Pushing and Pulling and Designing a Race Track

The children brought in different toys from home and identified whether the toys could be moved by pushing or pulling. 

They then designed their own car in groups and the criteria was to make it the fastest car in the class. This took a lot of exploration and testing and the children were really excited when they got to put their car on show and race it against the other class. Our results were conclusive and we found that the more wheels the car had the sturdier it was and the faster it went.

The children then took the project a step further and tested different materials to make a race track. We tried paper, carpet, concrete, fabric, books and school bag. We found that the smoother the surface the faster the car would go so things like the paper and the concrete were extremely effective. We did however eliminate the paper as we found it would not be durable with rain and wind. The children really enjoyed this and found it exciting testing and designing the car and making the race track.

Gravity

The children learned all about gravity.They watched a cartoon on you tube illustrating how gravity is a force. We tried out different experiments for example putting a ball on a table and when we moved the table the ball fell to the floor as the force of gravity pulled the ball to the ground.

The children also tested if we hold two objects of different sizes and weights would the objects fall to the ground at the same time if they were held from a height. The majority of the children predicted the lighter objected and were very surprised to see the objects land on the ground at the same time. This experiment clearly demonstrated gravity in action and made the children realise the importance of gravity in everyday living from doing these experiments


                                        

Make a Spray

Senior Infants and First class have been learning all about energy and forces. They did many little experiments to show that air is a force. They tested different ways in which air move can move things for example blowing on a straw to move a feather. This was great fun and the children really enjoyed racing each other.

They also also designed and made a paper fan. This was a great way of showing the children that their is air all around as this was a concept the children found very difficult to visualise until they could feel it on their face.

We also designed and made a spray to show how powerful air as a force can be. The children enjoyed this experiment best of all and loved seeing the water spray out from the straw. It was also an experiment which required careful analysing in order to improve results. We found if the straw that the child blew through was not up nice and straight the spray would not work and equally if the child did not blow straight across to the other straw it would result in water spilling everywhere. This was a great experiment and one the children really enjoyed as they could design and make it in their different groups and find the most effective way to make the spray.

Parachutes

Senior Infants and First class made parachutes. First of all we watched a you tube demonstration on how to make a parachute. The children were asked to watch this very carefully as they would be designing their own parachutes in groups. The children had a choice of different materials to use from- fabric, plastic, paper and tinfoil. Once the parachutes were made the children tested to see how effective they were. This was very interesting watch to as the children critically analysed their parachute and came up with ways to make it fly better from making the string the same, to using a different type of material. The children really enjoyed doing this experiment and loved working in a group.