Collins Barracks & The National Museum Of Archaeology

Today it was form 4A and 4B's turn to get to Collins Barracks and The National Museum of Archaeology while form 4C and 4D had their first lesson of Self Defence.

I have been to both Collins Barracks and The National Museum of Archaeology before but I can safely say I haven't seen all they have to offer. There are so parts to both places it would be impossible to se it all in one day.


In the morning went to the Archaeology Museum and the Barracks in the afternoon. The day was split up by a few hours free time around town. We got the bus to the different places.

 I found the whole day very enjoyable and I would go back to both again.

BT Young Scientist

The annual trip to the BT Young Scientist was once again an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately their was no St.Gerards representatives this year, but there was some very interesting stalls. A lot, almost too many, were about Ebola but there was the odd one that stood out.

The highlight of the show had to be titan the robot. There is always a robot that is the main attraction at the Young Scientist. Last year it was Rubik Cube solver, this year the dancing robot Titan.

The winners of the BT young Scientist 2015 was Alcohol consumption: Does the apple fall far from the tree? by Ian O'Sullivan, Eimear Murphy

UCD Open Day

Today my year and I went to the UCD Open Day. The bus left at around 10 and we arrived at our destination in about 30 mins. Upon arrival we were brought to a lecture hall where we received a presentation on all the different courses the college has to offer. After the presentation, we split into groups of 12 and, lead by a college student, we took a tour of the campus.



This being only the second college open day I have been to, I had little to compare it to but nonetheless the facilities were quite impressive. The college has activities to suit everyone with 60 sports teams and over 100 societies. The student centre is fitted with an Olympic size pool, gym and fitness rooms. From the tour of the campus I could see that there was no shortage of restaurants and shops. Whilst there I also had the chance to see the new science centre building.







The new Science centre in University College Dublin (UCD) opened its doors to students and staff in September 2013.



Before going to the college I had been told that they offer a very good course that I am interested in. After going to UCD and seeing this for myself and seeing the impressive sports facilities, I would gladly attend the college.



For more info on UCD visit http://ucdlife.ucd.ie/home

Web Summit, RDS

I got the opportunity to go to the Web Summit this year with a select few others. We got the bus from school into the RDS which was absolutely packed with people.
The stage was very impressive as you can see from the below picture. I had a lot of fun here and enjoyed a lot of the speakers, my favourite was the young people who talked of their success with technology.

 

 

 

Turlough Hill

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


All TY Geography students went on a trip to Turlough Hill. As part of celebrating the hydro plants 40th anniversary, there is free tours of the plant this year. Turlough Hill is Ireland’s only pumped hydro-electric storage system. Set in the stunning Wicklow mountains this engineering marvel generates up to 292MW of electricity during peak demand periods by releasing water from its upper reservoir and allowing it to flow through its four turbines into a lower reservoir. During periods of lower demand the water is pumped back to the upper reservoir ready to be used again. I learned a lot from this trip and I found the overall experience very enjoyable. 

For more information visit http://www.esb.ie/turloughhill

Junior Cert Results and Camping Trip

I fell just short of my Junior Cert Results goal I had set myself. Fortunately I wasn't thinking about it for long as we left for Lough Dan shortly after receiving the results.

Preparation for this trip began weeks in advance. The perfect amount of Protein and Carbohydrates (not forgetting Complex Carbohydrates) was vital for maintaining muscle mass. We would need to carefully plan this out. I arranged to share a tent with 3 friends. We split the food responsibilities equally. Tadhg took Complex Carbs. Cian wrestled Fruit/Veg and Breakfast goods. Mark bravely took Protein and Carbs for DAY 1, I took them for DAY 2. A fool proof plan. We each brought our own sleeping bag etc. I would advise others going on this trip in the future to bring...


 1. Water (5L container) and plenty of bottles to fill
 2. Instant noodles, pasta etc.
 3. Comfortable shoes for walking, don't have to be hiking shoes
 4. Ball
 5. Electric cooker

These five are the most important in my opinion because you spend most of your time eating and walking. Don't bother making a fancy stew or a the like, instant meals are a lots easier to make. Boiling Water and a frying pan was how we made most meals. Pot noodle and bacon was key.
 

The walk on the second day is very long. 25km is longer than its sounds. I would suggest bringing a lot of water and some cereal bars to be eating regularly.

I was disappointed we didn't anything in or on the lake. It seemed kind of pointless going to Lough Dan in the first place if all we could do was stay in  field beside the lake. Might as well have just gone to random field. But besides that point I really enjoyed this trip and I cant wait for the trips to come this year.