Over the past few days, Mr McConnell's 5th class have had lots of fun investigating transpiration in celery stalks.  We have also been tracking their water consumption using water coloured with food dye.

Lincoln gave the class a fascinating robotics demonstration to the class this morning. He designed, built and programmed a Jimu robot. He explained that it is controlled by a motherboard which sends electricity to servoes which move motors, causing the robot to move, depending on how you programme it. Well done and thanks very much Lincoln!

Yesterday, Lincoln very kindly brought in his trumpet and gave a few of the classes in the school a short demonstration of his trumpet playing skills.

Many thanks and well done Lincoln!

Today two Cork City soccer players came to the school to talk to the boys and girls and to show us the trophies they won last season; the League Cup and the FAI Cup.

Well done to them on their great achievement! We wish them all the best for the current campaign!

Today, Dan O'Keeffe very kindly brought in some artefacts from World War I and the War of Independence.  The heirlooms belonged to his great grandfathers and great granduncles.  These men fought in World War I and the War of Independence.  Some of the items he showed us and spoke about included: medals, soldiers' books, postcards and pictures.  At the moment, we are reading a historical fiction called "The Guns of Easter", which was set at the time of the 1916 Rising and World War I, so it was fascinating to see history come alive and hear about these brave men from Dan's family.  Thanks very much Dan!

Last Friday, the boys from 5th and 6th classes had an enjoyable morning at Sci Fest 2018.  This was held at CIT and featured science projects and experiments from secondary schools in the Cork area.  The boys had great fun viewing and interacting with the many interesting displays.  No doubt it will help to inspire many of them to study science subjects when they move on to second level themselves.

On Tuesday, Mr. McConnell's 5th class went on a class trip to the Lifetime Lab. The theme for the day was forces.  The boys practised lots of science and engineering skills while using levers, pulleys and magnets. Among other challenges, they had great fun building a magnetic car and rescuing a Lego man using a wind powered lifting machine. Many thanks to Una for hosting the workshop and to Norma for accompanying us on the visit.

For the past number of weeks, the boys in fifth class have been working hard on a marine project instigated by the Lifetime Lab. The boys in Mr McConnell's class produced one entitled "Caring For Our Oceans".  They worked in groups, or on their own, to examine why oceans are so important to the world, the threats to the oceans and what we can do to conserve our oceans.  Shazia (a marine scientist working with the Lifetime Lab) visited the school today and was very impressed by the standard of the posters and the presentations that the boys gave. The boys in turn, learned lots and thoroughly enjoyed the project.

The boys in Mr McConnell's 5th class went to the Airport Business Park today to visit the offices of Poppulo.  Poppulo is a software company where Aisling (our tutor for Sense About Maths activities) works.  We all had a great time learning about maths applications such as the software Poppulo develops, the computer game Tetris and even controlling a robot!  Thanks Aisling for all your work and for a great day out!

The boys in Mr McConnell's and Ms Curzon's 5th classes had a great day last Friday on their school tour.  We visited Zipit in Farran Woods and spent the day ziplining through the trees. All the boys thoroughly enjoyed the day and many of them said they'd love to return when they're a little older to tackle the more challenging courses!

As part of Engineers Week 2017, Caoimhe, an engineer who works for MSD, gave boys from 5th class a fascinating talk today.  She told us all about how to become an engineer and gave us a flavour of the many different types of work engineers can end up doing. She clearly loves her job and the variety it entails.  Thanks Caoimhe for an inspiring presentation!

The boys in Mr McConnell's 5th Class had great fun performing two pieces in the hall today in the school concert to celebrate Seachtain na Gaeilge.  The first was "An Seilide", a poem by Gabriel Rosenstock.  The second was the traditional Irish song, "Trasna na dTonnta".  Well done boys!

The boys in Mr McConnell's 5th Class had a wonderful time in UCC today. We had a guided tour of the most significant buildings on campus and we learned lots about their origins and history.  The tour finished with a junior conferring ceremony.  No doubt many of our pupils will go on to graduate for real from this famous university! 

Well done to all the boys for their great dancing this morning!  Conor (from Project Spraoi) filmed the routine and, if we're lucky, we'll feature on Operation Transformation next Wednesday.  Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Boys practising "Morning Has Broken" in advance of assembly this Friday.