Young scientists from the laboratories and classrooms of Balmayne Educate Together National School made an impact at the 2012 RDS Primary Science Fair!
The fair, which is part of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, provides an opportunity for students to think about science in practical and fun ways and helps to develop their skills in communicating their interest and knowledge of science to others.
The children of 4th, 5th and 6th class at Belmayne ETNS impressed with their project, ‘Lemon Power’, which involved making environmentally friendly batteries from lemons. The children explored circuits and switches, tested lemon battery cells, and powered toy cars and calculators with lemon juice.
Belmayne ETNS Teacher, Fiona Ni Ghloinn, praised the hard work that the students put in, The results of the project were not very positive in favour of a lemon powered future but very positive in favour of the future of the budding scientists we have in Belmayne Educate Together!
Over 3,000 primary school students representing 120 schools from across Ireland displayed their projects at the fair. As usual, Educate Together schools punched above their weight â with young scientists from six Educate Together National Schools – Galway, Midleton, North Kildare, Belmayne, Balbriggan, and Castleknock â exhibiting their projects. Although Educate Together pupils make up just 2% of the overall primary school population in Ireland, their work is regularly selected for inclusion.
Educate Together CEO Paul Rowe visited the exhibition to find out more about the projects exhibited by pupils from Belmayne ETNS. He said, ‘I would like to congratulate every Educate Together pupil, teacher and parent involved in working on these very impressive scientific investigations. Today’s school pupils will be members of the knowledge economy of tomorrow and I’m delighted to see Educate Together schools at the forefront of this movement’.