In early March we did an experiment called, ‘How clean are your hands?’. We wanted to see how important it is to wash your hands and what happens when you don’t.
We used some bread and rubbed it on lots of different surfaces; clean hands, dirty hands, sanitised hands, door handles and table tops to name a few.
We were monitoring our bread very closely for a week and then school had to close.
We didn’t get to check on our bread for a little while but we managed to get some photos 3 weeks later and you can see for yourself from the pictures what the bread looked like.
What did we learn? Cleaning your hands definitely makes a big difference! Look how many different types of bacteria had grown on the ‘door handle’ bread and the ‘table top’ bread. Can you imagine if we didn’t wash our hands regularly and then we went around and touched all of those door handles and table tops? I don’t think our hands would be too clean – that’s how germs can spread!
It was a pity that we couldn’t monitor our project more closely over the past few weeks but it is definitely food for thought…how clean are your hands?
Laura M
Look at these impressive marble runs created by Fiona’s Senior Infants. We think they are very impressive. I’m sure there was lots of fun after all the hard work building them.
Bernadette’s second class had great fun drawing stick men on plates and then watching them float and dance when water was added. We discovered that the ink in white board markers is insoluble which means it can’t dissolve in water and is less dense than water. When we poured water onto the stickmen we had drawn on a smooth plate surface, the strong buoyancy force pulled the stickmen off the surface causing them to float on the water.
Jim’s 5th Class went around the school to survey other classes in order to get the data for their Bar Charts. They asked the other children things like; What is your favourite season? What is your favourite animal? Which movie genre is your favourite?
Have a look at their impressive Bar Charts. They are a very easy way to read information.
Most of the Bar Charts are vertical but one is horizontal. Can you spot it?
They earned this certificate after completing their hour of code. Well done. Did you enjoy your Hour of Code?
Emily’s Senior infants are working on the theme of Spring/Farm. We have planted lettuce and corn. We discussed how seeds grow and spoke about compost. We are monitoring their growth and watering them every day.
Senior Infant’s and fourth class came together to study some inspiring women (some linked to technology, science and engineering). Children read and studied the books before designing their poster. Finally, groups showcased their work using the show and tell method with their poster.
Have a look at the pictures of Jim’s 5th Class engineering their bridges. Look very closely and you will see some wonderful planning and design work. There is lots of evidence of team work and careful testing being carried out as well. These are all things that engineers need to do to make sure the things they design are safe and fit for purpose. Well done all. Looks like there are some very strong bridges there.
Annette Sohor (mother to Hannah in 6th and Lydia, a past pupil) and her colleague from IBM came in for a visit on Tuesday 3rd March 2020. Annette spoke about the different types of engineers and highlighted all the different places we can find/ see engineering i.e. traffic lights, wheelchairs, windmills, trains, etc. The children explored the importance of women in engineering and how some of them had already acted like engineers by using Lego and other equipment. Then the children in 3rd class became engineers and came up with their own designs for a water tank. The children were given materials and advised that water tanks are usually up high to create pressure so the water could flow out of the taps. See the attached photos for their designs. Thank you so much Annette.
Griffeen Valley STEAM 