Milltown National School

Jump to Comments

Today we had a Science demonstration from all the children in the school. Each class displayed a Science experiment they have recently done.

Junior and Senior Infants started the demonstration with a delicious experiment using chocolate. The children explained the experiment and every child in the school was given a chocolate button to participate. Everyone placed the chocolate in their palm and closed their fist. Senior infants read a poem about the experiment and when they had finished, the children opened their palm and discovered the heat from their hands had made the chocolate melt! Everyone enjoyed licking the melted chocolate!

1st and 2nd class had a special guest for their experiment- Professor Flibberflabber! The professor showed an experiment which tested if oranges floated or sank in water. The children made predictions and the Professor demonstrated that oranges float in water, however, when the skin was taken off, the orange sank! The children came to the conclusion that that air was trapped between the skin and the inside of the orange and this caused it to float with the skin on.

3rd and 4th class showed us a long term Science project they have been working on-5 tiny caterpillars! The caterpillars arrived 5 days ago and are growing fast. They children learned that the caterpillars needed to be kept at 21°-26° C, that they are feeding on sugar in the container and in approximately 10 more days, they will go into a chrysalis. The children from 3rd and 4th class also showed us an experiment where they made an egg bounce after soaking it in vinegar for 24 hours. Finally, they showed us that the shape of the egg makes it very tough and durable and, when pressure is applied at the top and bottom, it is impossible to break! We got the strongest person in the school, Mr. Casby, to test it and even he couldn’t break it!

5th and 6th class designed parachutes using an octagon shaped piece of plastic, some string and some play-doh. They explained that, after many attempts, they found the balance between the weight of the play-doh and the weight of the plastic and the parachute finally worked. They demonstrated to everyone how the play-doh slowly floated to the ground as the air became trapped under the plastic.

Thanks to all the children and the teachers for showing off Science in such a fun and engaging way.