Veritas

In October 2000 we found out that we were to be part of the "Empowering Minds" project. The aim of this project is to encourage children and teachers to develop technological fluency and by project-based learning to bring ideas of design, control, sensing and programming to children. It aims to use technology as an integrating agent within the school, connecting these new ideas with the revised curriculum content. Another dimension to the project is to collaborate and share ideas with classes in other schools who are also involved in the project.

The LEGO materials which are funded by NCTE and eircom arrived in the school towards the end of October. We were all very excited. We had great fun unpacking them. There were green boxes, yellow boxes and a black box.
Groups of us shared the green boxes. Some people prefered to make something from the yellow boxes by themselves.

After a couple of weeks we sorted the LEGO. We put all the gears into one box, wheels into another, beams into another and so on. We then had to collect the pieces we needed to make something. Francesca, Zoe and Kelsey made this vehicle from a book. First they collected all the bits. Then they built each part one step after the other. It was really good. They called it 'motorslow'.
Graham and Wayne got all the pieces they needed and made a car with gears as weapons like blades and whirlie things. It was hard to keep the back wheels on the brick because the wire was getting in the way and it got twisted and the wheel came off. The front wheels were quite easy at first then they fell off and it was hard putting them back on.
Nils and Thomas made a robot. It was a giant scorpion. They called it Bugman. It had eight wheels and no programmable or motors. It was about a foot long. It had two big eyes on the front. It had two beams as a tail. It had four gears on the back for protection. It had two clippers. We forgot to take the picture.
Francesca, Roslyn and Róisín made this house. Leah got a lot of stuff to help them out. They used beams for the floor and some for the door. They made furniture. It was great fun. Francesca made a bed and a chair and a fire-place. Roslyn helped with the fireplace and made a T.V. Róisín made a table and chairs and helped build the wall. They used little coloured bricks to hold some of it together because it was shakey.

We broke up that house and built a better one. It had an upstairs and a downstairs. It had furniture. It had a bed, a chair and a fireplace. It had a Christmas tree and a table in the middle. Kelsey made a fish tank and there was a dressing room in the bedroom. It had a walk on roof with a chair and a pine tree. There was a chimney on the roof as well.

Paul found traffic lights in a book and copied them. When he connected them to a brick they lit up. you can see them on the left of this page.
Daniel made a road with a railway station beside it. He made a barrier across the road. It was hard work. When he connected it to the programmable brick the barrier went up but would not come down. We programmed the brick to reverse direction after 5 seconds. We added Paul's traffic lights to his construction. We programmed them to light red then yellow then green. When we thought about it we realised it should be green then yellow then red. When we were getting ready to show off our work at the Young Scientist and Technology exhibition in the R.D.S. we changed the batteries and had to reprogramme the brick. This time we programmed green on for 7 seconds, yellow on for 2 seconds and red on for 5 seconds. We thought it was a great achievement.

The Pavilion Theatre opened in Dún Laoghaire during December 2000. We went along to see their first production 'The Quest of the Good People'. It was based on the folk and fairy tales of W.B.Yeats, adapted for the stage by Stephen Edwards and Karen Louise Hebden. We loved the whole show but we particularly liked the part which tells the story of Etain. King Midir was engaged to Fuamnach but he falls madly in love with a beautiful girl called Etain. Fuamnach was jealous and angry so she uses her magical powers to turn Etain into a butterfly. The wind carries Etain to the castle of Eochaidh who is the High King of Ireland. King Eochaidh loves her, but he builds a cage for her and only lets her out at night. King Midir is heartbroken and sets out to find Etain. The Good People use their special map to help him find her. King Eochaidh does not want to let Etain go so King Midir challenges him to a game of chess with Etain as the prize. King Midir wins the game and gets Etain back.
We decided to use our LEGO to make our version of this story. First Nils made King Midir. He used the Mindstorms manual to help. Then he helped us to make King Eochaidh and Fuamnach.