Yesterday, 3rd of June, a man called Declan (from Science Ireland)came to our school to talk about science, technology and engineering!

Firstly, we all gathered in the junior room, at around 11 o’clock and he gave us stuff to do. We did motion pictures, and if you are blank about that, it’s where we got a piece of card, he put 2 holes on the two sides of it and elastic bands through them, tied them, and we drew a picture on one side and another on the other side (e.g a man falling off a cliff and on the other side he is landed in the water) and when you twist it around again and again with the elastics, it looks like a little one clip movie.

Then, we did paper areoplanes but not the typical ones, ones with straw and paper circles so when they flew (some went well some not) the wind would push through the circles making it fly. We also did other fun stuff!

He also told us about what was going to be invented in the future which caught all our attention. Every time he told us something new (e.g about a digital wallpaper which is already invented but costs the price of a house) we all were like “woahhhhh”

Over all, it turned out to be a great, interesting lesson! Everyone, including the teachers were astonished with all he told us about the future and how science works. I think the number of people wanting to be scientists or engineers, just got higher!

from April’s Blog

My school in Inver actually had a real scientist (yes you heard me correctly) in our school!! The scientist’s name was Declan. He made lots of cool art pieces with us,

(1) First we made ‘motion pictures’. On one side we drew a picture of something about to happen…and then flipped it over from the top. We had two elastic bands and we tied them onto the picture and twisted them at about 20km a hour. It moved as if it was a movie. Movies use the same technique as that but with 24 pictures a second!

The ‘motion pictures’ were my favourite although we did a moving woodpecker and a straw and paper aeroplane.

In our classroom Declan told us about the technological future. There is going to be a watch that cures cancer! And turns into a phone. A real tablet, And!!! When you throw it at a wall it turns into a 32inch TV. Ok.. I really want one! And hoverboards are in progress of being made right now!!! With copper wires in the footpath you can now fly!🚀🚀🚀🚀✈️✈️✈️✈️🐤🐤🐤🐦🐤🐦🐤
From Siobhan’s Blog

Today we were doing fun things with Declan who is a scientist.

We made things like motion cards, aeroplanes and wood peckers.

This is how you make the motion cards: first get a piece of cardboard put a hole each side then draw a picture on both sides and spin it around.

I recommend you have a day like today because Declan told us about the future.
From Jack’s Blog

Today a scientist/engineer called Declan came to our school.
First he showed us a piece of card with two drawings. He spun it round fast and then it looked like the drawings were one. Afterwards, we made our own ones. I made a pool table with a man.
Then we made hoop planes. It’s basically a straw with two hoops on it but mine and Mikey’s didn’t fly very well. After big break we made Woodpeckers. It was cool.
Then Declan came up to our room and told us about the future’s gadgets. It was a fun day.
By Kian

Today a man called Declan came to our school to do some science with us. The first thing he did with us was with a piece of paper. He had a picture of a gold fish bowl ( but it looked a little like a horse shoe) on one side and on the back he had a picture of a fish. He attached two elastic bands. Then he started to spin it around. It looked like the fish was in the bowl. He then let all of us have a go. Mine was a picture of a girl happy and then sad.
The next thing he did with us was an aeroplane. It was made with two straws and to strips of card. You make one small shape and then a bigger shape. It was really cool and he let us make our own one too.
Our final thing was a wood pecker. It was basically that when you put a straw on an elastic band it vibrates. So when you have the wood pecker on it looks like like its pecking .
Finally he came into our class and told us about the future. The is going to be loads of new devices. I really hope that Declan comes again to tell us about other stuff.
The end
😍 By Shauna😍

Today, the 3rd of June 2015, a man called Declan came to our school to talk to us about science and engineering. This time last year he came too, and he was very interesting.

When he arrived in our school, our room, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class, went down to the small room so he could talk about science to us, as well as the younger students.

He started with talking to us about pictures and how years ago, in movies, that instead of a video they would take lots of pictures and put them together so that when you would watch the pictures, about 24 pictures per second, your brain thinks that it’s a video clip. Then after he finished talking to us about that, he showed us a demonstration of the moving pictures, but it was one he had drawn himself. On one side there was an empty goldfish bowl and on the other side of the paper there was a goldfish on its own. Also, on the two sides of the paper there were two holes punched and tied into both of them were two elastic bands, so he could flip the paper back and forth easily. When he explained to us about the piece of paper he started flipping the page back and forth really fast, and it made it look like the goldfish was inside the goldfish bowl! We were all amazed! Declan told us that the reason it looked like the goldfish was inside of the bowl was because when the picture is flipped back and forth, our brains trick us and instead of being able to think that the two pictures are separate, it makes it look like the two are the same. Then, Declan told us that we could have a go! We all tried to brainstorm an idea for our own drawings. In the end I decided to draw a radio with music notes around it. Once we were all finished we showed them to Declan and he really liked them all.

Then Declan went on to something different. He showed us how to make a small plane that was made out of two straws, paper and cellotape. We were all told to pick a younger student as our partner for making the plane. I picked Kayleigh. What you had to do was to get two straws and cut them a small bit and cellotape them together so they will be secure. Then you get your paper and cut it. Then, along with your partner, you can choose one, two, or even three shapes that you would like to use in your design and once you have them picked, you can fold the paper into those shapes and attach them to the straws with cellotape! Then you are ready to fly your plane! My and Kayleigh’s plane flew well, but it didn’t fly great, unfortunately. Once all of the plane excitement was over, it was time for break.

After break we went back into the small room again and this time we made a woodpecker out of paper, a small straw, cellotape and an elastic band. We were once again told to pick a younger student as a partner and I went with Kayleigh again. Together, we coloured in the woodpecker on a piece of paper and once we were done, I cut out the bird and it’s wings. Then we went up to Declan and got a small straw, an elastic band and some cellotape. Kayleigh and I cellotaped the straw to the middle of the paper bird. Then we cellotaped the bird together and threaded the broken elastic band through the straw. Kayleigh then pulled on the elastic band the bird was on and suddenly the bird started to climb down the elastic, and it made it look like it was pecking the elastic! It was really cool! After that, it was time to go up to our own classroom again.

After a little bit, Declan decided to come up to our classroom. He spoke to us about the future, and different types of gadgets that will or might be invented in the future. My favourite thing that he spoke about was electronic wallpaper. He said that it actually exists right now but it is very expensive. What happens is you cover a wall with wallpaper, like you would usually do, but here’s the twist, at the bottom of the wall, where the wallpaper ends, there is a wire. Using that wire you can change the wall paper to whatever you want!! You can even make the room a giant television!!!! Declan also said that in some aeroplanes they might start taking out the windows and replacing them with this wallpaper, so that they can still show the outside! Declan also spoke about a watch that can detect if there are any cancer cells in your arm! Just before he left, Declan wanted us girls to remember that science and engineering aren’t just boy’s subjects, girls can do them too.

I really enjoyed Declan’s visit to our school and I really liked the different things he did with us, like the moving pictures, the aeroplanes and the woodpeckers! I also thought that the talk he gave to us older students was really good and interesting! I think that science and engineering are really cool now but I’m not really sure if I would like to do anything like that when I grow up.

From Amy’s blog