Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
See our 2021 S.T.E.M Year in review:
Click to view: STEM Committee Overview 2021
Discovery Primary Science and Maths Awards
The Discover Primary Science and Maths Programme (DPSM) is part of Science Foundation Ireland’s Education and Public Engagement Programme, which aims to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among students, teachers and members of the public. DPSM originated in 2003 with the goal of introducing primary school students to science in a practical, hands-on, enjoyable and interactive way.
We have achieved and been awarded a DPSM award each year for the last five successive years for our whole school work in science, maths, technology and engineering. See our work from 2019-2020 work below (insert link to PDF submission).
Each year we celebrate Maths Week, EU coding Week, Science Week and Engineering Week with a wide range of activities and projects.
BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition
The Primary Science Fair has been an exciting part of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition for over 15 years. Over the years our school have had projects selected for the RDS Primary Science fair and classes have enjoyed the amazing experience of presenting their projects which they have been hard at work on in school.
Development of pupils’ ideas is central to science education. They use ideas formed from previous experience to make sense of things that happen around them. Ideas may be limited and inconsistent with formal theories. Science education helps them to modify ideas and develop more scientific understandings. Meaningful learning occurs when pupils construct their understanding by modifying their existing ideas in the light of new insights gained from scientific investigations.
Intel Mini Scientist Competition
The Intel Mini Scientist is a competition for Primary school students in which they develop science related projects that are exhibited at fairs within their own schools. Winning projects selected at this school level exhibition then go on to take part in the Mini Scientist Regional Final event with the possibility of continuing on to the Grand Final event. The competition, which is open to 4th, 5th, and 6th class students, supports the Primary Science curriculum and is a great way to encourage enthusiasm and practical learning in the area of science.
We celebrate and take part in the INtel Mini Scientist competition each year with fantastic entries from students 4th – 6th classes. We have a whole school exhibition in our school hall. See photo highlights below from entries over the past few years.
Last year we were delighted to announce that St.Raphaela’s Primary School 4th Class Student Sophia Acosta has made it all the way through to the Grand Final of the Intel Mini Scientist Competition which took place at Maynooth University on January 29th 2020.
Sophia’s winning project, entitled Grätzel Solar Cell, first won the Intel Mini Scientist Competition in November 2019. This was the first round of the competition. It involved 120 students from 4th, 5th and 6th class who entered the St.Raphaela’s in-school competition. The exhibition involved 53 teams or individuals presenting their ideas to every class level from Junior Infants to 6th class. It was visited by Intel employees who judged all entries and selected one winning project from St.Raphaela’s to go forward to a regional final.
The second round, held on December 6th was the Intel Mini Scientist Regional Final for the Leinster area. This was hosted at the TU Dublin Blanchardstown campus. The Regional Final brought together over 200 students from 72 different schools in Kildare, Dublin, Laois, Meath, Wicklow, Westmeath, Kilkenny, Wexford, Louth and Monaghan. From this round, 16 projects were selected at the event to go forward to the National Grand Final which will take place later this month in Maynooth University.
The 2019 Intel Mini Scientist competition saw more than 7,200 students from 105 schools in 18 counties across Ireland taking part.
Visit www.intel.ie/miniscientist for information about the program.
Engineers Week
Each year we celebrate Engineering Week where we have many different activities, guest speakers and workshops throughout the school. Each year we have an Ultimate Design Challenge where students are tasked to design and construct. For 2019-2020 year our theme was Space and students had to design a Parachute. For 2018-2019 students had to design and create a Boat. For 2017-2018 students had to design a Bridge.
Robotic Workshops
Each year we have Lego Robotic Workshops with Learn IT Ireland with our senior classes and Bricks 4 Kidz workshops with our junior classes.
Learnit comes to the classroom with a wide choice of workshops, from one-off themed science weeks for the whole school to bespoke, customised packages for one or two classes. Covering all of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, their LEGO Education based workshops give our students the opportunity to become engineers, researchers, analysts, designers and more.
Through practical and hands-on approach, students learn to take measurements, analyse data, make predictions, solve problems and design solutions. Every child takes part, working in teams to build and test their projects.