Mathletes Provincial Finals

18th, April, '15

I somehow managed to get myself to the Leinster provincial finals of the mathletes challenge. Six students from my year made it to the provincial finals. We were invited up to google in Dublin for the event. I brought Bronwyn with me as a guest which was fun. We had to sign in at 9:30a.m and then at 10a.m we started the tasks.
The first task was doing a series of short questions and we had half and hour to do them. There were twenty four t.ys in total in the Leinster competition. I found the questions quite difficult and got a few done. My friends found them difficult too.
Then the second task was longer brain teasers and we had forty minutes to do these ones. I found these even more difficult and guessed a lot of them. Then lastly we had a team task, we were each given numbers and put into teams of four. I had another girl, Carmella, and two lads, Oisín and Eoghan, on my team. Our task was to build a lego car and make it travel the furthest down a ramp, we were against all the other teams. It was really fun because I am obssesed with lego anyway. We started off with a pretty good car, then we added lots of stuff to the design and changed it, and it ended up worse than ever, and we lost that round, but we still got on very well as a team and they were lovely, fun people, who I hope to meet again someday.
After we completed each of the three tasks we got lunch. Google provided free food, so as you can imagine, me and Bronwyn helped ourselves to a lot. We were given a tour of google. It is one giant canteen, in every room there is comfortable seating and food. They even have see-saws and swings. We asked how they ever got work done in there, it is like a playground. The staff there were very friendly and Bronwyn managed to befriends a few employees while I was off doing maths. Bronwyn even managed to get herself locked into rooms because she didn't have a swipe card to get out, but you could get into the rooms by a button on the doors.
Once Bronwyn finished adventuring, and we finished the tours, we were brought to the auditorium for the awards presentation. This was the most fun. They played good music, there were lots of lights and we were all sitting in comfortable seats for it to start. Once it started we were shown about all the work the mathletes have been doing, and khan academy to make the competition happen, and also some thanks you's to google and the presenter. Then the winners of the online leaderboards were called out to collect medals, I was the overall winner for T.Y's which was a huge achievment. Bronwyn wouldn't stop clapping, and I got lots of congratulations from people. There were lots of other awards for 'most time spent on khan academy' and also the champions league winners I was only in the challengers league because this was my first year on khan academy. They aren't going to announce the winners of todays events till Tuesday, and the top twenty all across Ireland go through to the finals, but because I was overall leaderboard winner in Ireland of t.y's I automatically go through to the finals on the 2nd of May in DCU, I didn't know this till today, and I am so excited, it means no matter how bad I did at the maths today, I still go through (and I did pretty bad today) Also the winning team of the lego round got lego ducks. Once the presentations were over we all got hats, mugs, stickers and certificates outside the auditorium, I also got another medal for being the Wexford county champion. I was so proud of myself.
I can't wait till the finals in two weeks, I better start practicing again. I don't really mind if I don't do well in the finals as even getting to them was such an achievement, (although it would be nice to win something) I am so proud of myself and I think it is my biggest achievement of the year, and the best day out i've had this year also. I don't mind being called a maths nerd because of it, i've enjoyed every minute of it.
So on Tuesday I will find out which of my other five friends will get through to the finals.

The view of the Aviva Stadium

 Outside on the swings

Giant google maps screen that you could control.

A wall that lit up as you walked by

Work Experience 2

13th - 17th, April, '15

This week was our work experience week. Some people had workshops and others had community service. I spent the week helping my art teacher in the art rooms with all of his classes, and some other art teachers with theirs whenever he didn't have classes.
I came in at 9a.m and had to help out 1st to 6th year classes. In some free classes I tidied and organised the rooms or sometimes sat outside in the nice weather or learnt how to do the rubix cube. It was so fun helping out the classes, especially the younger classes. The 1st years wanted the most help with their work so I was always kept busy in those classes. The third years mostly need help with the computers and printing off pictures for their junior cert projects. I was quite suprised with a lot of the talents the students have in art.
 For the first two days I was quite nervous and shy and tried not to help with too much with drawing because I wasn't confident in my own art skills or art initiative, but after a while I became confident and took control, and the students asked for my help, and appreciated it. It was very nice and we got along very well, I often say hi to some of the students on the corridors now.  I also got along very well with my art teacher, and he was very appreciative.
I had lots of fun and I might get to be a model for the junior and leaving cert art practicals because of it. Art is my favourite subject and I definatly think this week has helped me improve my owns art skills and my confidence in my skills. I also find it easier to get along with other students and teachers now and have made some new friends in other years.

CheeseCake

24th, Mar, '15

Today in home economics we made cheesecakes. We all made different variations of it, mine was dark chocolate chip. It was quite a complicated recipe and we all got confused as to what to do a lot, but in the end it was perfect, if I do say so myself.

Forensics

23rd, May, '15

We started our last term of modules a few weeks ago, but I thought i'd wait until I had a bit more to talk about before posting it. Forensics was one of my choices for the Mondays module. It sounded really interesting and most people who have done it, enjoyed it.
Our teacher planned the weeks out to do something different each week, The first class would be learning about that subject, and the last two would be practical work which was the funnest part. So far we've done fingerprints, blood splatter, and hair and fibre analysis. For the fingerprints we had to print our own ones onto a sheet and identify our own fingerprint patterns. For blood splatter we had to examine splatters from differents heights and speeds. We used a mixture of milk, oil and food colouring to make the 'blood'. For the hair and fibre analysis we got to look at our own hairs under a microscope, and also a cat, dog, horse and rabbit hair. We had to identify the different characteristics of each.
I have learnt a good bit in the module so far and am having lots of fun, I look forward to it every week because it is something different. The teacher is also very nice.

Testing the blood splatter at walking to running speed.

Céilí

20th, Mar, '15

For the first three periods we had a céilí in honour of 'seachtain na ghaeilge' (Irish Week) It was soo much fun. We got put with partners and shown a few different dances, we were put boy/girl, which was awkward at first, but I enjoyed it after a few minutes. Most people didn't put that much effort into the dancing, but I understand it is a tiring dance, and also a lot of people didn't know how to irish dance. But we all just messed about and had fun. A group of lads also decided to play some irish music for us which was beautiful.
Then we were shown the irish version of 'The Macarena' and all the T.Ys performed it in unison, we all looked ridiculous but it was hilarious. Then they chose six students to stand at the front of the hall and perform it again in front of everyone.... and guess who was chosen.... lucky me. I was the only girl chosen to dance it in front of everyone else along with four other lads in my year. Everyone laughed at us but I had so much fun and was laughing too. I wasn't embarassed at all and was quite glad to get up and do it. I wish we cold do more irish events and speak more irish, I loved the céilí, we need to appreciate irish culture more often.
Another exciting event that happened today was the solar eclipse, it wasn't a total one in Ireland, but it was pretty close, and I was determined not to miss it. I left the céilí for ten minutes to go and see it, leaving my partner without anyone to dance with, but he didn't really mind. A couple of other t.y's went out to see it too, But it was quite dissapointing as the clouds blocked the view. But there was a small break in the clouds when I could see the sun almost fully blocked. The air was really cold, but the sky wasn't any darker than usual for Ireland. We didn't stay outside long because there wasn't much to see, but i'm glad I got to see anything at all because the next one isn't for about ten years, and I had never seen one before.

Seán and Jack performing some music.

 'Help me!' look from Bronwyn

Bene Merenti

18th - 20th, Mar, '15

For the past few months of school we have been rehearsing our music class song for the bene merenti, which is the schools talent show which goes on every year. I am singing in a choir and our song is 'Like a Prayer' by Madonna. I like the song but it gets annoying the fiftieth time you sing it. All our practicing has had been leading up to now. This week was a short week because of St.Patricks Day, but the Wednesday we got back it was straight up to the Gorey Little Theatre for sound rehearsals. This was quite fun because we got to miss classes for the whole day and sit and watch all of the other acts, like seeing the actual show but for free. It was quite fun and I laughed a lot with my friends watching all of the other acts.
On the second day we had dress rehearsals, some people had amazing outfits. My class had to dress up in 80's style clothes, which was quite funny. It was quite nerve wrecking and intimidating being up on stage, even for the rehearsals, with the rest of your school watching you, the bright lights shining in your face and microphones in front of you. I know i'm not good at singing so I avoided standing directly in front of a microphone. But after the three minutes you were on stage it was fine and you went back to being lazy for the rest of the day. The weather was amazing for those days aswel so it was lovely sitting outside.
Then Friday night was the real show, with a real audience, and i swear the temperature was ten degrees hotter on stage than before. The show started at 7:30 and out act wasn't too long form the start, as soon as we got onstage my heart was beating a mile a minute but time seemed to speed up and before I knew it we were getting off the stage again, I can barely remember singing the song, all I remember is the lights and all the faces watching us, but from what I heard, we did well, and I am quite proud of my class for doing it.
Unfortunatly I don't have any photos of my group on the night, but here are some of the other acts.

Nina and Bronwyn

The Stage

                              Wrong Direction

Backstage watching Vincent on the drums

Wrong Direction again singing 'Steal my Girl'

Seán decided to wear a dress for this act for no good reason.

The Strictly Come Dancing couples.