2nd Class Scoil Nioclais: February 2015

Space

For the month of January we were learning all about space with Mr. Flynn. We completed projects on our Solar System, we learned new songs, had guest speakers, went on a trip to Blackrock Castle Observatory to complete an Alien Workshop with Frances McCarthy and we even had our own space ship in class!

Joe checking that we were going to the correct galaxy!

R2-D2 was helping us in class and teaching us about space.

Fionn and David keeping on top of the engineering jobs!

Emma and Carrie taking the controls of our space ship!

Mr Flynn and all the other astronauts on board

The astronauts having a good time!

One of the songs we were learning during the month was the 'Solar Syatem' song which we all enjoyed learning. See what you think!

We welcomed two guests speakers to our class to learn more about space. First in was Leo's dad Alan who is an astronomer working in Blackrock Castle Observatory. Alan was telling us all about his work which involves studying Blackholes but not just any old blackhole but Massive Blackholes!

Alan also showed us some telescopes that he uses in his work and spoke of the very large telescopes that are used around the world to study our universe. We really enjoyed Alan's visit and Alan brought a poster for each of us to take home, thanks Alan!

Donagh McCarthy also visited us from the Tyndall Institute and spoke to us about the different technologies that are used in space but have their uses in everyday life. It was very interesting and taught us about the amount of time scientist spend in making the different satellites, spacecrafts and technologies that we use in space. We also made a trip to a workshop in Blackrock Castle on Aliens. Frances showed us a short movie in their Star Dome, called 'We are Aliens'. The Star Dome is very exciting and a cool way to watch a movie. Frances also showed different ways to make Akiens using every day objects, like tin foil and pipe cleaners. The best part was making our own alien goo.

We were learning a lot about the 'Race to Space' in the 50's and 60's and about the actual landing on the moon in 1969. We also studied the other Apollo missions and looked at the different rovers that have landed on Mars and the work that they do. The Space Shuttles were also very interesting and what a cool way to come back from space!

We also made our own rockets which we tested in the halla, they were very easy to make and we had a great time testing them. We also used fizzy tablets and water to show how gases force objects upwards. Did you know a rocket needs to reach a speed of 28,000 kms an hour to get through the Earth's atmosphere!

We were also learning about Gravity and how it helps to keep everything in place on Earth but also throughtout the Universe. We recreated a famous experiment by Galileo who wanted to disprove Aristole's theory that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects and such will hit the ground first. Galileo wanted to prove that both objects will hit the ground at the same time, thus showing the effects of the force of gravity and inertia. Galileo was lucky to prove his experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, we had Mr. Flynn standing on a chair!

Another famous Galileo experiment done on the moon!

Projects on our Solar System

Here are the projects completed by the children on our Solar System.