Science Fair - Craggagh National School Co Mayo

Science Fair in Craggagh NS
with
Science Ireland

Declan Holmes of Science Ireland visited us to hold a science fair. This involved the children of 5th and 6th class learning a number of scientific experiments before teaching them to the younger children in the school.
Finally, Declan performed a "Science Show" which helped us understand how planes fly and how sound waves travel.
This was a highly successful day, the experiments were very "hands-on", with something for all ages. 5th and 6th classes proved how much they had learned by explaining how each of the experiments worked to the younger classes.
Thanks Declan!

Below, you'll see loads of pictures, and many of the experiments have been explaind by the children in Mr Charlton's room.

The Illusion Ball

Jumping Disc

Light gets into the container with mirrors in it and light hits one of mirrors on the bottom then hits the mirror on the top of the container, them bounces off the bottom again. This gives the illusion of the ball floating in mid-air above the container. Part of the container where the ball is and it makes it look there is a ball hovering above the container.

By Conor

You put one side of the disc down on your index and middle finger and rub the disc. When you’re rubbing, the disc starts to heat up. When the two pieces of metal heat up it causes them to expand and when they cool down one of the pieces of metal cools quicker than the other and makes it jump up off the table.

By Lorcan

Sound

Money Box Illusion

When you hit a thing off something else, it will make a sound. It makes a sound because it is shaking and vibrating. We used clothes hangers and string to hear the vibration better. The string was tied to a hanger and we put each end on our ears. When you hit the hanger off the table you could hear the sound clearly as the vibrations travelled up the string.

By Katie

The money box trick is all about mirrors, when you drop the money in it seems to be gone, the reason for this is the box is at an is in an angle inside, one half is empty and one has pictures in it and a mirror. The mirror makes it seem that it is a cube.
So the money is not actually gone it’s just in one half of the box.

By Dylan

The Spinning Mushroom

The Fountain

My favourite one was where there was like a mushroom on a stick. You had to hold on to the stick and spin it fast. The friction between the top and the table caused the top to slow down and tilt. It would spin on the mushroom then when it was tilting and about to fall over it would turn over and spin on the stick.

By Andrew

There were 2 empty bottles, 1 was filled with water. The bottles were connected by a big straw in the middle. When you turned it over, the air from the empty bottle pushed all its air up into the straw, so the water gushed out of the top straw making it look like a fountain.

By Alex

Musical Air Tubes

Air Rocket

Musical air tubes have bumps on the inside so when you spin the pipe around the air bounces off the bumps and makes sound. There are five different notes you can make. It's like the inside of a vacuum cleaner but it's bumpy on the inside too.   

By Siobhán & Fleur

We have a foamy rocket and a plastic tube at the bottom, attached to the tube was a tiny plastic pillow and when you jumped or stood on the tiny pillow the rocket shot up in the air, the reason that is because when you stood on the pillow all the air from that, pushes up the rocket.

By Amy

Anti-Gravity Yoghurt Pots

The Coin Box

You have two yoghurt pots and a ball. The objective is to use one pot to drop the ball into the other, but you can’t touch the 2 nd pot or the ball. What happens, is you put the 1st pot over the ball and spin the ball around in the pot and keep spinning the ball around until you move the pot with the ball in over to the other pot and drop it in.

By Rachel & Britney

It had some mirrors that made it look like the coin didn't go in at all and that there was a floating red cube. It only looked like a red cube because the mirrors created an illusion. The coin was hidden behind the mirrors.

By Kyle

There were lots more experiments too, click on the thumbnails below to see a larger picture.