Science Week in Mercy Primary School

Science Week in Mercy Primary School ran from Monday 10^th November to Friday 14^th November. All the teachers and students worked very hard, had a great week and learned a lot. It finished with “Science Day” on Friday and we invited all our parents to the school to see what we had done.

Here is a little bit of what happened in each class.

Junior Infants did 3 experiments – Dancing Raisins, Floating and Sinking and Magnets. They learned about raisins dancing in 7-up but not water, what floats and what sinks and what materials are magnetic.

In Senior Infants, there were 5 experiments. They had a working volcano and they used vinegar, bread soda and red food colouring for this. They learned why trees have seeds, all about magnets, they learned about our sense of smell and they experimented to see if rice could dance!!!

In 1^st class some of the experiments were on how soap bubbles are made, which objects roll and how to call a duck! Like the infants, they loved having their parents to look at what they did.

In 2^nd class there were many experiments such as “How strong are our bones?”, “How good is your sense of smell?”, “Can an egg bounce?” – it can!!! They made rockets out of balloons, duck sounds from straws, dancing raisins and experimented to see if a lime would float or sink. They really had a great day. Some girls even dressed up as scientists.

3^rd class were divided into 5 different groups. One of the experiments was “Diving Drops and Sinking Feelings”. This was investigating which liquids are lighter or heavier than others. Other experiments were “Musical Sounds”, “Bottle Sounds”, “Don’t Sink a Boat” and “Double Balloon Static”.

In 4^th class there were 4 groups. Their main theme was electricity. They made small lighthouses, they used and explained Morse Code, investigated insulators and conductors and checked what liquids are lighter/heavier than water.

5^th class went to the library during Science Week and put “Sugru” on broken objects. It stuck them back together!!! That was very interesting. They also spent time looking up famous Irish inventors. Then they were split into 7 groups. Some of the experiments they did were about water pressure, sounds and vibrations, mirror writing and making a volcano erupt. That was messy! They went down to the PE hall along with the two 6^th classes and set up their projects for the parents to see.

Mrs. Fitzgerald’s 6^th class was split into 5 groups. They did some very interesting experiments including: aerodynamics – explaining how planes fly, how worms can see with light even though they have no eyes, comparing spices in relation to food preservation and acid rain and its effects on our lifestyle. They also made a water-bottle rocket which was hugely popular.

Ms. Enright’s 6^th class was also split into 5 groups. The projects they did were designing a bridge, finding how many grams of sugar was in certain foods, foam rockets, why apples turn brown and excellent eggs along with the power of air. There was a lot of learning and fun had in both classes.

Mrs. Murray made “gak” and bubbles to teach about different materials. The bubbles were made of water and glycerine (liquid sugar). Gak looked like a liquid but it was a solid. It was made of cornflour and water. It was really cool. It made some mess!

In the afternoon, we invited the parents to see what we had done and learned. We had a big crowd and we were very pleased. We gave the parents a comment sheet and asked them to write what they thought of our day. The comments were so positive! We also had a raffle for the parents with lots of lovely Science prizes.

Everyone had a great day and we want to thank our teachers for working really hard. Science Day was a huge success.

Article written by: Alicja Piotrowska, Bonnie Stevenson, Grace Hoare and Alex Brady.