A few weeks ago p5/6/7 worked on designs for a wave power device for the Junior Saltire Awards, which is a national competition for school children to design and make their own devices to promote the use of renewable energy. The group that built the device was called Wave Islay, and included Bronagh, Joe, Murray, Kaya, Abi and Ellie. We researched renewable and non renewable energy and learned about wave powered devices. Bronagh’s dad came in to help us build our device. When it was finished we went to test it in the sea and it worked. We had to fill in some papers to send away. Later on we found out that our device was in the finals. Now we are working on improvements to make it better! Bronagh, Joe, Murray and Kaya get to go to Edinburgh for the awards on the 9th June, where we will test our device in the Flo Wave facility at Edinburgh University. It is all very exciting!
The Scottish Mathematical Challenge
This year pupils at Port Ellen primary school took part in the Scottish Mathematical Challenge where they had to answer problem solving questions 3 times over the year showing their working out. To get a bronze award you couldn’t lose more than 10 points, to get a silver award you couldn’t lose more than 6 points and to get a gold award you couldn’t lose more than 3 points. Rebecca, Katie, Ross and Matthew got a bronze award and I got a silver award missing out on a gold award by only one point! I feel happy because I got a silver I am also very surprised because I didn’t think my problem solving was that good. One of the questions was “Maureen, Alice and Siobhan are three young sisters, in that order of age. Alice is two years older than Siobhan. Each year, their wealthy aunt gives each of them, for each year of her age, as many pounds as she is years old. For example, on her first birthday a girl would receive one pound and on her third birthday nine pounds. The aunt has promised to continue this family custom with each girl until her twelth birthday. This year Maureen received as much as Alice and Siobhan put together.
How much will Siobhan receive next year?” I found this quite tricky. There was also a question about a diagram that represents a rectangular net, which is made from string notted together at different points. Another one was about a diving competition where there are 5 judges that each awards a whole-number from 1-10 and you had to work out all the possible scores awarded. It was really challenging but helped me get better at my maths problem solving. There is an award ceremony in June in Glasgow. Next year I will try to get a gold.
Scottish Country Dancing
For the Day of Dance, which is when children from other schools come to Bowmore hall and we all do different dances, we have been practicing different dances in partners. We have learned the Dashing White Sergeant and much more. It has improved our level of fitness and we have learned to work together in groups and partners better. We have also improved our listening skills because we have to listen to the teachers so we know how to do the dances.
It is energetic and you can meet your friends and maybe new friends when we practice the dances and go to the day of dance and we will learn and get better at Scottish country dancing.
Fitness Club
Struan and Ronan are starting up a new club on a Wednesday and will be taking p 3,4,5. It will be running in the hall and out side when it is nice. Thy are going to be taking them for runs around the school and doing circuit courses in the hall. They are doing it as part of Struan’s Endevour which is fitness. It will be running at lunch time.
The Euroquiz With Port Ellen Primary
The Euroquiz is a quiz about Europe. There are four rounds, Geography, Languages, History and sports. The group of four became a pair because two people were absent on the day which didn’t help our chances. We had one back-up who had been practicing hard with the others but they still needed another person so Kaitlyn volunteered to do it.
The first round was Geography of Europe. Some questions were about flags, landmarks and capital cities. To do this round they had to watch a powerpoint on the big board then they had to write the answer on an answer sheet.
The second round was languages. In the languages round they listened to Spanish, Italian and French. To do this round the teacher would ask a question then they would listen to it in Spanish, then Italian and finally French after that they would translate what the people said in the languages, then they would listen to it again to make sure they got the right answer, finally they would write their answer down on the answer sheet and hand it in to the teacher.
The third round was history. For the history round it asked questions about the History of Europe and some questions were about dates some countries joined the EU and what countries were the first to join the EU.
The last round was about sports. It had questions about sport and where some sports clubs are. To do the round it was the same as the first and the third round just with sports questions instead of geography and history.
The four pupils from Port Ellen Primary School who competed in the Argyll And Bute Euroquiz came 5th out of 5 schools-last! But everyone enjoyed themselves and had good fun.
Science week at the High School
On Wednesday 16th March all of the p7 in Argyll and Bute went over to the Islay High School to learn about science, because it was science week.
At the High School we made our own crystals and we also had to try and make a light go on by connecting wires. We all really enjoyed the science and we learnt a lot of new things to do with science. The next day in Port Ellen Primary School p3/4 and p5/6/7 invited our parents in to come and see some of the science we had done working with partners.
We set up lots of tables with lots of different activities such as a Islay map where you had to label lots of different rocks, cakes, the rock cycle, volcano, and much more.
It was great fun.
The Generation Science Visit
On Monday the 7th of March Generation Science came for a visit. We got to do all sorts of things like building a model of a drill to collect oil and we looked at the world when there was no continents which was called Pangaea. We talked about all the layers and some types of rocks but the visit was mostly about oil and how it was formed. Oil was formed by dead plankton under the sea then it was pushed into a source rock then heat and pressure pushed it up into a reservoir rock with holes like a sponge. It got through the holes then the cap rock, which is like a lid of a bottle, stopped the oil getting to the surface. It can then be found using a thumper truck and sound and then core samples are drilled. We had to match the samples to the rock formations.
Finally we got to build an oil rig in teams which was really interesting, and I know oil rigs have a bridge, a derrick and a platform. We learned lots from the visit, including how oil is running out and we need to find a more sustainable energy source.
P567 Rock Trip
On Friday  P567 went on a rock trip and we went to Port Askaig, Bunnahabhain beach and Caol Ila beach. First we went to Port Askaig to see all the different types rocks that are on the big hill just up from the car park, made when a glacier covered Islay. We had to look for different rocks in with  the other rocks that had been picked up and dumped by the glacier. Then we went to Caol Ila Beach and we looked at the rocks and we even got to Smash up some rocks in half and see what was inside of them. We saw rocks formed under the sea because they had wave patterns on them like you see on the beach. Then we went to Bunnahabhain Beach and we went down the big hill to see trenches left by volcanic lava in the rock made from basalt. We even got to take some loose rocks back to school with us.
By Abi Logan
Geology With P5/6/7
P5/6/7 have been doing geology as their topic. They have been learning about renewable and non-renewable energy. Renewable sources are sources that will not run out and non-renewable sources are sources that will run out. They also have been learning how the energy is converted into electricity. They made posters on renewable and non-renewable sources. Some non-renewable sources are coal, gas, oil and nuclear power. Renewable sources are wind power, solar power, geothermal, tidal power and biomass. Wind power is using a wind-mill and when the wind comes it spins the wind-mill and creates electricity. They will be going on a field trip to smash up rocks next Friday.
Swimming School Nationals
On Saturday 30th January I went to the swimming nationals in Tollcross. It was double the size of the local pool because Tollcross is 50 meters long and Bowmore is 25. Tollcross was built for the commonwealth games. There was about 1,500 people including spectators and swimmers. There was 10 lanes in the pool so it was 10 people in a race. I was swimming backstroke and the person in my race broke the Scottish record. I came 30th out of the whole of Scotland. We also got a swimming cap, a t shirt and a jumper as souvenirs.
by Ross Thompson
