Debating Science Issues

Debating Science Issues (DSI) is a public speaking competition for secondary schools with a science twist. St. Columba's are once again involved this year, although our team is now comprised of TY pupils only including Arthur Moffit, Bethany Shiell, Callan Elliot, Cameron Wood, Alina Stiehler, Mark Russell and Piers Morrell.  Funded by Discover Science & Engineering, DSI aims to engage young people in debate on the cultural, societal and ethical implications of advances in biomedical science. Areas like stem cell research, nanotechnology, vaccination or genetically modified foods are amongst the topics up for discussion. Earlier in the term, our team were treated to a workshop from Éilis McGrath from CRANN - Trinity College's Nanoscience Research Facility - on how to debate and research effectively. The workshop was excellent and kicked started a great run. The team, who rotate speakers from event to event, have been victorious in our first two debates, defeating St. Joesph's in Lucan and Castlecomer Community School in Kilkenny, and taking home the CRANN title. The team will face the winners from UCD CLARITY in the new year. Topics discussed so far have been nanoscience and its potential in environmental science and whether self testing  was the future of health management. Our next debate will centre on ethical issues surrounding stem cell research and the team are already busy formulating their argument. Hopefully our good run will continue right through to the final.

Muffin Baking

While we don't have a dedicated Home Economics room in the school, it rarely stops us from dabbling in some baking with our TY pupils. A few weeks ago, Ms. Kilfeather organised a muffin baking session - Ally Boyd Crotty tells all.

On the 14th of November, eight of us from TY went to Rice (a classroom) to make Muffins with Ms. Kilfeather. She had prepared everything perfectly to start and brought in all ingredients and products, as well as borrowing 2 of Mr. Clarke's ovens. We had the recipes for Chocolate-Chocolate-Chip Muffins and Banana-Cinnamon Muffins, but we decided on just making two lots of the Chocolate ones, as they are a favorite. 

We split into two groups of four, and both groups mixed all the ingredients together in bowls, tasting as we went. When we had finished mixing, even though the consistency didn’t look so normal, we filled up the molds and stuck them in the oven. The smell filled up the classroom, and they smelled delicious. 

Strangely, when we opened the oven to check if they were cooked, they didn’t look so normal… The first lot tasted quite abnormal, but also nice and sweet and they were gone in a minute. However, the second lot didn’t work out so well, they were burnt and tasted horrible. Ms. Kilfeather tried to save them by removing the burnt top and covering them in golden syrup, which did help, and soon we managed to finish them. 

This was a very enjoyable night and I would love to take part in it again. Thank you so much to Ms. Kilfeather!!

Come Dine With Me India

Mr. Coldrick has started a new cookery series with the TY pupils - themed 'Come Dine With Me' evenings. Charlotte Cooper reports on the first in the series - India night.

On Wednesday evening, the 17^th of October, Cameron, Jess, Jessye and I went to Mr. Coldrick’s house and cooked an Indian meal for Mr. Coldrick, Ms. Mc. Nelis and twelve other students.

We went down to his house at four after classes and started cooking. Cameron first stir-fried the onions and curry paste, while we prepared the meats and sauces. After a long two and a half hours, all the dishes were ready, the meat cooked, the rice steamed and spiced and the naan bread toasted. We had made a Chicken Tikka Masala, a Chicken Korma, a Lamb cinnamon and apricot curry, and a Beef curry. The students had all just arrived at this stage, so we were ready to go. We decided to have the meal in a buffet style and allow every one to serve themselves.

Everyone helped themselves, and started to eat. Surprisingly, the food actually tasted really good and no one seemed to feel sick afterwards! After the meal we all just relaxed in the sitting room and garden until it was time to go back to school. 

TY Musical Night - Pat Coldrick

The first TY musical night took place last week with classical guitarist Pat Coldrick giving a wonderful and varied set. Cameron Wood reports.

Our first TY monthly music night started with a recital and talk by Pat Coldrick a well known classical guitarist who has appeared on National television and written music for world renowned musicians. On the night Pat played a variety of music from classical to contemporary, including a version of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin. My favourite piece of the evening was one of Pats own compositions called Antarctica.  This piece was very moving and different. Pat used a strange technique of sliding up the strings making a very eerie noise like the sound whales make under water. Overall it was a great evening and very inspirational for new guitar players like myself.

TY Film Society - O

The TY Film Society is organised by Mr. Coldrick, who chooses some hard hitting classic films for our TY pupils once a month. Ally Boyd Crotty reveals how the first film of the year, O, was received.

On Tuesday evenings, once every month, Mr. Coldrick comes into our prep to treat us to a film society evening. This being our first film evening, we were all very excited. The chosen film was called O, and is basically an modern adaptation of the tragedy Othello, the play written by William Shakespeare, which we are just beginning to study in English class. 

The film was set with a young cast, in a US high school, set around the a basketball player, Odin (depicting Othello). The film concentrates on the basketball team in this high school, and the harsh coach of this team, who wants to lead them to victory. But the coaches son, called Hugo, does not think his hard work is getting the recognition he deserves, especially when the coach gives the best player award to Odin, and says he loves him like he is his own son. Odin also then only give recognition to another basketball player Michael Cassio. Hugo then decides to get back at the boys who stole his glory, and sets them up. He slowly schemes against them, turning them against each other, and his jealously leads him to hurting more people than expected. 

I think that all of us in TY enjoyed the film very much, and it was fresh in our minds and still being talked about for days afterwards. After starting the play in class, we can now see the similarities between it and the film and it makes it even more interesting. I would say I can speak for everyone in TY when I say that I cannot wait until our next film and am very eager to find out what film will be next!

Junior Cert Celebrations

A few weeks ago, our Transition Year pupils received their much anticipated Junior Cert results. Luckily for them, their results were exceptional so we left them escape that evening for some (organised) fun! Sofia McConnell reports.

On Wednesday, 12 September all 52 of us received our Junior Certificate results. There were tears, smiles, frowns and laughs but by 1.30, all that was pushed to the back of our minds as we set out on our trip!

We reached Dublin and all got off the bus, excited for what was ahead of us. Randomly split into groups of about 23 we each set off for our separate adventures. My group’s first trip was a Viking Splash Tour, we all got on an open roofed bus with Viking helmets on our heads and, driven by our tour guide Paddy and his almost funny jokes we made our way into Dublin City Centre. He showed us the main Irish offices for Google, Facebook, the Boland’s mills, houses and apartments of Bono, Jedward, Colin Farrell, admired some pretty ‘Celts’ that passed by our bus and finally we arrived at the canal. After putting on life-jackets and readying ourselves for the change from land to water, our bus became a boat and we continued our tour by canal.

Our next activity was a visit to the Jeanie Johnston, a beautiful, old boat that had been used to transport emigrants from Ireland to Canada during the Famine in 1840, she was famous for having a kind, caring captain and an accomplished doctor. We learnt about how difficult life had been for them, how rarely they found who they were looking for once they arrived at their destination and the small percentage that actually made it there alive (however on this particular boat everyone was taken care of and survived the journey, sadly this wasn’t always the case with other boats.)

Our final group expedition was a sea safari around Dublin bay. We went in an open boat, rode the wake, got thrown about, completely soaked and overall had a brilliant time. Delicious, crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside chips, hamburgers and hot dogs followed as dinner. 

Finally all 73 of us walked to the Odeon Cinema. With popcorn and cokes in hand we watched a gruesome and exciting movie about prohibition in the USA, in Virginia. At 10 PM we arrived back in school feeling content, comfortable and not nearly so worried about our results. We would all like to say a big thank you to Mr. Sherwood, Ms. Kilfeather, Mr. Clarke and Alannah for coming with us and organizing such a brilliant day.

Mandarin Classes

As previously reported beginner's Mandarin has been offered to TY-ers one evening a week. A group of regular attendees emerged, namely Brendan Dickenson, Ugo Onwurah, Lasse Schaefer, Harry Johnson, Tosan McLarn, Pia Gromotka, Clara Booth, Tara McCormick, Alex Owens,  Molly Dunne, and Sadhbh Sheeran. Well done to all for supporting this initiative and to Mr. Coldrick for driving it. They say your reward will be in heaven but in fact the group are going to into Dublin with their tutor Mrs. Fang Wang next week for an authentic Chinese meal. 

Evidence of Teaching & Learning on the White Board

Tosan's Turn

TY Trip to Dirty Dancing

At six o'clock on the 22nd of February the all the members of the SCC Transition Year, bar some sick Germans, set out to the Grand Canal theatre to view the latest performance of 'Dirty Dancing'. I really didn’t know what to expect as it was Mr. Sherwood taking us and it could really be anything. The title, however, made me nervous! 

We arrived and walked into the main lobby where we were greeted by a flock of programme sellers! Once passed them we all slugged are way up 12 flights of stairs to our mezzanine. Only when I took my seat right in the middle of the theatre did I realise the true scale of the place and more importantly how far away I was from the stage! This didn’t matter however because once the show had started I was glad I was so far away. The moment that the first group of dancers/actors pranced out onto the stage I was truly shocked as the choreography and the dancing itself was truly amazing! I was also amazed by the set changes. Me, being a school boy, I'm used to school performances which are good in their own right but don’t even compare to the real deal. I mean they changed the whole stage from a ball room to a bedroom in a matter of seconds! I also was impressed with the characters and subsequent actors. The two main characters Johnny and Baby were not surprisingly the most impressive, although penny was also very ‘impressive’ but in a slightly different sense... 

The plot was hard to understand, as later I was told I would have had to see the movie to get any of it. However I think I had a fair idea of what was going on as I am about to briefly explain: 

Basically Baby and her family spend a summer at a recreation camp and baby falls in love with the dancing instructor Johnny. My favourite part of the entire performance was when Johnny arrives at the end by strutting up through the crowd jumping onto the stage and shouting ‘nobody puts Baby in a corner!!!!!’ This had almost all of the middle aged women in the place standing. When the performance was over I was genuinely surprised how much I enjoyed the evening! Overall, a very enjoyable evening. 

William Wood. 

Muffin Making Mark II

Baking is Basically Applied Chemistry...right Sebastian?

Emily Speckter reports:

On the 18th of January ten of us from TY went to Rice to make Muffins with Ms. Kilfeather. She had prepared everything perfectly to start and brought in all ingredients and products. We had the recipes for Chocolate-Brownie Muffins and Banana-Cinnamon Muffins, which we finally changed into only Banana Muffins...there was no cinnamon to be had!

They Simply Call Themselves The Muffins

We started with the chocolate ones, mixed the ingredients as we were told and worked all together. Then we filled the forms up and put them into the oven. While they were baking, we made the banana ones and filled them up as well. When the chocolate ones were finished we took rhem out and let them cool down.

Ideal Muffin Lighting

Then we did the same with the banana ones, but they were quite spongy and warm. The chocolate-brownie muffins were really good, I prefered them. Overall it was very nice to cook something delicious, as I sometimes do at home too. It was a nice evening with tasty muffins to eat at the end and it was great fun. Thank you so much to Ms Kilkfeather.

& Remember Always Clean as You Go...

Argentinian Choir Visit

Next Tuesday we will be pleased to welcome St Gregory's School from Argentina. A combined rugby and hockey programme will be followed by supper and then a concert for our TY pupils in the Big Schoolroom. The St Gregory's choir will perfom jazz, pop, classical and Argentinian folk music. No doubt a fine time will be had by all.

Recent Twilight Hike

Continuing on with our love of hiking in TY Mr. Coldrick takes his turn, below, to report on a recent twilight walk.

On Saturday evening, November 27th, a group of 14 TY pupils accompanied by myself, Ms Cauldwell and my hiking partner and friend of many years Brian Bell (a qualified and experienced Mountain Guide) completed a very enjoyable evening hike over the Dublin Mountains. We started in Tibradden Woods and followed the newly developed Dublin Mountain Trail up Cruagh Mountain before descending steeply through Massey's Woods. We then climbed up to the haunted Hellfire Club where we were rewarded with a stunning view of the lights of Dublin in the dark.

This fit and enthusiastic group of TY pupils are forming the SCC TY Hikers and we plan an exciting programme of challenging hikes over the coming months including completing the Wicklow Way, Dawn walks (led by Mr Swift), climbing a number of Ireland's highest mountains and hopefully aiming next April for the West Highland Way, Scotland's famous long distance route.

Many thank to Mr Patterson who helps with the transport and logistics.

Photos to follow soon.

TY Pupils Attend Microsoft Inspiring Careers Day

Twelve members of the Transition Year, accompanied by Mr. McAlindon, are spending the day at Microsoft European Development Centre (EDC) in Leopardstown. The event is organised as part of Science Week and the day is jam packed with a wide range of activities and talks for the students on the careers available within the IT sector, including marketing, sales and programming. There is also a panel discussion on the future of ICT, a Game Zone to chill out in and a Science Fair! A full pupil report will follow in the coming days.

Zumba Has Arrived!!!

Do you like to dance, keep fit and have fun? Well, look no further, Zumba has arrived. On Wednesday October 12th at 4.30pm eighteen brave girls huddled nervously in the gym, rather unsure what they were about to experience. They need not have feared as Louis our instructor was extremely friendly and immediately made the girls feel at ease. The initial warm up routine got the heart rates up as well as the group spirit and level of comfort. It was all engines go for the next 40 minutes. 

Zumba is a new fitness sensation taking over the world. It all began by chance back in 1990s when Columbian fitness instructor Alberto ‘Beto’ Perez forgot his aerobic tapes. Determined to continue with his class he raided his car tapes which consisted mainly of traditional Latin, salsa and merengue music. What followed was an improvised class using this very non-traditional aerobic music and Zumba was born. Following the success in Colombia, he took the class to the USA in 1999 and this exciting style of fitness class has infected the world ever since. 

Zumba is considered exercise in disguise, with a typical class burning between 500 and 1000 calories. The music is a mixture of slow and fast rhythms combined with aerobic resistance training with the key focus on fitness and weight loss. The music comes from a broad and varied range of dance styles including salsa, mambo, reggaeton, samba, merengue and chachacha to name a few. 

Zumba follows a very simple formula - dance, keep fit, lose weight, stay toned and have fun in a friendly atmosphere. It is for everyone, it doesn't matter how old you are, shape or fitness level, everyone is welcome. It is a great way to relieve stress, lift your mind, body and soul and burn those calories. 

The overall experience was great and the gym was buzzing after half an hour with everyone hoping for another beat bashing Latin song…so now the question….. is Columba’s ready to ZUMBA?!!!