Primary Maths  & Science

To celebrate Space Week 4th ,5th and 6th classes travelled to the Court House in Easkey  to explore science and astronomy in the  Exploration Dome Mobile Planetarium  in a fun and interactive way. We would like to thank Ms. O’ Shaughnessy, Coláiste Iascaigh for organising and inviting us to the Planetarium.

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The Solar System is made up of all the planets that orbit our Sun. In addition to the 8  planets, the Solar System also consists of  dwarf planets,moons, comets, asteroids, minor planets,and dust and gas. Everything in the Solar System orbits or revolves around the Sun.

The Constellations?

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Astronomy is the oldest science. This is because even the earliest cavemen would look up at the sky and wonder about it . People saw that the motions of the stars were regular and predictable. The first use for Constellations was probably religious. People thought that the Gods lived in the heavens and that they created them. Many cultures believed that the positions of the stars were their God’s way of telling stories. So it seemed natural to recognize patterns in the sky, give them names, and tell stories about them. We inherited the names for our constellations from the Greeks nd they named the constellations after their mythological heroes and legends. So behind every constellation there is a story. For example, to the ancient Greeks, Orion was a great hunter. He was the son of Neptune (god of the sea). But the same stars were considered to depict Osiris by the Egyptians. Each different culture developed their own interpretation.

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A more practical use for constellations was agriculture. Before there were proper calendars people had no way of knowing  when to sow, or harvest except by the stars. Constellations made the patterns of the stars easy to remember. The ancient peoples knew for example that when the constellation Orion started to be fully visible winter was coming soon. Or they could look at the Summer Triangle to know when Summer or Spring were coming as well. The stars allowed farmers to plan ahead and constellations made it easier to recognize and interpret the patterns in the sky.

The constellations also helped with navigation. Sailors could  figure out latitude  just by looking at how high Polaris  was  in the night sky. This allowed for ships to travel across the globe to the discovery of America, the spread of European culture, and civilization as we know it today.

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Is Earth the only planet with life?  We watched a film about the hunt for the evidence of alien life. “WE ARE ALIENS!”

We also saw beautiful fractals.   A  fractal is made by repeating a simple process again and again. Fractals are found all over nature. We find the same patterns again and again, from   branching of trees, in  pine cones and shells.

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Did you know?

• Earth is in “The Goldilocks Zone”

• Dr Norah Patten  from Ballina, Co Mayo, was one of 12 participants from around the world selected to take part in a scientist-astronaut training programme in Florida in October 2017, and is now on the list of candidates available to go to space.Ever since she visited Nasa in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 11, she has always wanted to fly into space.

• There are millions and millions of microbes around the world. Where there are microbes there is life of some form.

• Saturn has 62 moons. (Mairéad) .  Titan is the largest moon .( Allie)

• Mars has a lake that is  16Km in lenth.(Brian C. )

• The criteria to be a planet, is size, spherical and have a clear orbit arounf the sun.(Eibhin)

• Galileo born Italy  made the first telescope in 1598.  (Amber)

• Robots are being to Mars to search for signs of life. (Noah)

• The diameter of the Moon is about a quarter if the diameter of the Earth. (Lindsay)

• Shooting stars  are not stars. A shooting star is really a small piece of rock or dust that hits Earth’s atmosphere from space. It moves so fast that it heats up and glows as it moves through the atmosphere. Shooting stars are actually what astronomers call meteors. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere before they reach the ground. However, once in a while a meteor is large enough than some of it survives and reaches Earth’s surface. Then it is called a meteorite. (Aoife)

• The air surrounding Earth is called the atmosphere. (Brian W.)

• Europa is one of Jupiter’s moons. (Alan)

• Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon. (Jack)

• Europa has twice as much water as our planet. (Wayne)

• The Goblin is a newly discovered dwarf planet and Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet in 2006.(Eoin)