Investigative creativity on display at science fair

The hall at Presentation Senior School was also busy a in early February when their science fair took place. That day, groups of children from each class took turns presenting their projects to other pupils, in a celebration and promotion of STEM, and science.

Among the experiments were some investigating fingerprints, fiction, and the properties of liquids.

Teacher Niamh O’Neill explained what was happening on the day: “We have a science fair in the school to promote STEM, and scientific investigation and learning in all the classrooms, and each class decided on a project they were going to design, develop and display and show to the rest of the school.

“So they designed it, made whatever they had to make – they used recycled materials, whatever was at home – tested it and checked that it worked, and displayed it to the rest of the classes, along with information boards.

“The idea behind it is to promote STEM, which is important in today’s society, and there was loads of scientific language learning, because the children explained it in their own words to each other.”

The projects linked to subjects on the curriculum.

Sean McDonnell Bradley, Fionn Carey, Sauleja Brazinska, Veronika Waduge and Lexi Maloney Gahan were on the fingerprints display when the Westmeath Examiner called in, and they told us that “no one in the world has the same fingerprint as you”.

They set up an experiment to demonstrate the difference between fingerprints and to determine people’s fingerprint type – there are three types: the arch, the loop, and the whorl.

Davy Joyce, David Neven, Ella O’Reilly, Eva Barron, Emily O’Loughlin and Justinas Natkavakus had chosen friction as their class project and they used toy cars to demonstrate how difference surfaces determine how far and how fast each car would go when launched down a ramp. They had covered the ramps in silver foil, cling-film, paper and other materials.