Green school commitee 2022

Green School 2021-2022

Global Citizenship Energy

Kiltiernan NS are proud to apply for our 8th Green Flag this year. The theme this year is Global Citizenship- Energy. 

Green school commitee 2022

We have had some big challenges along the road to receiving our new flag. The global pandemic has led to unprecedented times where school closures were regular although they came about quickly and with short notice. 

We had begun recording weekly differences in electricity usage in school. After schools reopened, we changed the record taking to daily records and will graph those results as we near the application date. All of the classrooms were involved in finding out about being connected globally and what that meant to us in our lovely small school. 

We did a Global Food Survey where the children brought in food labels from different parts of the world. We were stunned to find how many miles our food travels before ending up in our fridges. We found food from India, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, all over Europe, Columbia and South Africa to name but a few. It brought great awareness to where our food comes from and a lot of us have agreed to buy from local farmers from now on.

Every child in the school has come up with a slogan to save energy and we will get an external judge to pick a winner. The winner will get a small prize and their slogan will be used as the tag line for our whole project.

We will also enter a regional and national colouring competition run by An Taisce to promote keeping our local roadsides litter free. 

For Book Week this year in March, we have taken our Green School project into account and are delighted to say that we have a well known author in Climate Change, Oisín McGann. He will visit and tell us how we can help slow down and reverse Climate Change globally. 

The Senior and Middle Rooms have been working hard to research and educate ourselves on different forms of renewable energy. We have learned  about BER ratings, wind and hydro power, electric cars and lots more. Read our articles below to find out how to help with conserving energy. 

 

Our Green School notice board is filled with lots of up to date information which keeps us interested in learning. 

 

We look forward in March to meeting Mark Molloy from Galway Co. Co. who will see all of our hard work to date and advise us on any other work that may be investigated before our application is set off. 

 

Keep in touch with this page to follow our progress!!

 

Wind Resistant Tower Experiment

Wind Resistant Tower Experiment

Equipment Needed: A4 paper (max. 4 sheets)

                                    Tape (Max. 1 ½ metres)

                                     50g weight

                                     Hairdryer

Aim: Create a wind resistant tower that is at least 30cm tall, fit for a weight to be placed on top and to stay standing while lateral force is applied.

Method:

  1. In your group, create a plan for your structure.
  2. Start building, keeping in mind that it has to be at least 30cm tall and has to be able to hold a 50g weight.
  3. When you are happy with your design, transport it to your ‘testing area’.
  4. Place the 50g weight on top of each structure then test them from a distance of 3m using the hairdryer and making sure that it is a ‘fair test’.
  5. If the structure survives for 10 seconds at 3m without falling over, move it closer to the hairdryer and so on until you find the structure that is the strongest.

Outcome: Our group’s structure stayed standing at 3m, swayed a little bit at 2m but ended up falling over at 1m after lasting for 8 out of 10 seconds.

Rating: I would rate this experiment 4.5 out of 5 stars as it was an enjoyable, hands on learning experience!

By Orlaith

5th Class

Trip to the Library

Trip to the Library

On March 5th, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th went to the library 4th, 5th and 6th went first. We brought our library cards so we could take out books. We had a look around and we chose  a book then if we wanted to we could read it there or rent it. We were allowed to use the computers to find a book that we wanted. To use them you would put in your email address and then look up the book you want. A collection of that genre of books would come up and you could pick out the one you want. The librarian talked to us about how they organise the books in the library.  It was very enjoyable and a great way to celebrate book week.

 

By Killian 5th class.

 

Swimming

Swimming

Pupils of Kiltiernan N.S. go to swimming every Friday. The swimming teachers are Bernie, Bridie and Cieran.  They teach us different strokes and swimminng techniques.

 At the end of every lesson we have to bellyflop or cannonball dive into the pool and tread water and lie on our backs like we would do in a case if we were drowning.  Last Friday we had to do 40 widths but when we did 40 our teacher kept on pushing us to do 50, then 60, then 70 etc. Everybody was trying thier best to get the m thost they could.

This Thursday we will be wearing clothes in the pool for practise if you everr fell in. We also learned that if someone were to fall into the pool then we would not go into the pool to help them- we would stay out of the pool, grab something that floats, throw it to them and tell them to keep on kicking and swimming.

I have really enjoyed my time swimming this term.

 

Peader 5th class.

 

Pollination – Visit from Áine from Seed Savers

Pollination – Visit from Áine from Seed Savers

On the 2nd of April we got a visit from Áine from a company called Seed Savers. When she arrived she told us what the company was and what its goal is. Seed Savers wants to protect native plants and pollinators and get people to stop using chemicals and leave a bit of grass in your garden to help bees polinate – as well as other pollinators including butterflies and keep our local plant species thriving.

Firstly, she showed us a powerpoint about all the different types of bees –which there are aound 100 species of! She showed us a really interesting picture of what are breakfast would look like like if we did not have pollinators in are world.

 

One thing Áine talked about a lot was bees and how they pollinate. The most popular type of bees are solitary bees with over 77 different kinds however the most useful bee is the bumblebee. She showed us a picture of the lifecycle of a queen bumblebee in the different seasons.

Next we watched two short videos about the importance of bees and a video about the “waggle dance”  a dance that bees use to tell other members of the hive where there would be many polinationg flowers.

After that Áine took 6th class out for an oudoor workshop. First we used a compass to see which way North, South, East and West directions are facing. We learned about the high value and low value plants in our school grounds. Some high value polinators iclude – dasies, ash trees, clovers and buttercups. We found out there was only two low value plants that we identified one of which was the daffodile which I was surprised by as we learned it had no pollen in the flower what so ever!

When we came in we marked out the places on a map of the school where we could help the polinators, including what we could plant to attract pollinators. We discussed planting herbs such as thyme and lavender, hanging boxes in which solitary bees could nest in and growing nettles in fenced off areas where butterflies could pollinate.

At the end of the lesson Áine gave us flowers seeds to plant in our school grounds including poppies. Overall I thought Áine’s visit was very interesting and I learned about a lot of things that were literally right outside my doorstep.

 

Edel

6th Class

STEM AWARD FOR KILTIERNAN N.S.

STEM AWARD FOR KILTIERNAN N.S.

In the beginning of February Ms Forde introduced us to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths). STEM is a programme to interest children in technology, engineering etc. We were working towards the SFI Discover Science Maths Award.

One of the days in school we had a showcase for the parents so they could see the results of all our projects. Ms Forde took some pictures after that we were finished our STEM programme.

 A few weeks later our school received a notice saying that they were satisfied that we had met all the criteria for the STEM award.

Here is some feedback from the Discover Primary Science and Maths Team: ‘Great log, clearly laid out, focussed on children’s work and colourful with lots of photos. Your towers, wells and wind farm looked fantastic. Congratulations on your award and keep up the Award and keep up the good work!’

                                                                          By Lauren

                                                                           5th Class

 

Seed Savers

Seed Savers

Today, 4th, 5th and 6th class got a visit from Áine. She works for seed savers. She walked us through a basic explanation of what pollination was, how pollen was spread and how and who it’s spread by. We were also taught how important bees are and how they spread pollen. She showed us a diagram of how pollen was spread. Firstly, the bees are attracted to the flowers by its bright colours or scent. Secondly, the bee lands on the flower collecting the pollen without even realizing what an important job they are doing. Thirdly the bee goes back to his hive carrying his pollen in his basket (a bee’s basket is a small basket between the bees back legs). Finally, when the bee arrives back at his hive he makes his honey. I thought this was all really fascinating, because I never knew that they don’t realize they collect their pollen by accident.

                After the power point we had a lunch break and after lunch Áine then brought 6th class outside and guided us around the school showing us all the different species of plants, flowers, trees and weeds.   We got into groups of 2 and we had to list high value pollinators and low value pollinators in our school grounds. We were also given a map of the school and marked North, South, East and West on the map to know which way we were going and how our map is orientated. I only got 2 low value pollinators and 34 high value pollinators. I really enjoyed today as it was really interesting. My favorite part was going outside and looking at all the nature happening around us in such a small area.

By Gráinne

6th class

Seachtain na Gaeilge

Seachtain na Gaeilge

In March, 2019 our school celebrated Seachtain na Gaeilge (or Irish Week) and we had lots of fun activities to do throughout the week!

Like we do every year, the teachers organised an Irish competition. Whenever a student had a conversation with a teacher in Irish won a ticket and whoever had the most tickets at the end of the week won. Our winner was Katie Skully, with a total of 42 points! That will be a hard record to beat next year.

Near the end of the week we had a great, challenging Irish quiz. The whole school were put into groups to battle it out for the winning glory.

Irish may be dying out but I’m sure if we work hard enough we  can bring our native language back! We certainly do that here in Kiltiernan!!

 

 

By Diarmuid Rang a Cúig

Science Week 2019 at Kiltiernan N.S.

Science Week 2019 at Kiltiernan N.S.

 

Science Week at Kiltiernan is always a blast, but 2019 held a very exciting Science Week indeed!  For Science Week we not only got to see experiments up close, we also got to do some ourselves!  Fourth to sixth class got into groups to show off some exceptional experiments to the rest of the children.

Here is a taste of some of the experiments;

Volcano: My group and one other were lucky enough to get the volcano experiment. With just a few ingredients, a bottle and some rocks to make it look like a real volcano, we got to see the two volcanoes erupting with “Lava”.

Uublee: The group that got the Uublee Experiment had a massive task at hand.  Uublee is a type of slime that is hard when you punch it and slimy when you hold it.  They had to have a precise balance between the ingredients to get the correct outcome. 

Fizzy Rockets: This was the only experiment that had to be held outside.  (I wonder why?) We experimented different temperatures of water and the conclusion was the hottest temperatures of water made the rocket go higher. 

Overall I think that Science Week was a big success, and I look forward to Science Week next year!

 

 

Diarmuid 5th class

 

 

Saturn

Saturn

Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in the Solar System, after Jupiter. The average distance between Saturn and the Sun is over 1.4 billion kilometres. With an average orbit speed of 9.68km/s. It takes Saturn 10,759 Earth days (about 29 and a half years) to finish one revolution around the Sun. Saturn is named after the Roman god of agriculture and is astromical symbol represents the gods sickle.

Saturn’s interior is probably composed of a core of iron-nickle and rock. This core is surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally a gaseous outer layer. Saturn has a pale yellow colour due to ammonia crystals in its upper atmosphere.

Electrical current within the metallic hydrogen layer is thought to give rise to Saturn’s planetary magnetic field, which is weaker than Earth’s but has a magnetic moment 580 times that of Earth due to Saturn’s larger size.

Saturn’s magnetic field strength is around one twentieth of Jupiter’s. Wind speeds on Saturn can reach up to 1,800km/h higher than on Jupiter but lower to the ones on Neptune.

In January 2019, astronomers reported that one day on Saturn has been determined to be 10hrs 33mins and 38secs, based on studies of the planet’s C ring.

At least 62 moons are known to orbit Saturn, of which 53 are officially named. This does not include the hundreds of moons in the planet’s ring. Titan, the planet’s largest moon, and the second largest moon in the Solar System, is larger than the planet Mercury, although less massive, and is the only moon in the atmosphere to have a substantial atmosphere.

Eimear

6th Class