We are back up and running for the new academic year 2023-24 and are really excited to share our STEM updates with you
Science Week 12th-19th November 2023
Science Week is a big STEM event in our school and this year was no exception with all classes engaging in scientific experiments and investigations. The theme for this year's event was to consider what it means to be human and how the decisions we make today will impact humans of the future. 4th and 6th class thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Ken's Circus Science Festival courtesy of STEM Kilkenny in the SET Theatre while 5th Class achieved first place in the Steve Sherman Kahoot Quiz...check out our pictures below
5th Class Kahoot Quiz with Steve Sherman
6th Class Science Show with STEM Kilkenny
5th Class Creating Structures with tin foil
6th Class investigating our finger prints and teeth some of our human features
3rd Class Investigation Living Things-So do Tall people have big feet and short people have small feet?
Senior Infants- Using a chemical reaction to blow up balloons
6th Class-Living Things Investigation of the Heart -Nov 2023
6th Class have been learning all about the heart and how it functions...learning was brought to life when they got the opportunity to dissect sheep hearts-they also made models to simulate the valves of the heart!!
Lá Na gCrann October 5th 2023-Living Things
Tree Day is a lovely opportunity for us to kick off our science activities! This year's theme was "Nuts about Nature" with a focus on the Hazel Tree. The Hazel tree is great for biodiversity-did you know that up to 140 species of lichens and 73 species of insects live on the hazel tree...that's in addition to the squirrels and the field mice who feed on the nuts? Our Junior school did not let the wet weather deter them and they had great fun participating in tree related activities. Junior infants investigated the trees in our school grounds, seniors completed leaf rubbings while 2nd class compiled mind maps and reported back in pairs to the wider class group!
Lá Fhéile Bainne-Sept 27th 2023-World Milk Day -6th Class -Living Things
6th Class participated in an on-line workshop in conjunction with Agri Aware and the National Dairy Council to celebrate World Milk Day-they explored how our diary herds provide nutritious foods!
NEWS UPDATE .......New Year 2022-2023 ....We did it!!!!
Well done all just before the Summer Holidays we received the great news that we were successful in our submission for an SFI Badge of Excellence Award- this is our second badge and it is the highest award possible! What a fantastic testament of all the great STEM work we continue to pioneer and nurture in our school community!
Specific feedback on our award from SFI included....
Congratulations - your school has achieved an SFI Discover Science and Maths Award. We have evaluated your Log of Evidence and we are satisfied that you have met all the criteria for the Badge of Excellence. Your school has provided evidence of children's engagement with STEM in the following areas:
Science
Technology
Engineering
Maths
STEM Showcase
Here is some feedback on your Log of Evidence:
Congratulations to the pupils, teachers and parents of St. Colmans NS on being awarded a Badge of Excellence. You have done a great years work and the awards are well merited. You have shown a wide and varied range of activities. The children are obviously very enthusiastic and involved. Your work for the Badge is very good. The hoped for outcomes are clearly laid out and realistic. You set about the project excellently. There was good buy-in from all groups and the reflections show how well your outcomes were achieved. The parent evaluations of the project were extremely positive and you certainly achieved your outcomes with them. This was a very worthwhile project. I hope you keep the momentum going and well done to everybody involved
NEW YEAR 2021-2022
On September 22nd 2021 we were thrilled to hear that we were successful in obtaining our twelfth award for STEM excellence! It was a particularly challenging year due to COVID 19 restrictions and school closures, nonetheless our perseverance paid off - check below to read a copy of our award feedback! Despite the continuing restrictions presented by COVID-19, we are determined to continue with our STEM adventures and look forward to keeping you updated on all our activities for this new year 2021/22. Keep an eye on our STEM board for all the key STEM dates for this year!
New Year 2022-2023-New Beginnings!!
Science Week 2022 Nov 13-20th
Following on from Maths Week we were delighted to participate in an action packed Science Week. Highlights included trips to bubble and LEGO workshops, online Science Shows and Quizzes and lots of hands on Science experiments!
4th Class Experiments Oct 2022-properties of materials
4th class have been very busy investigating the properties of materials with Mr. O Keeffe. They explored crystallisation through extracting their own crystals from water using baking powder and also looked at the science behind density by making their own lava lamps.
Science Visitor -Heritage in School Expert Albert Nolan-Nov 9th 2022
2nd & 3rd class participated in an interactive workshop with Heritage in Schools and Bat expert Albert Nolan on November 9th. Albert shared all his wonderful bat knowledge including that bats are the only mammals that can actually fly. Did you know that the place where a bat lives is called a roost and that baby bats are called pups and can fly after just 6 weeks. Thank you Albert we now know a lot about bats and are certainly no longer scared of them!
Science Visitor Expert Paddy Madden Oct 18th 2022
We were delighted to host once again "in person" the nature and wildlife specialist Paddy Madden. Paddy entertained us all with his fascinating knowledge and stories about our natural world. We learnt so much about our native plants and animals-butterflies, bats, squirrels and hedgehogs to name a few!
Tree Day 6th Oct 2022 "Root For Nature" Step 1 Living things & Environmental Awareness
Tree Day is a wonderful way of celebrating trees in our local environment. Our Junior classes made the most of the sunny weather and went out to investigate the variety of tress we have planted in our school grounds. 2nd class and the Green Schools Committee planted a new ash and oak tree. 1st class even put their persuasive writing skills to task and presented their strong views on the topic of why we need to look after all the tress around us! One of the cleverest things trees do is to absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen and so help us fight climate change!
Space Week 2022 4th-10th Oct
During their Aistear time Senior Infants have been busy exploring Space, they got to role play as astronauts and completed beautiful art work of the solar system. 2nd class have been busy designing and creating rockets using our 3D printer
May 19th 2022 4th Class Biodiversity Walk in Jenkinstown Woods-Living Thing & Environmental Awareness
4th Class were invited to participate in a biodiversity walk to Jenkinstown woods after Katy a pupil wrote them a letter. Coillte Forester Mary Clifford facilitated a most insightful trip around the woods, she outlined some future plans for the area and stressed the importance for us all to get involved and preserve our local habitats!
May 12th 2022-Visit to Castlecomer Discovery Park-an SFI Discover Centre
On May 12th, 5th and 6th Class visited Castlecomer Discovery an SFI Discover Centre! It was fantastic to visit Castlecomer again after a two year break! We spent the day exploring the water and woods searching for, sorting and classifying water and woodland minibeasts......we made a video of the day....take a look at it ....we love being outdoors!!
May 2022-2nd Class Parachute make and launch-Energy & Forces
2nd class have been investigating the best materials and methods to make parachutes! They made the most of the summer weather for parachute launch testing! See a video of our make process and picture of the final results click below!
May 2022-Juniors-1st new born chick visit-Living Things
Junior Infant Méabh and her mum Carolyn visited our Junior classes today with their two week old chicks....we have been learning all about the lifecycles of farm animals so it was great to ask lots of questions and get a close up view!
May 2022-Kite making in 1st Class-Energy and forces
We designed and made our own kites in first class....we had to be patient and wait for the perfect kite flying conditions to try them out...it was a lovely sunny and windy day....we got to see and test the properties of forces in action.....the wind deflecting downwards and a force working in the opposite direction pushing our kites upwards.....take a look at our photos and video..
April 2022-Junior Infants-The Properties of Spring -Living Things
Juniors has a fantastic spring walk around our school where they spotted all the signs of Spring -we were really lucky when a local farmer Michael Prendergast showed us his baby lambs born just across the road from us...we heard all about their birth and what they need to grow big and strong!
March 2022 -1st-6th Class workshops with SEAI Ireland -Energy & Forces & Environmental Awareness and Care
Hooray....we were delighted to host our first Science specialist visitor post COVID restrictions to our school in March 2022. Una Halpin from SEAI School visited us over two days and carried our energy awareness and conservation workshops for classes 1st-6th...thank you Una we really enjoyed the experience! We learned lots about the natural sustainable sources of energy all around us and the importance of preserving them!
February 2022 Junior Infants-Environmental Awareness & Care
Juniors Infants have been learning all about the Arctic and in particular Polar Bears. They discovered how important it is to look after the Polar ice caps and to stop them from melting! They carried out a special experiment to see how warm their hands could be in blubber fat just like the polar bear! Juniors have also been planting conkers and hope to replant their young trees later in the Spring.
January 2022-Focus on Energy & Forces
Since our return after the Christmas break the Junior end of our school have been exploring the properties of energy and forces. Seniors have been exploring light and investigating how shadows are created. First class have been carrying explorations using magnets, while third class have been studying light and they even made their own sound pipes!
Jan 22-1st Class -Magnet study
Jan 2022-2nd Class -Examining Insulation Properties-properties of materials
Jan 2022-3rd Class-Exploring the Properties of Sound, Magnets and Electrical Circuits
3rd class have conducted many hands on experiments to explore the properties of energy and forces. They investigated the properties of sound waves and pitch by making and playing their own pan flutes. They were successful in changing kinetic energy to sound energy by spinning a balloon with a 5c coin inside. They learned that an electric current needs a complete path called a circuit so that it can flow....and the best fun of all experimenting with the pull and push force of magnets!!! Have a look at all our photos and videos below!
January 2022 -Senior Infants-Investigating and creating our own shadows-the properties of light
Science Week 2021-7-14th November 2021
It was all systems go for one of our favourite times of the year although there were still Covid restrictions, it didn't stop the fun...and we got to participate in some fantastic on-line events hosted mainly by Kilkenny Science Festival. Highlights included habitats explorations from Dublin Zoo and a DNA fingerprinting workshop Teagasc also invited us to a great workshop-The Science behind grass and cows-we really enjoyed this as we are very interested in farming!
Science Week 2021 Juniors and Seniors
Juniors and seniors learnt about the colours of the rainbow, they created their own rainbows and we were so lucky when a real rainbow appeared in our playground...!
Science Week 2021 1st and 2nd Class
1st and 2nd Class participated in a habitat workshop hosted by Dublin Zoo. 1st class designed, made and tested their own paper windmills, they also carried out the exploding coke experiment, carried out some length investigations...and James brought in a real giant ostrich egg to show his classmates!
Science Week 2021 Third Class
3rd class enjoyed the Fur, Feathers & Scales Workshop form Dublin Zoo and also the Teagasc session on the science behind behind cows and the milk they produce. They were also busy exploring the strength of egg shells and how plants take up water!
Science Week 4th Class 2021
4th Class had fantastic fun making 3D structures......they also put all their creative and scientific knowledge to use designing, making and testing parachutes that could safely hold an egg!!!
6th Class -Science Week 2021
6th Class became real forensic scientists as they got to dissect a sheep heart and learn all about DNA fingerprinting in an online workshop! It was a fantastic experience !!!
Tree Day Oct 7th 2021-Living Things and Environmental Awareness and Care
We love Tree Day in the Junior End of our school -we get the opportunity to go outside and investigate all the trees in our school environment. This year The Tree Council sent us a wild cherry sapling to plant-we also got to do leaf and bark rubbings! Our native hedge row that we planted two years ago is coming along nicely! Junior Infants also had great fun with Tree Day maths sorting and pattern making activities!
Space Week 2021-Oct 4th-10th-Juniors, Seniors and first Class
The Junior end of our school have been exploring space specifically the sun, earth, moon and stars as part of Space week. Juniors and seniors made and launched their own rockets and got to man a space station during Aistear activities-check out their pictures
Oct 2021-4th Class hands on science -Energy & Forces
4th Class have been very busy investigating the properties of energy and forces. They have been making lava lamps, tea bags and exploring the properties of sound waves
A special visitor to our yard---Sept 2021-Plants & Animals
1st and 2nd class were very excited to find a frog on their yard -Ms Tierney carefully put the frog in a glass and visited all classes for them to take a look-it was very interesting to learn that very few children had ever seen a live frog! We released the frog into the field beside our school! He hopped off happily!!
NEW YEAR 2020-21
It's a brand new year, we were delighted to get back to school following lock- down! Despite the restrictions presented by COVID-19, we are determined to continue with our STEM adventures and look forward to keeping you updated on all our activities.
Junior Infants & 2nd Class June 2021 Minibeast & Butterfly fun-Living Things & Environmental Awareness
Newsflash-butterfly update we were very excited in 2nd class when three butterflies emerged from their cocoons...we gave them a feast of oranges and then invited Junior Infants to come see them....although they had to look in the classroom door! On Friday 11th June after we finally made our first confession (postponed from last year due to COVID ) we released the butterflies into our wildflower garden which we had planted...we were very proud to see then fly off!
Junior Infants -June 2021 -Minibeast & Signs Of Summer Hunt-Living Things
We have been learning all about some of our native minibeasts- honeybees, butterflies, ladybirds, worms, flies, and spiders....we were so excited to go and find them outside!!! We also got to go on a Signs of Summer hunt-we are expert nature detectives and managed to find daisies, buttercups, dandelions swallows and busy bees!
Junior Infants June 2021-Investigating the properties of materials
Junior Infants have been testing the properties of materials-they were tasked with making a waterproof umbrella for Ted!
6th Class May 2021-Hands on Investigations-Electricity, magnetism, surface tension and air pressure -Energy & Forces
We got to actively investigate the properties of magnetism and electricity- we designed and built our own circuits, magnetic boards and surface tension experiments.... we were so happy with all our work we decided to take it outside and share with the entire school-check out out Show and Tell page......
Junior Infants & 2nd Class April/May 2021-Living Things
Junior Infants have been very busy! As part of the Innocent GIY Ireland programme we have been planting spinach, peas lettuce and sunflowers! Our conkers planted back in September have grown and we got to take them home to plant in our gardens! We learnt all about what plants need to grow and we carried out a special experiment with celery to investigate how plants drink water! We know all about the lifecycle of the butterfly as we read the book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar " by Eric Carle ..we also got to taste lots of fruit as featured in the book while in maths we made bar charts to illustrate our favourite fruit! Early in May Ms Curran and 2nd Class received a very special delivery-our very own hungry caterpillars-they came to visit us in Junior Infants and along with second class we will be keeping a close eye on our caterpillars as they change into butterflies!
2nd Class April 2021-Living Things
2nd Class have been studying birds with a particular focus on the crow family-they drew pictures of crows in art and investigated their specific features in science. They also studied the native wood louse, they examined them under a magnifying glass and compiled some fact sheets as a result! Have a look at some of their beautiful work!
Junior Infants February & March 2021-Living Things
End February 2021 was a very exciting time for the Junior end of our school as on Feb 22nd we returned to school for the first time since our Christmas holidays! We had great fun exploring all the new signs of Spring around us the daffodils have bloomed and the buds have appeared on the trees. We went on a virtual farm tour of Airfield Estate Farm where we learnt all about growing vegetables and looking after jersey cows. We were thrilled to visit the baby lambs just born across the road from our school.
A special arrival to our outside courtyard March 2021-Living Things
Junior Infants took delivery of a special container in early March- a bucket of frog spawn from a local farm-we recreated the exact conditions from the farm using the same water and plant life we are really excited about looking after the spawn and seeing it transform ..watch this space!
2nd Class at home Feb 2021-Investigating the properties of density-Energy &Forces
Ms Curran has tasked her second class to investigate the properties of density using household items -check out some of their videos !
3rd Class At Home Jan 2021-recreating the human skeleton! -Living Things
3rd Class have been investigating the formation of the human skeleton at home...Ms Fitzgerald set the task of recreating the internal body using household objects....we are very impressed with our artistic creations!
Science Week 2020 Nov 8th-15th -Whole School Event-all strands
Although we were confined to our classroom Science Week was packed with the usual STEM excitement. In a strange year COVID restrictions brought a host of virtual events to us and we lapped it all up! Specific highlights included virtual events hosted by Teagasc (6th Class), Dr. Matt Pritchard's Surprising Science (5th Class), Foodoppi "Eat Your Science" and Junior Einstein DNA & Fingerprint Workshop (3rd Class) and a Science & Bubble Workshop (Seomra Sonas). We enjoyed daily programmes on Science TV while 5th & 6th Class also participated in the annual on-line "I'm a Scientist Gt me Out of Here Event". Needless to say all classes facilitated hands on STEM investigations!....Check out our gallery...
Science Week 2020 Juniors, Seniors and First Class....
It has been all hands on in the Junior end of the school where we have been exploring the properties of magnets, dancing raisins, exploding coke and colour transfer. We have made bubbles, bird feeders and lava lamps....take a look!
Seniors made fantastic bird feeders!
1st Class Exploding Coke and Balloon Rocket Experiment
Science Week 2020 Check out 2nd, third and fourth class activities ...
Science Week 2020 5th & 6th Class Activities
Halloween STEM 6th Class Materials Oct 2020-Materials
6th Class have been investigating the science of Chromatography. This is a process used to seperate the components of a mixture where the components travel through the stationary phase at diffferent speeds. They used their filter paper of results to produce some fantastic Halloween inspired art....take a look..
Tree Day 2020-Step 1 Living Things Oct 1st-Living Things
Tree Day is always a special occasion in our school especially in the junior end and this year was no exception ! This years's theme is "Be a Force for Nature-Bí i do Fórsa don Nádúir" which focuses on all the things that we can do in our everyday lives to help nature and the environment. We planted conkers and a native Irish Tree-the Scots Pine, we also got to closely examine all the trees in our school environment!
1st Class-Living Things-Bone Investigations-Oct 2020-Living Things
We got to examine bones very closely and identified all the bones in our hands !
STEM- At Home Challenges during Covid-19 March/April 2020
6th class have risen to the challenge and are using all their STEM skills to complete Ms. Quealy's daily challenges. Specific scientific investigations have included diffusing colours, recognsing constellations, making magic ink and structures strong enough to withstand earthquakes! Check out our pictures and videos on this and other pages ...you can also follow us on our Twitter account... Clara NS Kilkenny@NsKilkenny
STEM Science videos Clips
March 2020-Science Visitors-Johnstown, Crosspatrick and Galmoy CFR First Responders-CPR Course
In March our Parents Association kindly arranged CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training for our whole school community-parents, teachers and children. We all learned what to do in the case of an emergency, most importantly we were shown how to do correct chest compressions. Juniors-2nd got to practise on their teddy bears!
6th Class highlights-6th Class have been very busy with lots of hands on investigations! They specifically have been investigating the properties of energy and forces most notably air pressure! They used their knowledge to design boats to carry lots of passengers, push an egg through a narrow bottle head and even stop water falling from an upside down glass. Great fun was had making elephant toothpaste where they mixed yeast with hydrogen peroxide to release oxygen to create a very impressive explosion of foam!!!!
February 2020-Science Visitor- Dogs Trust
Maeve and her dog Penny from Dogs Trust kindly visited our school over two days in early February. We learned all about responsible dog ownership, how to care for our pet dogs and how to be safe around dogs. Thanks Maeve and Penny!
January 2020 Science Experiment Highlights-all classes-Energy and Forces, Materials & Environmental Awareness & Care
1st class worked in groups to design, plan and build their own individual rockets; they also predicted and checked how far a balloon could travel when propelled across their classroom.
3rd Class made lava lamps investigating the properties of various materials that might make the greatest impact.
Juniors, seniors and 5th class have been investigating the topic of melting ice. 5th class used their maths skills to predict, measure and record rising water levels resulting from melting ice-replicating exactly what is happening in the polar ice regions due to global warming!
January 17th 2020 Science Visitor-Nore Valley Farm-Incubator Project
We were delighted once again to welcome Nore Valley Farm and their incubator project to our school. We learned all about the life cycle of the chick -we promised to look after the eggs carefully and we counted down the 21 days to hatching ....
In January Alma from Agrikids visited all classes in our school -she highlighted the importance of farm safety and taught us all to be farm safety ambassadors. A lot of us live on and visit farms so it is important for us to look out for danger around farm animals, slurry pits, water holes, toxic substances and machinery!
December 2019 "I'm A Scientist" Winner
Congratulations to Jessica from 6th class who won an award to mark her impressive engagement with the national "I'm a Scientist 2019 " event which happened during Science Week in November Well done Jessica- we are very proud of you!
Science Vistor Nov 26th Catherine Keena Teagasc-Hedgerow Biodiversity
On November 26th to mark Hedgerow Week 3rd-6th Class welcomed Catherine Keena from Teagasc to our school. Catherine shared her great knowledge of the wonderful biodiversity to be found in our native hedgerows and how we can all play a part in preserving it!
Science Week 8th-15th November 2019 The theme for this year's Science Week was Climate Action and all classes participated in hands-on investigative activities. Specific highlights this year included a visit to our school from Eanna Ní Lamhna, 6th Class visited The Eureka Science Festival in Carlow IT and 5th and 6th Classes participating in the "I'm a Scientist-Get Me Out of Here" Event.
Eanna Ní Lamhna Visit-November 13th 2019
We were thrilled to welcome Eanna to our school during Science Week. Eanna shared all her knowledge on climate change and how we can all play a part in preserving the natural environment all around us!
Eureka Science Festival Carlow IT November 13th 2019
During Science Week 6th Class participated in the Eureka K'NEX workshop at Carlow IT. They learned all about sustainable energy and how we can adapt it for our world. They solved challenges using K'NEX and lots of imagination!
"I'm a Scientist Get Me Out of Here"-5th & 6th Class Science Week 2019
During Science Week 5th and 6th classes had the opportunity to chat on-line with real scientists!
Science Week Highlights-Whole School-All Strands-Living Things, Energy & Forces, Materials & Environmental Awareness & Care
All classes enjoyed hands-on activities during Science Week. Juniors planted conkers and made houses that the Big Bad Wolf could not blow down! Seniors made recyclable bird feeders and real butter! 2nd Class designed and made rockets and parachutes while 3rd Class made acrobatic clowns to test the properties of gravity! Have a look at all our pictures-It was a great week!
Science Visitor-Nurse Siobhán-Junior & Senior Infants November 7th 2019
The Aistear theme this month in the Junior end of the school has been "visitng the doctor" . Nurse Siobhán who works in Ayrfield Medical Centre in Kilkenny kindly came to visit us and she explained all about her work. She gave us lots of tips on how to stay healthy and she also explained how lots of medical devices work! We all had a go! Thank you Siobhán !
Science Speaker-Wildlife and Heritage Expert Paddy Madden- Oct -23rd 2019
Children and teachers alike had a great day when Paddy visited our school. Paddy enthralled us all with his knowledge of Irish plant and wildlife. Through story and wonderful exhibits Paddy entertained Juniors to 6th class with interesting facts about our natural environment and how we can all play a part in preserving it! Paddy also gave us some great advice on how we can best maximise our school garden. We also got some great tips on planting more trees and hedgerows around our school!
6th Class Science Trip-Dunmore Caves -Oct 24th 2019
On Oct 24th 6th class visited the famous Dunmore Caves located near Castlecomer in Co. Kilkenny. We learned all about the wonderful calcite sculptures of stalagmites and stalactites formed over millions of years!
We were delighted to host geologist and heritage expert Michele Castiaux in our school. We learned what it means to be a geologist and how to identify and classify rocks. As it was Maths Week Michele also showed us how to read maps and how to use a compass.....an important skill when we have no GPS!
Tree day is a day of great excitement for all our school and particularly for our junior end where we learn all about the importance of trees and we investigate all the trees around us!
Tree Day Junior Infants
Tree Day Senior Infants
Tree Day 1st Class
Space Week -Oct 9-11th 2019
The Senior Infant room has been transformed into a space station to mark Space Week-we manned a space station, flew a rocket and investigated life in our galaxy!
Oct 2019 -1st Class-Science -Energy & Forces -Light
In 1st class with Ms. Mc Donald we have been investigating the properties of light -we have been exploring dark and bright colours and have been identifying all the different shades of colour! We discussed all the sources of light and then carried out an investigation to see what different objects are transparent (see through) translucent (blurred) or opaque (block light).
September 2019-Science Step 1& 4 -Energy & Forces-Light-identifying colours
Junior Infants have been identifying and naming different colours. During maths we sorted objects into sets according to colour. We went on a colour hunt outside and recorded all the colours we found!