Bye,Bye Work Exp. #2

Well, today was our last day of our second work experience placement. I was in the chemistry lab in Maynooth for the past 8 weeks. I really enjoyed my time there and learnt a great deal about Science and Chemistry in particular! ( obviously ;) ) 

This work experience has shown me how much I want to do Chemistry for my Leaving Cert. I found this placement very helpful as there were ongoing leaving cert revision coarse which I got to sit in on. 

During my placement I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on the possible jobs that are available to students who study chemistry at third level. I found this really useful as I have no idea of what coarse I would like to study in the future.  

I also got the chance to sit in on a real chemistry lecture. Although it was quite difficult to understand, I found I very interesting to see what a lecture was actually like. 

I sent most of my time in the lab for the duration of the 8 weeks. I learnt loads of new skills, techniques and  experiments. 

From this work placement I have learnt that I would really like to pursuer a career in the area of Science and maybe even in Chemistry. 

Sci-fest Results

This week we finished up our Sci-fest project and these are the results Ruth and I found. 

Test One 

Which milk container keeps the milk freshest for the longest

pH 1 = Cardboard Container
pH 2 = Glass Container
pH 3 = plastic Container

Test two

To investigate at what temperature condition milk stays freshest for the longest.

pH 1 = Oven (40 degrees)

pH 2 = Fridge (4.6 degrees)

pH 3 = Room Temperature (21.5 degrees)

Test three

What type of milk stays freshest for the longest; full fat, low fat, fortified 

pH 1 = Full fat milk
pH 2 = Low fat Milk
pH 3 = Fortified Milk

You can check out more what we did on our project on my Sci-fest Page. 
Also have a look at the Sci-fest website for more information on the competition.

The winners of BT Young Scientist

I found this project particularly interesting because it was similar to one of our Junior cert Coarse works which was all to do with Germination. 

BT Young Scientist Excibition

Today all TY's and Second Years went to the RDS to visit the BT Young Scientist Exhibition  One group from our year got through to the exhibition  Their project was about "how school bags effect the back, shoulders and neck". There project was very interesting and they put in so much work into it! 

One thing every teenager loves to do at the YS is to collect as much free stuff as you can at the stalls at the back of the exhibition! We gathered everything from pens and pencils to stress balls, to rulers and much more. The Young Scientist also has loads of interactive games to play as well. I took part in a game called the 6th Dragon. It was based on the Irish Television series, Dragons Den. There were 4 players and each player had an iPad to work on. The Bank of Ireland staff member then played a clip of 1 person pitching their idea to the dragons. I then had to guess whether the dragons would invest or not into the company and what percentage of the company would they like. It was really fun to play. 

Later on, 6 of us attended a drumming workshop! There were a few other primary schools doing it with us. We each had one instrument to play on and we swapped instruments a few times to get a flavor of each. It was so much fun and the guy running it was so funny and energetic, which made it even more enjoyable! Today was a really good  TY trip! :) Thanks to the science teachers for bringing us! 

Wishing to apply to the BT Young Scientist Next year?... Find out all you need to know here.

hi-ho hi-oh, It's Off to Work We Go!

This week we started our second work experience which will we take place over the coarse of the next eight Wednesdays. For my second work experience I am in the Chemistry department at Maynooth Collage. Luckily another girl from my class, Ruth is doing it with me! 

As most of the students are sitting their exams at the moment the collage was very quite. This morning Ruth and I did some office work and later we measured out different chemicals in the lab. We get to wear cool lab coats and glasses, a bit nicer then the ones at school may I add. In the afternoon Ria demonstrated how to make soap, one of the mandatory experiments on the Leaving Cert coarse. Afterwards, we each got to the do the experiment individually.  It turned out really well and made bubbles when mixed with water. I was actually very surprised at how much I understood what was going on in the experiment. 

Next week the collage is running a Leaving Cert revision coarse on all of the Chemistry experiements. there will be a number of schools in the labs running the experiments. Therefore next week Ruth and I will get to do experiments all day! YAY! 

So far I am really enjoying my Work Experience and really like my supervisors Ken and Ria. I can't wait for next week now :) 

The future scientists!

Young Scientist 

At the beginning of October we all sent in our young scientist proposals for judging. I am doing my project with Ruth, our project is to carry out research on the shelf life of milk. We plan to investigate how long it takes milk to “go off” when it is exposed to different temperature and storage conditions. We will then compare our findings to the shelf life that is determined by the milk producers. We chose to investigate milk as it is a common beverage that is used in nearly every household. Everyone has  had  an experience of milk turning sour, often before the best before date. We want to find out what is the best way to avoid this happening. The tests that we intend to carry out are :

1. To investigate whether plastic, cardboard or glass has an effect on the shelf life of the milk, i.e. the containers. 
2. To find out how long it takes for milk to turn acidic, i.e. produce a lactic acid when stored at different temperatures.

We will soon be finding out whether we got through to the BT science exhibition in January. Hopefully we got in, fingers-crossed! :)  However, we will be entering Sci-fest also later on in the year.

If anyone is considering entering for next year here's the link to the website:

http://www.btyoungscientist.ie/

Here is a link to the sci-fest website:

http://www.scifest.ie/

TY is no Doss Year ;)

Irish

We have just finished giving our individual presentations on our life, our school and the sports we are interested in through Irish. We are now working on debates as Gaeilge! I won't lie it is a bit of a challenge but of coarse we TY's are up for it! 

Spanish

For the past month we have been studying different movies in Spanish. WE all picked our favorite film and wrote a summary of it in Spanish! If you want to have a look at them they are all hanging up beautifully at the back of Ms. M Spanish room ;) We also just finished the movie we have been watching since the beginning of the year - El Bola. Here's a link to the plot summary.

http://www.fandango.com/elbola_v226992/plotsummary

History

Over the coarse of the last few weeks we have been looking at the different forms of governments in other countries at different periods in history. although it may seem a little boring it actually is really interesting. Some of the forms of governments in the past were absolutely outrageous and no citizens had a say in how their country was governed! We should be doing a write up soon ;) 

Science

Since September we have been studying chemistry in science. we have been up to all sorts of weird and wacky science experiments including turning a copper coin gold ;) We made a volcano out of bread soda and vinegar. We also did a titration experiment! We are now currently working on a poster about the periodic table.

Religion

We have just finished presenting our power point presentations on the millennium development goals in class. My group had goal four on child mortality. I found the project really interesting and I was also surprised at how much they have achieved so far. We are now look up dramas that we could act out in class! this should be really fun :)

Music

We are still learning how to play the guitar at the moment! So far we have 5 chords under our belts! We are also doing a lot of singing in class and finding out which rage suits our voice best. We have just finished learning "Say a little prayer for you" by Aretha Franklin.

 

Maths 

We have been working on algebra mostly for this month. We recently did a project on a famous mathematician. I did mine on Leonardo da Vinci! When I was researching him I found him particularly interesting as he linked maths into art by using perspective. Before I was unaware of the link between the two!

English 

At present we are preparing our debates for Monday! I have never taken part in a debate so it is a new experience for me. 

Tech

My fish key ring

Over the last two months we have completed a lot of practical work. So far I have made a keyring in the shape of a fish and a clock in the shape of a star! This year Mr. W aloud me to come up with some of my own designs as I did tech for my Junior Cert. I also get to help out with other girls in the class who have never done tech before! Tech is by far my favorite subject and we always have a good chat with Mr. W.