Digital Learning

Castleknock Educate Together National School has been awarded the status of a 'Digital School of Distinction' by Daithí Ó Murchú, our validator for the Digital Schools Award. Thank you to all of the staff and volunteer parents for the hard work involved.

At Castleknock Educate Together National School, we will continue to find new and innovative ways to integrate digital technologies into our teaching, learning and assessment across the curriculum.

Our Student Digital Leaders

Our Student Digital Leaders are democratically elected by their classmates. They are children with a passion for technology, who want to share their knowledge with others and promote the use of all things digital throughout our school. Being a Digital Leader is a fantastic opportunity to take on responsibility, learn new skills, develop and demonstrate leadership skills.

Our Student Digital Leaders 2023/2024

3D Printing Workshop in Fingal Makerspace & 3D Printer gifted to our School - June 2024

6th class attended a very interesting 3D Printing Workshop in Fingal Makerspace recently. See all creations here - http://www.cetns.ie/News/3D-Printing-Workshop-3D-Printer-gifted-to-CETNS/387870/Index.html

Exciting news! CETNS now has our very own 3D printer gifted to us by a parent! Thank you so much. We very much look forward to using it!

Our 3D Printing Adventure! By Jerry and Sonia. :] :]

When we arrived at school in the morning, the classroom was full of excitement. We couldn't wait to learn about 3D printing and how it worked. We had planned to take a Dublin Bus to the Fingal Makerspace. We arrived at the bus stop and we waited for a whole 40 mins! It turned out that the roads were closed for the new Taoiseach, Simon Harris.

It took just over 5 mins and we finally arrived at the workshop. Kate greeted us and told us that she would be teaching us today.

She taught us the basics and uses of 3D printing for example printing houses and medical equipment. Then we started to learn how to design our own 3D prints. She then showed us how to make shapes and indents on it using a special program on the laptops.

After that she gave us a fun challenge. Design an egg cup. She gave us specific measurements for the egg and we had to ensure our eggcup was the correct size to fit an egg.

We each designed our own egg cup in pairs. We could add special features which we had a lot of fun with. Some groups even made an egg cup that looked like a toilet!

After that Kate picked the top four to choose a colour to print the designs in. She said they would be ready in a few weeks.

We had a lot of fun and it was a great experience.

STEAM Animation, Beebots & Robotics - May 2024

Well done to our 5th & 6th classes on their excellently crafted animations using 'Stop Motion Go' as part of their Creative Schools Work this year. We were delighted to watch their movies in the hall this week. Thank you to BrickFlicks Academy for the amazing STEAM workshops.

Infant classes enjoyed working with hives of bumblebee coding robots called Beebots. Some of the older classes created & tested Beebot games for their younger buddies to play!

Older classes relished the opportunity to explore Robotics in pairs this week as we borrowed extra sets of robotics from Dublin West Education Centre for Creative Schools Week.

http://www.cetns.ie/News/STEAM-Animation-Beebots-and-Robotic-Coding/385881/Index.html

First Lego League Creativity - May 2024

4th Class had great fun participating in the First Lego League Explore initiative over the past few weeks. This is a STEM programme which encourages students to investigate a real world theme, develop teamwork, design & coding skills and have fun!

The First Lego League theme this year is MASTERPIECE. We worked with STEM in the Arts themed lego sets designed to inspire curiosity around STEM in creative fields of work. We also needed our school Lego Spike kits and our Chromebooks to code.

We began by learning about different types of stadiums including the Colosseum's amazing engineering feats making our way to modern day stage production. The children worked in groups to complete many First Lego League challenges. The class had to build a stage that reflected their interests in groups using FLL boxes. Next, the groups had to make & code 3 moving models and then modify them to be useful in their project e.g. make a spinning merry go round, then modify it into a rotating stage.

The last activity was open ended - building and coding their own idea that would add to their stage arena project! Great creativity was on display! Ideas included a tour bus bringing the performers to the stage, a ferris wheel and pinball game to entertain the concert goers, a helicopter to transport the VIPs. One group even created a ticket checker machine that used colour motion sensor and asked "tickets please". If the ticket was green, a voice said "ticket accepted", if the ticket was red, a voice said "ticket declined!".

Take a look at the creativity and fun here!

http://www.cetns.ie/News/First-Lego-League-Creativity/267711/Index.html

First Lego League 2024 - April

We are very excited to try out the First Lego League this year in our school! We will use our Chromebooks and Lego Education Spike kits to complete Lego League coding & building challenges!

Lego Education Spike Fun!

Our classes are having lots of fun with our Lego Education Spike robotic kits!

Safer Internet Day will be celebrated on February 6th 2024

Our Digital Leaders, who are student representatives from 3rd to 6th class, are running their first school event to raise awareness of the very important topic of Internet Safety.

CETNS Poster Competition for Safer Internet Day 6th February

You are invited to design a poster for Safer Internet Day. Write one Internet safety rule and illustrate it using an A4 sheet.

Give your entry to your teacher by Tuesday the 6th of February.

There will be a winner chosen from each class!

Good Luck!

January 2024 - First Lego League kits arrive!

We are so excited to have received class sets of First Lego League Explore kits and First Lego League Discover kits and some Lego Education Spike sets. Thank you to the Science Foundation of Ireland and the Institute of Engineering and Technology for funding these. Thank you also to our very patient transition year students who have organised all of these kits ready to use. Watch this space!!!!!

December - First Robotics Workshop

2nd, 3rd and 5th class had a fantastic experience today at their 'Introduction to Robotics' workshop. The Lego Education Spike kits sparked huge excitement in the classes, all the fun of building with LEGO bricks, plus the challenge of computer programming. Everyone involved was delighted to learn so much about robotics in such a fun way!

More workshops next Wednesday! See all the action here -

http://www.cetns.ie/News/Robotics-Workshops-in-2nd,-3rd-5th-Classes/143808/Index.html

December - Second Robotics Workshops

2nd, 3rd and 5th classes enjoyed their hands on 'Introduction to Robotics' workshop today using Lego Education Spike kits. Lots of fun was had by all! Thank you Ross from Creative Hut for all the fun and engaging sessions using educational technology in our school.

http://www.cetns.ie/News/More-Robotics-Workshops-Today-for-5th,-3rd-2nd-Class/144042/Index.html

Coding on our Chromebooks

Fourth class used our new Chromebooks to do some coding. They wrote code to make their characters dance!!!! See more here -

http://www.cetns.ie/News/4th-Class-try-out-some-Coding-on-the-Chromebooks/141468/Index.html