affected so instead of a white torch you should use a red torch.
· How a compass works, how the needle always points North and how there are three North Poles, magnetic, real and grid poles.
· Protecting our eyes and ears, and using a gas mask.
· Chemical glow sticks. Bending the stick will start the chemical reaction and it will glow for up to eight hours.
· Cooking outdoors, essential diet and nutrition. Getting enough liquids.
· Surviving outdoors, staying warm and dry. Making a camp.
· Camouflage and camouflage paint.
· First aid kits.

Planting spring bulbs

We potted some spring bulbs today. We wonder what they will look like when they grow and we wonder how long it will take them to grow. We have left them near the window so they will have enough light, and we will remember to water them regularly.

Frisbee Time

Flying Frisbees, Monday, 21st January, 2008

Flying frisbees is a lot of fun.

Thanks to the Education Centre who gave a frisbee to each child who helped host the Science Open Day on Friday.

Science Open Day (R.4 & R.5)

The children and teachers of Room 5 (Ms. McLoughlin) and Room 4 (Mrs. Newell) hosted our Science Open Day.
We started our display at 9am and went on for about an hour and a half. We had 32 experiments on display.

Other experiments we have done this year were in booklets which the adults could have a look at.

It was very good fun displaying the experiments and lots of children and teachers from other classes came to have a look, along with our mums and dads and other local people.

Some of our interestered visitors included the principal and teachers from our senior school, our chairman (a former chemistry lecturer from GMIT), a former physics lecturer from GMIT, and Mr. Richie Byrne from the Galway Education Centre. Well done to all for showing so much interest in our science experiments.

Magnetic Cars

Magnetic Cars, Thursday, 17th January, 2008
We made magnetic cars. These are the things we need to make the cars: Magnets, straws, wheels, rods, sticky tape, boxes.We can make them move by putting a magnet beside them.
4 hands are better than two for a job like this!

Fingerprints

Examining Fingerprints, Tuesday, 15th January, 2008

To see our fingerprints we made a pencil smudge on a piece of paper.
We stuck a finger in the smudge and then onto sticky tape.
We then put this tape on to a piece of paperWe used magnifying glasses to examine our prints for cusps, ridges, loops and splits.

Thirsty Celery 2

Thirsty Celery, Tuesday, 15th January, 2008
After only one day we can see that the celery has been drinking the
different coloured food dyes.
The celery in the yellow dye drank the yellow dye right up the celery stalk.
The celery that was half in red dye and half in red dye now has a nice two coloured stalk.

More Volcanoes

Volcano, Monday, 14th January, 2008
We can make a great volcano with bread soda and vinegar. This experiment works even better with wash up liquid. The lava flows for longer and more slowly.
This time we put vinegar in the bottle and the bread soda in the balloon. The balloon blows up when the bread soda falls in on top of the vinegar. This is because the gas given off from the experiment blows up the balloon.

Thirsty Celery

Thirsty Celery, Monday, 14th January, 2008
We put celery sitting in yellow food colouring. We wonder what will happen?

We put this celery in two different colours. What will happen to it?

Static Electricity

Static Electricity, Monday, 14th January, 2008
We can make static electricity by rubbing a balloon on our hair.

Then the static electricity will stick the balloon to the wall.

We can use the static balloon to pick up pieces of paper.
It’s a hair raising experience.

Air Pressure

Air Pressure, Monday, 14th January, 2008
If we put 2 directories together, then hold them by their spines, it is really hard to pull them apart. This is because the air pressure on the pagers makes the two directories stick together well.
It is easy to knock a ruler off a table. Just a little tap will do, unless you spread newspaper on top. The air pressure pushing down on the paper makes it hard to knock the ruler. The bigger the piece of paper you have, the harder it is to knock the ruler.

Floating coins

Floating Coins Monday, 14th January, 2008Look at the two coins in this basin! The strange thing is that I only put one coin in the basin. Why can we see 2? We can see 2 coins because of the refraction of light. The coin is actually on the bottom of the basin but the water in the basin bends the light so it looks like there is also a coin floating on the top of the water.
We played a game. We tried to cover the coins at the bottom with other coins. It is so hard to do because the light is bent so we never really know where the coins are.

Lazy Coin

For this experiment you need a cup, a piece of cardboard and a coin.

When we flick the card, the lazy coin falls into the cup.

This is due to inertia. The coin stays where it is even though the card is gone. Gravity then causes it to fall into the cup.

Floating Needle

Things like a needle, a paper clip and a pin sink if you put them in water. We can get them to float by putting them on bits of tissue.

When the tissue gets wet and sinks, the needle and paper clip continue to float (the pin was too heavy). This is because the surface tension of the water keeps them floating.

Diving Drops and Sinking Feelings

Oil and water don’t mix. Oil sits on top of water because it’s lighter.

If we put syrup in the cup too it sinks to the bottom because it’s heavy. If we put a few drops of food colouring into the cup the coloured drops sit under the oil and over the water for a while, but will burst and sink to the bottom after a while.

Erupting Volcano

We put bread soda into a small bottle. (We also added red food colouring for effect, and wash up liquid for bubbles). Nothing happened yet.

Next Thomas poured in vinegar and the volcano exploded, sending out bubbly red lava. This is because bread soda and vinegar have a chemical reaction together, giving off lots of bubbles (of carbon dioxide).