Supporting Junk Kouture

Rachel Martin and Rachel Malone have got through to the regional finials of Junk Kouture. As part of the project there is a voting section which counts for 10% of their overall marks. They need everyone to get behind them as all voting will close tomorrow. Here is the link their voting page, make sure to confirm your vote in your email also. Remember every vote counts!

Good news for Rapido y Furioso

Today our F1 car arrived! I was amazed at how small and light the car actually was. The next stage is getting a company to spray paint the car for us. Currently we are working on our report and organizing our stand for next Friday, the 8th March. Our sponsors ITB will also be there on the day to support us, so we are all looking forward to it. 

West Leinster Cross Country Race

Today 10 Ty's traveled to the Phoxic Park for the West Leinster cross-country Competition along with the St. Wolstan's cross-country team and our 2 P.E. teachers, Mr. L and Mrs. O'C. The competition was run by our P.E. teachers and they asked us to come along to help them organise the event. Over the past week Alanna, Liz and I have been organizing the entries, directions, score cards and numbers for each race. 

Overall best girls team 

Today we were each in charge of one job for the day. Orlaith and I had to take the names of the first three runners from every race and present them with their medal at the end. While other TY's gave runners stickers for their position in the race, mapped out the coarse and worked on tallying up all of the scores at the end. 

St. Wolstan's had a very successful day, winning best overall girls School! So well done to all the runners in St. Wolstan's! :)  And of coarse a day out would not be complete without a trip to Mc Donald's!  Everyone got a take away meal and ate their lunch in the hall back at school and played some ping pong afterwards! Thanks to Mr. L and Ms. O'C for bringing us today it was enjoyed by all.

Junior Spider Awards

I am very excited to share that 'Katie's Thoughts Throughout TY' has been shortlisted for a Junior Spider Award in the 'Best Concept' category! The finals will be held on Tuesday the 5th March at the RDS Dublin. Here, students will present their websites and the winners will be announced later in the day. 

I set up this blog as part of my Transition Year IT program. The aim of the website/blog was to keep viewers updated on the various projects, group work and actives that were taking place in TY at St. Wolstan's. I am delighted with this news and now really excited for the finials! :) 

The St Brigid - a collaborative project from St. Wolstan's was also shortlisted for an award in the best project category. Make sure to have a look at what they have been up to. 

You might want to have a look at the Junior Spiders shortlist and why not check out some of last years winners here also. 

Lollipop Day

Today all TY's and LCVP students traveled into town at 9:15 this morning. We first walked to the Powerscoart center to collect our t-shirts, caps, collection buckets, lollipops and balloons.  We then split up into our groups of 4 and went to our collection points doted around the city center. 

Alanna, Orla, Orlaith and myself were at Temple Bar at the Hay Penny bridge. Besides the freezing cold, we really enjoyed ourselves! :) We found that people were particularly generous and interested in what we were collecting  for which was in aid of Oesphagel Cancer. People donated €2 and we gave them a badge or lollipop to show our appreciation to their donation. 

We got to go out for lunch in twos for an hour during the day. I think Orla and I were happier about getting into the heat! ;) We had a walk up Grafton Street as well, and the atmosphere was amazing some girls were even dancing along with the buskers to raise money for this worth-while charity! 

The aim of today was to raise money for the Oesphagel cancer fund and also raise awarness of the symptoms of the cancer which are:

1. Food 'catching' with swallow.
2. Unexpected weight loss.
3. A change in your reflux symptoms. 

Click here to visit their website and find out more.

Becoming Gardeners

As part of our Bio-Diversity project in green schools we have to improve the gardens and habits within our school environment. Today we started planting seeds of pup-kens, herds, fruits and vegetables  We planted the majority of the seed in small grown pots or trays. Once the plants begin to grow more we will transfer them to bigger pots and move them out to the glass house in the court-yard at school. However, it is too cold to put them out there get so we are keeping them in Mr. K class room, the Biology lab. 

It's fair to say that everyone involved were very excited about starting our new plants for our glass house. There was soil everywhere!! I took some pictures today to show you what they all look like :) 

Do you want to know more about Bio-diversity? Click here for more information.

English Life story presentation

Over the last few weeks we have been busy making our Life story powerpoints. The idea of the project was to find images and quotes that would reflect on some of the major emotions and themes in life such as Friendship, Loss, Sadness and Love. For some reason the audio that I had embedded in the powerpoint doesn't seen to be working so you can play the song that I had hoped to put in Welcome Home by imagine Dragons here.

Life story presentation katie from katiehurley06

Rapido y Furioso Kfm Interview

This is a podcast of my radio interview on Kfm in Naas for Rapido y Furioso. We will be entering the F1 in schools competition on the 8th of March. This interview will give you a greater insight into the F1 in Schools competition and our team; Rapido y Furioso. Have a listen you know you want to! 

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Make sure to follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook. Also make sure to have a look at the Rápido yFurioso Blog where we post regular updates on our progress through out the competition. If you wish to find out more about Kfm visit their website.

  

Subject Options

This week we were making our subject choices for the Leaving Cert. Last week we also had interviews with our Guidance Councilors. And over the past month different teachers were gave us talks on the various subject provide at St. Wolstan's. They advised us on which are the best options to choose for ourselves and what some of the 3rd level coarse require. 

It is quite a difficult decision to make as it may influence what you do in the future. However, I am happy with the decision I have made and actually look forward to seeing what the subjects entail in 5th year, but I don't want TY to end!!  

Jabba Jabba Jembe

Today we had a drumming/ percussion workshop with Dave from Jabba Jabba Jembe. My class, Siocháin, were the first group of the day. We started off the workshop in the school library by introducing our selves and learning the different sounds of the drums. Dave then introduced us to some basic drumming rhythms. Once we had that nailed, Dave moved on and introduced us to the different sorts of drums for example:

The Jembe

The Kpanlgo

Bass drums

After our short break we moved over to the music room to make more noise! Dave taught us some more intricate rhythms . He also gave out more percussion instruments such as the Asalatos, Agogo bells, Marakas and Shekeres. Everyone got a go of each instrument. Once we had profected our song we recorded it on Ciara's phone while wearing traditional African hats. We also had a bit of a free-styling session to Bob Marley with Zoe on the piano and Shannon on the Guitar. Everyone was in great spirits and really enjoyed the 3 hour session. Thanks to the music department for organizing the workshop for it, it was great fun! Pictures from the day and our recording will be coming soon. :)

The shekeres

The marakas

Agogo bells

The Asolatos 

Also make sure to check out Dave's website for "Jabba Jabba Jembe" here. There is loads of background information on the different types of instruments and traditional drumming. 

Caresse sur l'océan

listen to ‘Caresse sur l'océan ’ on Audioboo

Medical Geography

We are now learning about medical Geography in geography class and some of the most deadly diseases in the world. We were each assigned a world disease and create and information brochure and a slide show to present to the class. 

Ms. G is also showing us  the film Contagion which shows how quickly a disease can spread. We are all a bit paranoid about germs every time we watch this! Here is the trailer to the film Contagion , check it out:

América latina

En este momento estamos aprendiendo sobre América Latina en la clase de español. Parecía que los nombres de todos los países que hablan español en América Latina. Tuvimos un examen pequeño  sobre todos los nombres de países en América Latina y sus capitales.

Aprendí un montón de datos interesantes sobre América Latina. ¿Sabías que?....

• América Latina tiene algunos ricos y muchos podres. En la ciudad de México hay 23 millones de habitantes. 
• Cristóbal Colon descbrió América en 1492. Llegó a la isla de la Española (Haití y República Dominicana).
• El Amazon tiene una variedad riquísima de árboles, flores, plantas y animales. Tiene también muchas tribus de indios. 
• Argentina tiene fama por su carne y sus rancheros (gauchos). Se expota mucha carne de vaca. 
• Las montañas de los Andres tienen casi 8,000 kilómetros de largo y van desde Venezuela hasta la Patagonia. 
• Ecuador se llama así porque está en el Ecuador. 
• El Tango es un Baile de Argentina.
• La masa continental de América Latina es 17,840,000 kilómetros cuadrados. 

Why Chose TY??

At the moment third years are making their choice whether to do TY next year. This blog post will show you why you should pick TY. 

Some people are of the opinion that Ty is a very lead back year and is sometimes considered a dose year. However, it is actually quite the opposite. It is a very hands on year. Ty is all about learning to motivate yourself, learning to work as a team, improve presentation skills, personal skills and prepositional skills. 

One of the major aspects of TY is Work Experience. In St. Wolstan's students must organize their own work placements for three different block weeks. For some people it can be quite difficult at first to find a work placement, however this teaches us that not everything is handed to you. This is a valuable lesson an once we start work we will have to source our own interviews and  work placements. Work experience also teaches how to act in a profestional inviornment. You also learn what you like and interests you and maybe what you would like to study at third level! 

All TY's must take every subject available  Therefore, you will end up taking some subjects you have never studied for your Junior Cert. For example; I didn't study Home Ec. or Art for my Junior cert so I am learning lots of new cooking, baking, drawing and creative skills in these classes this year. ( Check out our Art blog here! ) With the extra time on our hands as well we have the opportunity to look at topics that are not covered in the Junior or Leaving Cert. This can be really interesting and you also enhance your knowledge. 

A big part of Ty is working in groups. Some people love it and some people hate it. For nearly every project you will be put into a group. Working in groups teaches you how to communicate with your fellow peers and also work as a team to achieve a common goal. Every group will have it's difficulties and sometimes not everyone will pull their weight. But you have to learn to overcome those difficulties and delegate the work that needs to be done. ( Some of bigger project such as formula 1 competition and our mini company project work worked on in groups check them out! )

All in all I would defiantly recommend doing TY as it teaches you a wide range of new skills which can be applied to any aspect of your life. You make loads of new friends in TY and get to know people you have never spoken to before. Also make sure if you are doing TY to put yourself forward for everything and make the most of your sightly less intense year! There are loads of clubs and sports to get involved with such as green schools and choir and orchestra.  

Some wise words from Mrs. L the TY co-ordinater, "You get out of Ty what you put in!"

Why not check out more of the TY blogs at St. Wolstan's.

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.

Teddy Bears

Every TY class has a double sowing class each week. Since Christmas we have been working on our teddy bears. We traced the pattern of the panels of the teddy bear on to an A4 sheet of paper and then cut out the shape. We then had to square off our material and fold it in half to make sure there was a front and back for each panel. We then pinned the paper to the material like so:

We then had to cut out each piece of material for each panel :

We have started tacking both sides of each piece together. I cant wait to see the finished product! 

Rápido y Furioso's Car design #2

At the moment my F1 group Rápido y Furioso are designing our car which we will submit to the manufacturers by the end of the week. 

Today we were working on our Car Design number 2. We have made quite a few changes compared to our first design. We have shaped the nose cone to make the car more aerodynamic. We have also added air channels to increase the aerodynamics of the car. We have also been working on the front airflow of the car. However, we plan to make the front of the airflow rounder so that the air flows over the car. We also plan to create some air channels underneath the car to add more aerodynamics. We will also be adding the wheels to our design with in the net few days as our design must be emailed to Limerick University by Friday.

Make sure you keep up to date on our progress through out the competition by following our blog.

Cassette tape Art

As our Junk Kouture project is over we are currently working on our cassette tape art. (What's Junk Kouture?... check it out here!) We each had to choose a famous person to draw and we changed the image of the person into a black and white image. For example; I choose Marilyn Monroe. I picked my favorite picture of her and then copied it ad edited it on Pixlr, an online photo-editing/Photoshop tool. I then printed off the image which turned out like so: 

We then had to draw out our selected images onto a larger A2 sheet of paper. However we only shadded in the dark parts of the drawing. She was actually quite difficult to draw because she had blond hair which is hard to shade in. But this is what it turned out like:

The next step is to start sticking on the cassette tapes onto the paper using PVA glue. It can by quite hard to stick the tape to the paper and it is also a very time consuming process. To cut the tape we use scalpels and a cutting pad which look lie this: 

Our portraits are coming along nicely and we hope to finish them within the next 3 weeks.
here is an example of a professional Marilyn Monroe cassette tape portrait. 

The Effects of War - Briery Gap

Today, after weeks of preparation our TY Religion class traveled to Mullingar to preform our plays as part of the Briery Gap Drama competition. 

At the beginning of December our religion Class divided into two separate groups and and choose a topic of interest inspired by the Millenium Development goals which we had studied earlier in the year. WE chose to write our play about the effects of war and how it impacts on everyone's life and that there are two sides to every story. 

When we were in Mullingar we got to take a visit to Mc Donald's  watch some of the other plays hat were being preformed by other groups and also a trip to the playground, (It wouldn't be the same without the rain though!) 

Overall we felt that our play went very smoothly and most of the comments from the judges were very positive, however they advised us not to us as many props if we were to preform it again. 

We will be finding out within the next week or two which dramas/group got through to the national finial which will take place in Cork. 

You can also take a look at our script for our play. Hope you enjoy! :)

Find out more about Briery Gap here.

Watch out Gordon Ramsay

This year all TY's have a double Home Ec. on either a Monday or Tuesday for cookery. Each week our Home Ec. teacher chooses some thing new for us to cook or bake. 

So far we have made Scones, Apple crumble and cheese cake and next week are going to make Risotto. They were all scrumptious! 

I really enjoy cooking in Home Ec. as I never took Home Ec. for the junior cert so it is something new for me. Ms. M is teaching us loads of new skills and techniques which can be used for all sorts of recipes. 

D-Day

Yesturday was another major date in the TY's calender. It was the presentation of our Mini Companies to the judges. All 14 Mini Companies set up their stands and displays in the has of the judges to see. At aroun 9:30 the judges arrived and had a quick look around all of the stands and each company gave them a brief idea of  what their company was about. When they came to us we showed them how our app would work and the layout of it. 

After a short break the presentations began. Each company went up one by one to present to the judges. The judges seemed very interested in our product and we thought that they like our idea but they did ask us how was our app different from existing sporting apps. 

Later, the awards were presented to some of the companies. We were delighted to accept the Best Business Report Award. The judges also announced the 4 finalists who would be shortlisted for the regional finials. Unfortunatly we didn't get through but the 4 other teams defiantly deserved their place. 

Here is our stand on the day, we also choose to dress up in the 4 sports that we choose to write about:;Hockey, Camogie, gealic And horse riding. 

A third year student wondering what Mini Company will be like next year?... Click here for more information on the Kildare Enterprise awards. 

Sportscope App Presentation

Our mini company is called Sportscope. Our product is a sports skills App (Application) for phones and computers.  The App would be used to boost your sports skills and knowledge in four chosen sports (hockey, camogie, Gaelic football and horse riding) whether you’re a beginner or simply trying to improve your skills. 

This App was made using Windows Software on a computer and then it will be sold on the windows App store.  Our aim is to develop a high quality and unique App.  Our company aims to bridge the gap that exists in the market between workout Apps and specific sporting Apps.

Sportscope app presentation from katiehurley06

Comment, Like, Follow.... Please? :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post our F1 team, Rápido y Furioso, are competing in the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge. The completion is open to all secondary schools in Ireland. Each team must design and manufacture a compressed air-powered racing car. As part of our project we have to promote our car and raise awareness. 

So, please check out the Rápido y Furioso blog which will keep you updated on all our progeress and actities. Feel free to leave any comments too!  http://formula1rapidoyfurioso.blogspot.ie/ 

Also, don't forget to like us on Facebook 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ 

And follow us on Twitter
https://twitter.com/1RapidoYFurioso

We would really appreciate your support!

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 :) 

Strike!

As there is only 5 Christmas exams for TY's, Ms. L decided to have a party and bring us bowling for our last day because were such good girls! ;) 

This morning all TY's went to the library for our Christmas party hosted by Class Cairdeas. There were all sorts of cakes and goodies to eat! Towards the end of the party we all put our Kris Kindle presents into a Santa sack. Then Aisling, dressed as Santa distributed all of the presents. There were smiles all round! We also all joined in on the Cha-cha slide and Gangnam Style!

After, we headed straight to Kbowl in Newbridge. It took a while to organize all of the teams and lanes but eventually we were all set! Afterwards we were aloud to go to WhiteWater in Newbridge to do some shopping or just eat! haha

Today was a great  to finish off our first term in TY. It was nice to have a little treat after our Christmas tests. I think everyone is really excited for Christmas now, and I hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas! Talk soon :) 

The little Nutcracker ballet

Just before our Christmas tests Ms. l decided to bring us to see the Nutcracker ballet. Here is the opening performance of the ballet. 

Christmas Carol Service

Today we had our annual carol serve to mark the end of our first term of this school year. It  is a tradition in St. Wolstan's for the entire school to gather in the hall and listen to Christmas choirs played by both the orchestra and trad group and also listen to some of the Christmas classics snug by the choir. A student from each year also read a small extract. The music department and Mr. K went to great trouble in order to make the choir service a success, and indeed it was!

During the Choir service our former Year Head Ms. H, gave out certificates to some of the students from TY and Fifth year (last years third years) for receiving excellent results in their Junior Cert. I was delighted to receive my cert! Afterwards we stayed back and got our photo taken by the Liffey Champion. Well done everybody :) 

Check out the latest event taking place at St. Wolstan's here.

St. Vincent de Paul Collection

As part of the St. Vincent de Paul Society at school, we were asked to participate in the annual SVP Christmas collection. We were organised into groups of  three or four students per each 2 hour shift. Last Saturday morning Kate, Fiona and I collected money from busy Christmas shoppers at the doors of Tesco in Celbridge. I must be said that most people were very generous and willing to reach out and help some of the less fortunate people in their local community. Over the past few weeks we have also been encouraging students to bring in small gifts for the annual SVP Christmas appeal. We were delighted that so many people brought in gifts for the appeal and we know that they are going to a great cause. 

If you want to become part of the action and get invloved with the St. Vincent de Paul Society make sure you check out their website here.

Geography Kenyan Presentation

 

As part of Transition Year geography, we were divided up into groups of 2 and given a country of interest. Each group had to research the requirements needed to travel to their chosen country, the food eaten, the cultural norms, and some of the most popular places to visit in the country. We also had to research how to get there, and at what price. We then presented our research in a power-point presentation and tried to sell our chosen country to our fellow class mates. 

For our project we contacted the Kenyan embassy in Ireland and asked them could they provide us with any information on Kenya. Luckily they sent us loads of info and even sent us a DVD showing us the wildlife found in Kenya. I thought this project really enjoyable and I now really want to visit Kenya in the future.

Kenyan Presentation from katiehurley06

Keep calm it's nearly Christmas!

The school is beginning to look very festive at the moment with Christmas decorations in nearly every class room! All TY's are beginning to get very excited including class Síochain! We like having Christmas sing songs in free classes and whatnot! ;) 

Last week we also did our draw for our class Kris Kindle. Our presents will be distributed on the last day of school before the Christmas break when the TY's have their Christmas party. Some people are finding it hard to keep it a secret, including myself! 

Adios Junk Kouture

Well, we have finally reached the end of our Junk Kouture project. We first starred the project at the beginning of September and we have been working on them for 3 double classes every week ever since. A lot of effort has gone into creating our outfits but I think the work has definaly paid off! Although there were a few disagreements a long the way, I feel I have learned a great deal about working with other people in a small group. I also learned a lot of new sowing skills and techniques! 

A fashion Show was held at school yesterday to show case all of the unique dresses made out of recyclable materials. Each group had to pick a song which was suitable to the theme of the dress and also give a 90 word description of the dress while another member of the team modeled the dress on the "runway". 

Unfortunately I was absent yesterday when the fashion show took place, therefore I didn't get to see every-bodies outfit. However, I saw a lots of pics of most of the outfits and they all look amazing! Every dress was made out of something completely different! I am really glad hat we had the opportunity to make outfits out of recyclable materials, it really showed us what can be achieved using "Junk". 

See what other TY students got up to during Junk Kouture here.