We marked ‘Science Week’ from Monday 8th to Friday 12th November last week.  

There was a variety of science activities investigated and explored in each class this year including; a range of science experiments, bug hunts, science shows, our virtual Science Showcase, and much more. 

Create Our Future 

The whole school took part in a Create Our Future Design Competition. The pupils in each class were tasked to design something that they feel will aid future research in schools or homes. There were some very creative designs in each class and winners were awarded small prizes. All participants were presented with Science Week certificates too. Well done to all who took part. 

The gallery below displays a snapshot of some of the other Science activities in the classes during Science Week 2021.

Science Activities around the school

Junior Infants, 1st Class, and 2nd Class explored our garden habitat for bugs and minibeasts. 

2nd Class investigated the bond between milk and washing up liquid during the rainbow colours experiment. Also, they explored electricity and investigated the paper towel colour mixing experiment.   

3rd Class made their own “magical potion” creating a chemical reaction using the following ingredients vinegar, baking soda, washing up liquid, and food colouring. It was certainly a messy one but great fun!! 

5th Class explored the butter-making process and it turned out really tasty too !!  

6th Class Mad Scientist Showcase

6th Class completed a Virtual Mad Scientist Showcase through using Zoom this year for all the classes to view.

It was an amazing show and the class did a great job explaining each experiment. The groups made elephant toothpaste and oblek, created a volcano explosion, made their own rain cloud, showcased the skittles experiment, created an explosion between coca-cola and mentos, and much more.

Well done everybody, it was certainly a Science Week to remember !!

We marked ‘Maths Week’ this week, from Monday  18th October to Friday 22nd October.  

We have had a very busy week in Knockskeagh doing lots of different maths activities!

We had maths games in the school hall on Monday, a ‘Maths Eyes’ trail finding 2D and 3D shapes all around the school on Tuesday and an orienteering maths code-breaker challenge on Thursday!

There were Maths art, quizzes, and other activities in some of the classes as well. 

It really was great fun discovering maths all around our school during the week!!

We celebrated ‘Space Week’ from Monday  4th of October to Friday 8th of October last week. 

This year, we introduced the “Space Booklet” for all pupils in our school. The Space booklet was packed full of space facts, information, puzzles, colouring sheets, and much more. During the week, the pupils worked on their booklets which led to some fascinating discussions about Space. 

As well as this there were many Space Week themed activities in all classes during ‘Space Week’ this year including; space engineering projects, art, poetry, experiments, space facts, and much more. 

Please see a snapshot of some of the Space activities in the classes during Space Week 2021.

 More Space Week photos to follow soon……..

We have just received the great news that our school has been awarded its ninth ‘Award of Science and Maths Excellence’ for the school year 2020/21.

We are extremely proud of this award, as it once again demonstrates the work done in Science & Maths throughout the school.

This is some of the feedback that we received for this year’s award,

“Excellent work Knockskeagh NS. You are deserving recipients of the DPSM Plaque Award for your STEM work this year. You engaged with a very wide range of activities as illustrated comprehensively in your submission.

I really liked that you also documented your STEM activities on your Web Site thus sharing with the community outside the school – an excellent showcase opportunity.

Your video presentations for the Sciene showcase must have been watched by many.

You did trojan work, 4th class establishing a school garden and a pond – I’m sure the wildlife in Knockskeagh will be delighted with you.

Well done on getting local engineers on board with your STEM activities too, I’m sure the engineer was pleasantly surprised with “Lorky Bridge” construction and its weight-bearing potential during the Bridge Building event.

You should also be very proud of your Environmental awareness project “Lights Out”.

Keep up the good work”

Congratulations to all staff and pupils who participated in the programme especially second class teacher Mr Denis Murphy who compiled our submission.

Please check out our dedicated Discover Primary Science and Maths page on the Awards section of our website for more information on our submission.

Bridge Building

Knockskeagh recently hosted a bridge building competition. The competition this year involved all 6th class pupils.

The students’ task was to work in teams against one another to build the strongest bridge. They were provided with just lollipop sticks and glue guns.

The teams used their engineering skills to design and construct each bridge.

After the completion of the construction of each bridge, the testing of the bridges began. Each bridge had weights applied to it, to establish each bridge’s “Failure Load”.

The overall winners were eventually announced as pupils Olive O’Connell, Kerry Coombes, Leah Egan, and Riona O’Toole.

Their bridge named “Lorky Bridge” was able to hold 20kg which was just over 39 times its own weight. This was an amazing achievement in engineering design and construction.

Along with their name now being etched on the engineering challenge trophy,  the winning team also won a number of small prizes. Well done to all who participated in this project.

We’d like to thank Declan O’Shea Engineer in Dunmanway who sponsored the “Engineering Challenge Trophy” a few years ago. 

Please see our gallery below for a sample of the excellent design and construction of this year’s bridges.

Beach Day

Our 1st and 2nd class visited Red Strand Beach on Monday the 21st of June.

They completed a number of science investigations including;

• Sorting man-made and natural objects
• Measuring wavelength
• Is there iron in the sand?
• How is sand made?
• What’s in the water?

After this, they explored the rockpool areas at the beach known as the intertidal zone. They found and learned about limpet, dog whelk, mussels, barnacles, kelp, anemone, and 3 different types of seaweed. Also, each class was shown how to identify the low tide and high tide marks. They learned about the tides ebbing and flowing too.

After lunch, they had a visit from Mairéad O Donovan from the Scoil an Mara video series. Mairéad was greeted with great excitement. Thank you Mairéad for taking the time to visit and being so patient when chatting to pupils and answering their questions.

Each class finished the day by engaging in a number of games on the beach and sand art. Also, they took the time to pick up some litter around the beach. At Knockskeagh National School, we are advocates of “Leave no trace”.

It was a very enjoyable day for all, made all the better by the beautiful sunshine.

Please see our gallery below for a sample of the fun had by the classes on their beach visit.