Mayo school chosen for Young Scientist Exhibition
The project is called Sunflower Power and it began last May when the school received a sunflower seed kit from Biodiversity in Schools.
Progressive national school Holy Trinity from Westport have been selected to exhibit at the prestigious Stripe Primary Science Fair at the RDS this week.
This is the junior section of the well-known Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition and is designed to spark a lifelong love for science, technology and maths in primary students. It takes place alongside the secondary school event and the 5th and 6th classes with their teacher Meriel Donaghy travel to Dublin on Friday to present their project.
The project is called Sunflower Power and it began last May when the school received a sunflower seed kit from Biodiversity in Schools. The children planted sunflower seeds in biodegradable pots and tended them as they grew, transplanting them to the school’s street garden. When the flowers matured, the flowers were used as a learning tool, opening up a fascinating new world.
The pupils studied the bees and other pollinators attracted to sunflowers, leading to a wider view of bees in Ireland. They explored the plants themselves and their constituent parts. Sunflowers are heliotropes, following the sun and the classes studied this and modelled how the stem grows at different rates on each side to achieve this.
Close study of the patterns of seeds in the sunflower heads revealed spirals in both clockwise and counter clockwise directions. On counting these, the children discovered they totalled consecutive Fibonacci numbers, which led to exploring the Fibonacci sequence in maths class. They also looked at sunflowers in art – Van Gogh being the most famous – and drew and painted the flowers themselves.
In October, when the seedheads were ready for harvest, they extracted the seeds, finding up to 2,000 in the bigger heads. These were counted, weighed and measured, and their multiple uses explored. Some fed the birds, some fed the pupils, some were resown immediately, and others will be sown in spring. Continuing the experiment, the classes will also sow seeds from the original pack so they can compare the two generations of seed and flower.
This is a remarkable outcome from one small pack of seeds and is a perfect example of the holistic Holy Trinity approach to teaching. Both students and teacher are looking forward to their day out in Dublin showcasing their wonderful project.
