Physics demonstration for Open night.

My Trinity College Dublin/CRANN Work Experience:

A Place filled with history where I saw the future.

We live today in a world created by people like Ernest Walton, a Nobel Prize winner, for his work in the Atom and mathematician William Rowan Hamilton, who discovered Quarternions, both esteemed alumni of Trinity College.  They created our present and now its CRANN's turn to set about creating a better future.  A future where Ireland plays a strong role in nanoscience.  Ireland's role in nanoscience will strengthen our economy and help create a sense of optimism.  Ireland must position itself to catch the nanotechnology revolution and CRANN is a central player in this revolution. 

My reason for applying for the TY programme at CRANN are simple.  A deep love of science and I felt that CRANN's TY programme could expand my continual want for learning and understanding of how things work.  I also wanted to meet new people who are excited about how the world around them works.  And this programme has succeeded in fulfilling my expectations and much more.

In CRANN, I experienced optimism, team work, support and encouragement.  The people I met in CRANN showed many attributes that I admire and will strive for in myself.  I found team work, leadership, equality, respect, friendship, kindness, thinking outside the box and a sense for a better future for Ireland and the world.

I have an optimistic personality which is my attraction to science and why I believe in the importance of science.  If I have to describe my optimism, it would go something like this:  Seeing a problem is and opportunity to find a  solution.  My experience in CRANN has reinforced my optimism.  I learned that team work, cooperation, friendship and supportive advice are how problems are solved.  My fellow TY students and I gained life-long skills such as problem solving through setting goals, identifying alternative actions and anticipating consequences.

Through the friendships I have made, I have gained an understanding of the perspectives of others, shared positive experiences and learned a lot about myself and where I would like to see myself in the future.  Through team work experiences, cooperation was at the heart of problem solving and enjoyment.  Throughout the week, not only did we learn a multitude of information and skills, we also had great laughs and fun along the way.  I also was given a glimpse of university life which I cannot wait to participate in.

During this week, I was introduced into the science of the really small (nanoscience).  I have learned that nanotechnology is the study of controlling matter on an atomic and molecular scale.  Generally nanotechnology deals with structures sized between 1 to 100 nanometres and involves developing materials or devices within that size.  A nanometre is one billionth of a meter, a mind bogglingly tiny measurement.  The thought of things this small just takes a while to get your heads around but when you finally do, you begin to understand the vast magnitude of applications this science has for every day aspects of life.

Activities that I found memorable were the guided tour of Trinity College, our trip to the Advanced Microscopy Laboratory (AML), the trip to Intel and the trip to St James Hospital.  I found the tour of Trinity College very informative and it gave me a better insight into college life and what Trinity College has to offer in terms of facilities and courses.  I also found Trinity College's history interesting.  The trip to the AML was fascinating as we were allowed to use scanning and transmission electron microscopes to view specimens in a magnification much greater then that of a light microscope.  The trip to Intel was impressive due to the scale of the factory and through the tour of the factory floor I gained insight into the manufacturing and applications of microchips.  In St James Hospital, we were introduced to their investigations into the safety regarding the use of nanotechnology for the human body and the environment.  I was also very amazed at CRANN's facilities in the Naughton Institute , Trinity College.  The possibilities of nanotechnology are vast and nanotechnology can be used to develop smaller and more powerful electronic devices,materials with completely new properties and new ways of producing medical diagonistics and targeted drugs.

A quote by Antoine DE Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince, sums up my feelings of the week, " It is with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye".  At the heart of my experiences are the friendships I made, the memories I have and the reality of nanotechnology.  These are individually invisible to the naked eye but yet have the possibility of such profound effect.  My experience in CRANN is a very memorable and fun one.  CRANN has stimulated and increased my interest in science and the role science plays in Irish and international life.  I hope I can share my positive experiences with my friends in school to further their interests in science.

I would like to express my thanks to Mary Colclough and everyone else who made my TY work in CRANN possible.  I really appreciated the time and effort they put into the programme giving us and insight into what they do and what CRANN is trying to achieve for the future.  I would also like to thank the Principal Investigators and Researchers for all their kindness.

Calum Hendler (TY)

Past Pupil returns to speak to the TY Physics students

Brendan Owens a past pupil of Our Lady's returned to the school to give a talk to the Physics students in Transition Year during 2010, they were impressed to hear that he has completed a degree in Physics and Astronomy and is now studying in Greenwich College in the UK

BT -YOUNG SCIENTIST AND TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITION

Our Lady's entered two projects into the ever-popular BT-Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2009. They went up to the RDS on January 6th to 10th to display their projects to the public and also for their three judging sessions.

Claire Quigley and Vanessa Flack from 5th year under Mr Lonergan's supervision completed a project entitled "Can changing the albedo of our urban surfaces help to lower CO2 emissions and thus lower global warming "  The girls explored the idea that white roofs on houses rather than black roofs can help reduce the amount of CO2 produced.  They calculated how much CO2 could be saved if white roofs were placed  on all the houses in the Dublin area. The girls were highly commended for their project

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Vanessa Flack and Claire Quigley pictured at their stand in the RDS.

Aisling Kerr and Aine McNally from Transition Year under the Supervision of Miss Higgins completed a project "Can you upsize your brain?". They tested the effectiveness of Brain training games. They tested three groups of first years. Group one completed the same set of 100 calculations each time, Group two had a different set each time and the third group only completed one test.  They concluded these games do not work as efficiently as people might expect.

Aisling Kerr and Aine McNally pictured with Mr Brophy and Ms O Reilly, Science teachers from the school who visited their stand in the RDS

 All the Transition years visited the exhibition on Friday January 9th held in the RDS Dublin, to support their fellow students. Their visit may well encourage them to participate in the competition in the future as it is a wonderful learning experience.