In Senior Infants, we learned that gravity is a force that pulls us down towards the centre of the Earth. We dropped two bottles from the same height at the same time. One was full of water and the other was empty. We predicted that the heavier bottle would fall faster, but were surprised to see that they reached the ground at the same time! Then we tried dropping two pieces of paper from the same height at the same time. One was flat and one was scrunched up into a ball. This time, we predicted correctly. The flat piece of paper took longer to fall and seemed to float down to the ground. This is because of air resistance. The air is pressing up against it, 'fighting' against the pull of gravity and slowing it down. This is how parachutes work.
We made our parachutes using a tissue, four pieces of thread, a Lego man and some sellotape. The air caught in the parachute and brought the man safely down to the ground!
We also made our own paper helicopters. Before we did, we talked about what would make a ‘good’ helicopter. Would it be the one that spun the most or the one that took the longest to fall to the ground?
We made our own rocket! We put some string through a straw. We tied the string to two chairs. Then we blew up a balloon and held the end so that the air couldn’t escape. After that, we sellotaped the side of the balloon to the straw, pulling the straw back to one end of the string.
When we let go of the neck of the balloon, it flew from one end of the string to the other at great speed. The air coming out of the back of the balloon pushed the balloon forward. Have a look at this video!
Our rocket experiment taught us about forces. The air coming out of the back of the balloon pushed the balloon forward. This is how rockets work. The hot gases coming out of the back of the rocket pushes them upwards!
In Second Class, we made paper aeroplanes using the below templates. Why not try them out at home?
We tested the Arrow, the Classic Dart and the Delta to see which one would travel the longest distance. We used a trundle wheel to measure how many metres each had travelled and recorded our results on a bar chart.
In 3rd class, we were inspecting things that float and sink. We looked at rafts/boats made from plastic containers. We were predicting which rafts would float and which rafts would sink. We then had to design and make rafts in groups of three using straws and some tape. It was so much fun testing out our rafts in a basin of water. We observed that the rafts that sunk had holes or gaps in them. We also noted that rafts that were uneven were more likely to sink.
In 4th and 5th Class we were lucky to have a workshop from SEAI all about Energy and Forces. It was so much fun to have an expert in to teach us all about how the energy from one object is passed onto another object. It was fun to blow up balloons and to understand how the force of the air released from the balloon causes it to fly all around the classroom. We also made Electrical circuits with LEMONS! Who knew the acidity of lemons could create energy and power!