Our trip to Dún na Sí Discovery Centre

We are very lucky to have Dún na Sí Amenity and Heritage Park so close to our school.  Mrs. Kelly’s and Mr. Forde’s class were delighted to visit the Discovery Centre.  We learned all about the turlough which is one of only a few turloughs east of the River Shannon.  We explored and investigated the plants that grow in and around the turlough.  We learned about the animals that live in this type of habitat.

Fantastic DNA Workshop

We were so excited to become scientists for the morning when the Cell Explorers Roadshow came to visit the school.  The aim of this roadshow was to allow us to get a hands on experience with DNA through experiments and activities.   A team of scientists from the Athlone Institute of Technology came and changed our classroom into what seemed like a real laboratory and helped us with the first activity which was to extract DNA from a banana.  After we talked about cells and how they are the basic unit of living things we then learned about the role of DNA and how it affects aspects of how we look.

We then got to extract some DNA from a banana using special equipment and solutions.  We even got to take a test tube of the DNA we extracted during the experiment.

That was only half of our work completed!  In our next activity we learned about the structure of DNA. We finished our session by building a 3D model of DNA using plastic shapes.  It was such an interesting day and we really enjoyed being scientists for the morning.