Science - How Water travels through plants

In Science this week we investigated how water travels through plants.
We learned that water travels from the roots to the leaves through vessels called Xylem vessels.

First we added some food colouring to the water and left the celery in the water for a few hours. We could see where the water traveled up through the plant because of the red colour.

Next we split the stem of a white flower in half and left one side in clear water and the other side in coloured water. We observed that the red coloured water traveled up only one side of the stem and coloured only one half of the flower. This tells us that the vessels that carry the water through the plant are in a straight line.

 Finally we covered different sides of the leaves of a plant with vaseline and then sealed a plastic bag around them. This was  to investigate whether the stomata (which are tiny holes that allow water to leave the plant) are on the top or the underside of the leaves. We found that the  leaves where the underside were covered in vaseline did not produce any condensation on the plastic bag because the stomata were blocked. So we discovered that the stomata are on the underside of the leaves. The process by which water leaves the plant through the stomata is called transpiration.

International News

A snow blizzard swept across Massachusetts and Connecticut in northeastern America. It caused schools to close and cancelled thousands of flights, some from Dublin and Shannon airport. It hit places that left the residents digging up as much as 60 cm of snow.

By Adam Fitzgerald

Sport News

Luis Figo has entered the race for becoming Fifa president.
Determined to turn the organisation around he describes it as, currently having too many scandals.

BY ERIN DOLAN

Making Parachutes

On Tuesday 13th of January we designed and constructed parachutes using a variety of materials, including, cloth, paper and plastic and using magnets as weights. We tested parachutes of different sizes and found that the larger the parachute the more effective it was. The best materials in order were, paper, plastic, cloth.

Local and Sport news

                                                                    LOCAL NEWS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 On the eight of January a family who shall remain unnamed got locked out of their car after the mum had left her keys inside her car with a hyper dog. The daughter was feeling panicked but the mum remained calm. After a period of around 20 - 40 min. the family managed to get the dog to step on the keys again, therefore unlocking the car.

SPORT

Shagari is on loan to Inter Milan.

By Jacqueline Bonner

(INTERNATIONAL) Four cartoon makers have been killed, because of an offensive way they portrayed Mohammad, the Muslim prophet.

(NATIONAL) A memorial service was held, for the four girls who hit a van in Kildare two nights ago.Their funerals will take place on the 9th of January 2015                                

                                                                         
By: John Birkett