Science Week - November 2010

Science Week 2010 took place from Nov 7th-14th. The theme was ‘Our place in Space’.

A hectic schedule of events was organised by Mr. O’Connor. David Sheil from Form 1 won the poster competition to advertise the week. Activities took place every day catering for all ages of students. Mr Whelan provided quizzes for Forms 1, 2 and 3. Ms. Gallagher and her Form 5 class demonstrated the use of water rockets.

Some invited guests were invited to talk to the students. A parent, Ms. Orla Ennis gave a talk to Form 5 Biology classes on her academic studies and potential fields of study and on her current work in the HSE Department of public health. The students asked some very intelligent questions and saw some clear differences between how different nations deal with notifiable diseases. Astronomer John Flannery gave two talks to students. One was career orientated and addressed to interested senior students , and the second was on focused at Form 1 and dealt mainly with amazing sights that can be seen in the winter sky right now. Of particular note is a shark fin partial eclipse that will be visible at sunrise (approximately 8.27am)on the morning of the 4th of January 2011. John displayed his huge knowledge of all things astronomical, when answering all the many questions being asked by the students.

Astronomy Talk in the Wilson Wright Hall

There were different trips organised for students off campus too. A group of Form 4, 5 and 6 students were invited to a talk hosted by Discover Science and Engineering in the Royal Irish Academy. The theme was ‘Wave goodbye to carbon emissions’ and dealt with the energy available from the ocean and the bright future that our students could have in the near future if we take advantage of our geographical location on the eastern seaboard of the Atlantic Ocean. This talk also took on a note of relevance with the storm that hit Ireland the day before!

The week ended as it always does on a high. Mr O’Connor took 50 students to N.U.I. Maynooth for an Open Evening held by the School of Chemical and Biological Sciences. The students were able to witness some of the incredible research and experiments that are taking place in physics, computer science, biology and chemistry. Demonstrations of dissected rabbits, preserved dogfish and scorpions, wallaby skeletons and live bugs and larvae had many students spellbound. And there were plenty willing to get their hands on the lava lamps, volcanos, magic custard, solid carbon dioxide and liquid nitrogen in the chemistry lab. The evening came to rousing end with Dr Ken Maddock performing his chemistry fireworks show. The mood was very upbeat on the coach going home, and it wasn’t all due to missing prep for the evening!

Our Form 6 Senior Science quiz teams performed admirably in the Dublin Regional Heat of the ISTA senior science quiz held in Trinity College Dublin late on Thursday night. Emilie Mc Cormack, Stefan Oehler and Jan Schmidt did well, but it was our team of Elizabeth Murphy, Luke Scales and Davy Clements that were extremely unfortunate to fall short of a place in the National Final in a tough tiebreaker round at the end of the evening. They were however awarded a newly published guide to the solar system by Brian Cox which they graciously donated to the library.

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