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lisa ward
Well-Being Week

STEAM

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STEM Paper Challenge Number 1 in 5th and 6th class

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Every Friday this year in 5th and 6th class we will complete a STEM challenge. This week, we took on the challenge of designing and making basketball stand which will hold a basketball as high off the ground as possible, using only paper and sticky tape. A fair test was designed where stands would be placed on the even floor at the front of the classroom. We also agreed that a 5 second holding rule applied for entries to be validated as fitting their purpose. Groups were given 20 minutes to complete this challenge.

Take a look at some of the interesting creations below…

In our classroom, our early finishers area contains an extension of this activity for the coming week. Alternative STEM challenges will also be provided in this area to challenge students who wish to take on additional challenges without having other models to base their designs off.

Balloon Cars

During the week we were designing and making balloon powered cars with the help of a past pupil of the school.  Each of the children made their car using a plastic bottle, a balloon, straws, bottle lids and skewers.  We had great fun trying them out in the classroom.

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Our Humpty Dumpty Challenge

This week in Junior Infants we did a number of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths activities from our class wonder wall. 

On Monday the children completed the Humpty Dumpty challenge.  They were tasked with designing a protective device to take Humpty Dumpty (or in this case some hard boiled eggs) safely to the ground without it cracking.

First of all we discussed how we could protect the eggs.  We talked about the materials we might use.

We then designed a fair test, with the eggs all being dropped from an agreed height which was the same for each group.

Each group then worked together to sketch their designs and to formulate a plan.

Groups used a variety of materials to protect their eggs and when time was up we all predicted what the outcomes would be.  Cracked or not cracked. 

Our results were that two groups had eggs which cracked and three groups had eggs which did not crack. It was a very enjoyable activity.

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Designer Minds Workshop

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Today the children from 1st-6th class had a visit from a facilitator from Designer Minds to do a STEAM workshop with the children. STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, art and maths.

Today’s workshop focused on engineering and the children were set a challenge to build a town or city in groups. The children had to work together and think about what buildings they would need in their city, what facilities they needed to provide and had to give serious consideration to their design. They created some really impressive cities!


For anyone who is interested, Designer Minds will be running summer courses in Wicklow town and you can find more information on their website by clicking here

Microsoft Dreamspace Trip

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5th and 6th class had a very exciting trip to the Microsoft offices today and got to take part in the Dreamspace programme. Read all about their day!

We were greeted like royalty when we arrived with our name on the huge screen in the entrance hall. We got a tour of the ground floor of the building. The people who work there have five restaurants, a hairdressers, a yoga room and a gym with four personal instructors! They even have a fridge beside their offices that they can help themselves to all day long. No one in Microsoft has their own desk, they just use which ever desk is free and they always work as a team. I like the way that no one is ever on their own.

Following the tour of the main floor we began our Dreamspace experience.

We had a demonstration for our guide, Ben, and he explained some things to us about artificial intelligence and clever ways that technology is used in today’s world to help improve and make peoples lives easier. We saw how AI can help people who have vision or hearing impairments and we had a chance to think about how technology could possible help us in the future. We had a hands on session where we got to explore some features of the Microsoft coding program and really enjoy exploring the endless possibilities of the program.

We had great fun, but it wasn’t over yet. We got treated to a yummy lunch and got a goodie bag each before we left. It really was a fantastic day out and we want to send a huge thank you to Microsoft for treating us so well!