Discovery Science – Step 3 – Visiting Raheen Barr/ Derrynadivva Windfarm

On March 16th, Peter Brett from Eco Power took us on a guided tour of his family’s wind farm. Eco Power rent the land on which the turbines are built from local farmers. Houses must be at least 500m away from these turbines.

These 32 wind turbines were built in 2004 and are remote controlled. They produce enough energy to power between 450 and 600 homes daily. Their blades can turn 360 degrees to suit the wind direction. The blades flatten out when they are stopped.

The main parts of the wind turbine are the tower, the hub and the fibreglass blades. It takes less than 1 day to assemble a wind turbine, the foundations and Renee bolts are put in place over 3 days and then they must wait for a calm day. The 2 towers are placed one on top of the other by a crane, then the macell box, the blades and finally the hub. Enercon and Vestes are the two companies who have built the wind turbine son this wind farm. Peter and his team maintain the Vestes wind turbines but Enercon monitor their own.

Electricity is produced when the mechanical turning force of the blades is changed to electricity in generator. This energy is then changed to a high voltage, low amp state so it can be transported to Eco Power’s substation, the power station in Castle ar to its final destination, the national grid. Currently, wind energy provides for 30% of Ireland’s energy needs.

Every part of the wind turbine is recyclable except the blades, which range from 48m to 52m in diameter on this farm. Some newer turbines are 2 and a half times the size of these. The strongest winds on this farm come from the West but the day we were there, the winds were coming from a Northwest direction. Eco Power’s grid connection allows for 35 turbines only so the next 3 will be erected in the coming year.

The children had a wonderful day and we thank Peter for taking time out to show us around!

Discovery Science – Step 3 – Engineering Week 2017

One of the children’s engineering challenges for the week was to make slime! To do this, they mixed half a cup of water with half a cup of PVA glue and stirred. Next they mixed a teaspoon of Borax powder with a cup of water. This and a few drops of green food colouring were stirred into the mixture! See the gooey results for yourself 🙂

Discovery Science – Step 1 – Make a Lava Lamp

To complete this experiment the children had to figure out what the capacity of the bottle was using a measuring jug. They then had to quarter fill the bottle with water and figure out what two-thirds of the bottle’s total capacity was. They added this amount of vegetable oil to the water with 12 drops of food colouring. They broke the Alka-Seltzer into 4 parts and added them one by one, observing the effects. The children learned that the chemical energy from the Alka-Seltzer reacted with the water and produced carbon dioxide gas; which in turn tried to escape from the top.

 

Discovery Science – Step 1 – Heritage in Schools

Martina Butler visited our school on the 27th of February. The senior classroom learned about pollination and pollinators. They investigated if our garden was a pollinator-friendly garden which indeed it is. In our garden, we have long grasses, wild flowers, pots with herbs, flowers that have grown from bulbs and flowering trees. All of which prove very alluring to the buzzing bees! 

Guzzler and the polar bear taught the junior classroom about energy consumption and what can done to use less energy.

Discovery Science – Step 1 – Growing Tomatoes

Today we planted tomato seeds. Growing tomatoes shows the children how a common edible fruit can be produced, from seed germination to flowering and fruit formation. While tending to their tomato plants, children will learn about the plant life cycle and the factors affecting growth.

We have watered our pots already today and they are now on a well-lit, warm windowsill. Now all we have to do is wait!

We have lift off!!!

Replanting our tomatoes on the 26th of April! My how they’ve grown!

Discovery Science – Step 4 – Make a Paper Rocket

In this experiment, the children became aware of how moving air can make things move. Children were encouraged to Design and Make their own rocket when given materials such as A4 sheet of paper, straw, scissors, pencil (of approximately the same diameter as the straw), sellotape and measuring tape.The children launched their rockets a number of times, firstly estimating the distances traveled and then measuring them and taking the average distance in a controlled test. They drew a graph afterwards to represent their results.

 

Did you know? Rockets were invented in China over 800 years ago. The first ones were very simple – a cardboard tube packed with gunpowder and attached to a guide stick – a bit like the fireworks we use today!!