On Saturday 16th January the 6th class girls from St Anne’s primary school in Rathkeale represented their school in the RDS primary science fair which was held for the first time ever outside Dublin, at Mary Immaculate College. Their scientific question was ‘What is the perfect sponge cake and how do you achieve it’ .The fair was the culmination of two months of work on this topic from surveys to pie charts, baking, rating and tasting cakes and even a trip to the Deel Bakery to pick Noel White’s brain on ‘the perfect sponge’
Once the girls arrived at Mary Immaculate College and set up their project, the class was divided into 2, one group was taken around the college campus to experience different scientific shows, the other group stayed at the stand and explained and discussed their experiment to the public. Onlookers were delighted with samples of ‘the perfect sponge’ and watched as the girls used experiments to show how hot air rises and how a chemical reaction bet-ween baking powder and moisture also causes the air to rise. They also explained the function of the various ingredients in the cake and shared some tips on how to make the perfect sponge.
When the judge came to the stand he was very impressed with the overall project paying particular attention to the maths elements, simplifying the ratios of the main ingredients, displaying results on mathematical tables and representing data on pie charts. He was also very impressed with the variety of scientific skills used. He also commended the girls for their enthusiasm and interest in the subject and enjoyed listening to how the air rising experiments relate to making the perfect sponge.
After a quick lunch the groups switched jobs and an afternoon of science fun was enjoyed by all: the ugly animal show, the science behind juggling and racing go karts were some of the events that entertained the crowds.
At 2.30pm the judge presented the girls with their plaque, gave some feedback and congrat-ulated the class on a job well done! A great day was had by all and the girls did a great job representing their school.