4th class
We have been very busy since Christmas and have much to share with you.
All roads from Ardnagrath National School led to the RDS, Dublin last Tuesday March 5th. Two classes, our 4th class and Mr Coughlin’s 5th and 6th class, were packed and ready to exhibit their science investigations to the masses. After much work and preparation all were excited as well as a little nervous.
We children explored “Are We Funny to be Spending Too Much Money? Can We Taste the Difference?” The children wanted to find out if more expensive branded foods tasted better than their cheaper counter parts and if people can actually taste the difference. Four different foods, baked beans, cereal hoops, digestive biscuits and bananas were taste tested. The children were shocked by the price difference, with the more expensive branded foods costing €11.94 and the cheaper versions costing €3.39 in total. We ran their experiment as a randomised trial, meaning that the participants were divided in the two separate groups. One group would be tasting the expensive versions of the foods and the other would be tasting the cheaper varieties. To ensure that neither group would be influenced in any way, none of the participants knew what the investigation was about and were simply asked to rate the foods from one to ten depending on how much they liked them.
Ratings were then tallied and graphed to give a clear picture in to which foods were preferred. So, what did these budding scientists discover? In three out of the four foods tested, participants preferred the more expensive versions, rating them higher than their cheaper counter parts. This was true for baked beans, digestive biscuits and cereal hoops. When it came to banana, the Fairtrade organic version failed to tingle taste buds, scoring lower than the cheapest bananas available. That said, the children did highlight the importance of purchasing Fairtrade products if possible and were keen to learn more about organic food production in the future. We concluded that yes, although we can taste the difference, it wasn’t by much, and its worth remembering, that the tastier food will not have a tasty price tag. The judges who visited their stand were extremely expressed with our knowledge of the scientific process and said that the standard of their work was particularly impressive. We have also entered this experiment in the START Science Competition
See our full video here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziR1FI6ZELc&t=4s
RDS Science Blast
In History we worked hard as part of our Blue Star EU programme, focusing on the work of different artist in history, all from various EU countries from Monet to Picasso, we all wrote wonderful reports and recreated works of art inspired by our artists.
While keeping busy with our English, Gaeilge and Maths, we had great fun during Seachtain na Gaeilge, learning Amhrán na gCupán and participating in a Tráth na gCeist with other local schools online. We also recently celebrated Wellbeing Week, and took in a 5km walk around locality. Congratulations to Fiona on winning the Wellbeing Poster Competition for our class. We also planted Pumpkins and went on a class walk. That is just to name a few of the fun things we have been up to, there are so many!
We are really looking forward to our last term. Coming up, we’ll have more Gaeilge football, hurling, camogie and swimming. We hope to make the most of the good weather that we’re praying for and plan to work on a mural and some planting outside. Keep checking in here for updates and news!
September - December 2023
It has been a such a busy term! That said, amongst all the hard work we’ve had a lot of fun! In a nutshell, we’ve visited the Lidl Farm in Newbridge, learned about the farm to fork journey and finished it the making homemade pumpkin soup. In History, we’ve learned about the ancient Sumerians and Celts and visited Athlone Castle. We made podcasts in Irish and English and kicked off our Creative Cluster Journey by making Christmas decorations for our other cluster schools, all the while finding time to learn all about multiplication, shapes and data in maths. In geography we learned about extreme weather, different types of homes and mountains in Ireland. In science we learned about the brain, met with different scientists such as surgeons and zoologists in zoom sessions and also developed our ESB Science Blast experiment which we will carry out next term. Its tiring just thinking about all the things we jammed in to our first term of 4 th class, but we look forward to more in the new year!
Athlone Castle Visit
The Lidl Farm Visit
Also, check our podcasts s below!
Happy New Year from all of us here!
Christmas Podcast: https://audio.com/siobhan-flynn-1/audio/christmas-podcast-4th-class
Irish Podcasts: https://audio.com/siobhan-flynn-1/audio/podcast-2-ar-scoil
https://audio.com/siobhan-flynn-1/audio/podcast-1-sa-bhaile
April 5th 2022
Hi everyone!
We have been so busy it is difficult to fit in all that we have been up to or even know where to start!
Alongside keeping on top of our English, Irish and Maths, we have been busy taking part in science and technology exhibitions and competitions. We were delighted to participate in the RTE Ireland’s Future is Mine, a Minecraft Education Edition Competition. We had to reimagine our local area and rebuild it in a more sustainable way. Coding was a big part of it as we had a lot to build and this helped speed things up! Key features in our build included solar panels on all the houses, wind turbines, a bee sanctuary, gardening centre and local farm to produce all our food. Have a look at our video by clicking the link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQUXDtIZP-0
We also participated in the ESB Science Blast. We investigated which snack energises us the best? We tested peanuts, marshmallow, rice cakes, biscuits, crisps and pasta. We built a homemade calorimeter and burned 2g of each snack under 200ml of water in a glass beaker. We tested and compared the initial temperature of the water against the final temperature once the food had completely burned out. The greater the temperature increase the more calories released in heat energy. Peanuts showed to have the greatest stored energy. It was great fun meeting our ESB Science Blast Judge over Zoom and she gave us some wonderful feedback. Thank you to Maria, our kind judge, for her kind words and encouragement. The future of science is safe in our hands!
Young Scienctists Ready to Meet the Judge
Checking the Measurments! Numbers are important in science!
Our homemade Calorimetre
In history we learned all about the Normans in Ireland, the first emperor of china, and the great Irish Famine. We are really looking forward to a trip to Strokestown House and Famine Museum in the new term. We have also really enjoyed taking part the athletics over the past few week in the TUS indoor athletics track. Big thanks to all our coaches there!
We have learned so much so far this year and have had lots of fun! Let’s see what the last term holds for us! Check in here soon to see what we get up to!
September 27th 2021
New year, new teacher and new classroom! It is hard to believe that we are back to school a whole month already! And what a busy month it has been! We jumped straight in to the work. In history we learned all about what schools were like long ago. Did you know that our classroom used to have a fireplace and the boys and girls had to bring turf and wood to keep the fire going every day? We also took a walk down to the where the old Ardnagrath School building was over 60 years ago. It was very interesting to see the old school gateway and to imagine what the building was like long ago.
The old school gateway
We have been learning different passages in Irish, reading and writing them to help us improve our Gaeilge skills. This month it is all about Mé Féin.
In science we looked at how heat is conducted and even did a little experiment to demonstrate heat conducting through metal. We also looked at the different materials used in buildings. Our lovely builders who are working on the new extension were very kind enough to answer some of our questions too. We also made parachutes out of different materials and discovered that plastic is better than tin foil, baking paper and paper towels when it comes to parachute making!
Testing Parachutes made from different materials
We talked a lot on how important it is to be a good friend and how it is important to stay positive. We have had a great start to the year and we are going always try our best, never give up and be the best people we can be! This is going to be an exciting school year! Check back here soon for more news on whay we have been getting up to!
June 2021
It has been a wonderful final couple of months in 4th class, with lots of work, learning and fun!
I know you are all eager to know how we got on with our ESB Science Blast experiment! In a word, it was magnetic stuff! We tested the effect of heat on magnets. We tested a magnets strength at room temperature, from the freezer and after being boiled to 100 degrees Celsius. In order to find out how strong the magnet was, we put the magnet in to 2000 paper clips and then counted and weighed the paper clips is picked up. We found that the magnets strength was less effective when the magnet was heated up, but that it remained the same when placed in a freezer for more than 24 hours. Maybe that’s when people are happy to put their holiday magnets on the fridge??!
Our ESB Science Blast judge, Peter, gave us lots of positive feedback and we were so excited when we were presented with a beautiful trophy! We felt so pleased and proud. Next year, Dublin here we come!!
In June, we also went on a mini school tour to the Athlone Regional Sports Centre Outdoor Fitness Park. The staff members from the Sport Centre were so kind and organised lots of amazing activities! This was topped off by sausages, chicken nuggets ad chips when we got back to the school! Thankfully we had worked up a huge appetite.
As the school year draws to a close, it is nice to have fun memories, good friends and to have learned lots of new things. We didn’t let Covid19 get in our way and have learned to appreciate everything so much more!
5th class, we’re ready for you!
Over and out,
4th Class 2021
Some fun at the Athlone Regional Sport Centre
Class picture with our ESB Science Blass trophy
April 2021
Hi everyone!
It is so good to be back in the classroom again. Learning online is not as much fun as being in school with your friends! That said, we got through so much interesting work when the school was closed. Learning about tropical rainforests, the first emperor of China, building bridges as a STEM activity, and how to divide numbers to name but a few! We also had lots of fun during our Zoom lessons! It was great to work with each other virtually.
We settled nicely in to the run of things two weeks before the Easter holidays, but since the Easter break we have really hit the ground running! We really enjoy taking part in a 5km walk to support the Westmeath GAA Movathon. It was a beautiful day and such fun! We are learning all about the Irish famine and getting stuck in to some science too! While we cannot go to Dublin to showcase in the ESB Science Blast this year, we are excited to take part in it virtually. For our experiment we will be seeing if temperature will affect the strength of magnets. Stay tuned here for more information soon!
It is hard to believe that we are in our final term of 4th class, but we are going to make the most of it, getting out in the fine weather and having as much fun while we learn as we possibly can! We will keep you posted on all that we get up to!
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Happy out on our 5km walk in aid of the Westmeath GAA Movathon
October 2020
It is so good to be back to school and the first couple of months have gone great. It we have all been so careful to keep our distance from each other when in the classroom, remembering to stick to our pods and we are sanitizing and washing our hands all the time! We have been learning all about the Bronze age and schools long ago, how to add and subtract bigger numbers and how to gather and organise data, how to write a report or a procedure and much much more!
The best thing about being back is seeing all our friends again. We all missed each other so much and it is so much more fun learning together than at home!