Bodyke National School

Science Fair 2015

We had a fantastic time at this years science fair held at the AZuburn Lodge Hotel. In excess of 420 pupils participated from primary schools from all across the county. It was a huge success!

Everyone received a certificate of participation and the school received a fantastic plaque for our wall, kindly awarded by Pat Hanrahan from the Clare Education centre, Michael Browne from PDST, Sean Lenihan, chairman of Engineers Ireland and John Conlon from the Clare Hurling Team.

Here are some photos from the event. Check out our photos page for more.

Air & Water Science Workshop

Bodyke NS was delighted to welcome back Michael Browne, PDST, to our school today. He spent 3 hours taking our students through an impressive, interactive science workshop on Air & Water. We asked questions, made hypotheses, predicted outcomes, carried out our experiments, discussed our findings and had a lot of fun investigating. Thank You for a fun-filled morning!

Bodyke NS has also been invited to take part in the Science Fair 2015 in the Auburn Lodge on Monday 2nd March. More details to follow. Check out our photos page to see more

Lego WeDo

1st to 6th class are learning how to code using Our Lego WeDo kits! They are having lots of fun Connecting, Constructing, Contemplating, Continuing and Collaborating

Hour of Code Event

Bodyke NS is helping to put Ireland on the map globally and raise the profile of Ireland as a digital economy by running an Hour of Code event!

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.

The grassroots campaign goal is for tens of millions of students to try an Hour of Code during December 8-14, 2014, in celebration of Computer Science Education Week and in Ireland, if we achieve 500+ sign ups, we will be placed on the global leader board.

Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path.

Anyone can organise an Hour of Code event. Look up www.code.org to find out how easy it is

I’m a Scientist Get me Out of Here! – Live Chat

We had a fantastic whole school live chat with 3 scientists for science week 2014 today thanks to I’m a Scientist!

The classroom became a buzz of activity as students from Juniors to 6th class pitted against the scientists in a live round of intense, fast-paced, quick fire online chat.

What a buzz of excitement. Check out the photos page for more…

Scratchjr – Coding for Kids.

1st and 2nd class were using all their problem solving skills learning Scratchjr for Science week!! Thanks to Rhys for giving them some peer tutoring and showing them examples of what Scratchjr can do.

Science Experiments Galore!

Ms McNamara enthused the senior room with a series of science experiments for Science Week 2014

I’m A Scientist Get me Out of Here!

We are planning ahead for science week which will be running this year from 10^th to the 14^th November 2014. One of the activities we will be getting involved in is I’m a Scientist Get me out of Here!. This is a free online event where school students meet and interact with scientists. It’s an X Factor-style competition between scientists, where the students are the judges. Students challenge the scientists over fast-paced online live chats. They ask the scientists anything they want, and vote for their favourite scientist to win a prize of €500 to communicate their work with the public.

Science Fair – February 5th 2014

Congratulations to all the students of Bodyke N.S. who received a ‘Certificate of Participation’ in the Clare Education Centre Science Fair 2014.

Everyone had a great night demonstrating how experiments work and learning about new experiments from students in other schools.

A special thanks goes to all parents who continously support and encourage the children and those who drove to the Auburn Lodge and helped out at the Bodyke N.S. science table.

We have wonderful young scientists in Bodyke N.S. well done!

A Great Day in Scariff Community College

We had a great Science Week in November. Four of our students were very busy at home, receiving great help, working on Science activities.

Today, the students spent the morning in Scariff Community College, experiencing and taking part in wonderful experiments. A special thanks to Ms. McNamara and Mr. Crossan for organising the day and Mr. Coyle for giving the students a day they will remember for a long time.

Have a look at the photos – can you see the safety glasses, bunsen burners, litmus paper, test tubes, magnets, iron, and sulphur?

Not only did the students experience brilliant experiments, they were presented with certificates to recognise their hard work during Science Week.

Choose the next Science Project

‘The Coin Challenge’.

Think about, weight and force when carrying out this experiment.

There was evidence of teamwork, observing, predicting and analysing during this challenging experiment.

Have a look at our young scientists in action.

Science Week 2013 may be finished, keep an eye on the website for simple experiments that can be carried out at home.

Some of these experiments may be carried out on ‘Science Friday’.

On Friday November 22nd students will finish making ‘water containers’ which will be used to measure rainfall.

Certificates will be handed out to students who brought in their experiments or sent in pictures, thanks to everyone who took part.

 Science Week 2013 in Bodyke N.S.

THANKS TO ALL OUR ‘SCIENTISTS’ FOR THE SUPER DISPLAYS!

Parachute

  Activity 1

  Activity 1

Activity 1

Activity 3

  Activity 3

Activity 2

An excellent step by step process of ‘Activity 4’

** You must bring in a photo of your experiment or the experiment to receive your certificate. We recently looked at finger prints. One of our students showed us another way of using our finger prints. Have a look at this wonderful picture. Well done to one of our students who made a powerpoint presentation on ‘Volcanoes and Earthquakes’. Click on the link this link to see the great work. Volcanoes and Earthquakes.

• What you need
  1. 4 raw eggs (same size).
  2. Pencil.
  3. Glass.
  4. Scissors.
  5. Sheet of A4 paper.
  6. Ruler.
  7. Heavy books.
• Using the pencil, draw a line around the widest part of one of the eggs.
• Crack the pointed part of the egg. Pour the contents into a glass (you could use these eggs to make a nicehealthy omelette).
• Carefully break off the pieces of the eggshell down to near the pencilled line. Use a scissors to nip off the shell near the line. Try and keep the rim of the shell as even as possible.
• Repeat steps 1 to 3 with the other 3 eggs.
• Draw a rectangle on a sheet of paper (about 18 cm by 12 cm).
• Place one of the egg shells on each corner of the rectangle, with the cut edges facing down.
• Carefully place a heavy book on top of the eggshells.

• Activity 5 – ‘Make Your Own Paddle Boat’.

• You will need –

1. Plastic drink bottle.
2. 2 long pencils.
3. Elastic band.
4. Plastic tub lid.
5. Sellotape.
6. Basin of water.

• Tape two pencils exactly opposite each other on two sides of the water bottle. The pencils need to extend about 10 cm past the bottom of the bottle.
• Cut a paddle from the plastic tub lid. Make it 2.5 cm x 5 cm.
• Loop the rubber band over the end of each pencil.
• Insert the paddle between the sides of the rubber band.
• Turn the paddle round and round towards you, to wind the rubber band.
• Place the boat in the basin of water and release the paddle.

Activity 4 ‘Make a Hanging Cake for Birds’.

• You will need –

1. Plastic cups for measuring.
2. Mixing bowl.
3. Large spoon.
4. String.
5. 250g container (recycled container).
6. 30cm ruler.
7. Scissors.
8. Butter knife.
9. Peanuts/Sunflower seeds, Fat (Lard), Crumbs (from old bread, cake, biscuits or cornflakes)

• With an adult’s help melt about 125g of cooking fat in a saucepan. Allow it to cool and then stir in the following: 75g crumbs & 50g peanuts and a small handful of sunflower seeds.

• Now take a clean, round plastic margarine carton (250g size) and make a small hole in the centre of the base. Through this thread a 30cm length of string. Leave a small end below the hole and tie into a knot.
• Next spoon in the crumb mixture around the string and press down firmly. When the tub is full, place a saucer on the top and refrigerate overnight. To un-mould the cake, turn it upside down and tap the base. If necessary, widen the hole to allow the knot through.
• Find a tree in your school garden or yard and tie the cake on to a branch. After a while many birds should come to feed.

Activity 3 – ‘Yeast Balloon’.

• What makes bread wise?
• You will need –

1. A packet of yeast from a shop (or ask if there is some in your kitchen).
2. A small, clean, plastic bottle.
3. One teaspoon of sugar.
4. Some warm water.
5. A small balloon.
6. A pen.
7. A notebook.

• Blow up the balloon and let the air out a few times to stretch it out.
• Pour about two centimetres of warm water into the plastic bottle.
• Add the yeast to the bottle and swirl it all around to mix.
• Add the sugar to the bottle, and swirl this around too.
• Stretch the balloon over the neck of the bottle, and put it in a warm place for twenty minutes.

What has happened? Can you explain why it has happened? Would the same effect happen without sugar? What would happen if you put the bottle in the fridge? Enjoy!!

Activity 2 – ‘Under Your Feet’.

• Get a piece of cardboard.
• Place your foot on the cardboard, draw the outline of your foot and cut it out.
• If you are allowed outside, place the cardboard cutting on the ground and leave for 2-3 minutes.
• Pick up the cardboard and see what living creatures appear!
• Draw a picture or make a list of what you see and it will be posted up on the school website.
• If you are going for a walk in different areas make sure you bring your cardboard cutting.
• Good luck to everyone!

Activity 1 – Make a ‘Music Maker’.

• Make a collection of plastic bottles all the same size.
• Put different amounts of water in each bottle.
• Make different sounds by blowing across the top of the bottles.
• Can you put the bottles in order from the lowest note to the highest?
• You will have made a musical instrument.

• See if you can make a tune.

If the sound is not quite right, try adding a little more water or taking some out to make the sound that you need. Challenge yourself – Can you think of any other things that you could use to make music? Here are some bottles that were used to make musical instruments. High notes and low notes were made, well done and thanks to all who helped!

Angles help us make rockets

Welcome to the new ‘Science Friday’ page.

As part of the ‘Greenwave Signs of Spring Project’ (www.greenwave.ie), we will be carrying out a fun but challenging science experiment every Friday.

We will integrate Maths into our experiments, which will enable us to use what we learn in the classroom and in the Maths Club.

Also as part of the ‘Greenwave Signs of Spring Project’, if you or your child observe the horse chestnut, the hawthorn, the ash, the primrose, the swallow and frogspawn, please take a photograph or bring in evidence of your observations as we will be submitting the project early next year.

*Remember you cannot remove frogspawn from its habitat, a photograph will suffice.

Shapes help us make parachutes

Using length we can see what distance we can move a can through friction

This page has the following sub pages.

• Scoil Ghlas