Comórtas Eolaí Óg as Gaeilge

Bhí mise agus mo chara Jade ag glacadh páirt i gComórtas Eolaí óg. Bhí tionscadal againn sa catagóir siceolaíochta. Bhíomar ag déanamh staidéar faoi conas a oibrigh foireann le chéile agus na rudaí a háthraigh a éifeachtúlacht. Bhí ceathrar turgnaimh againn. Bhí siad ag staidéar rudaí difrúla a háthraigh an éifeachtúlacht. Bhí an chéad thurgnaimh faoi d'aois. Bhí an dara turgnaimh faoi chur amach le na daoine ar do fhoireann. Bhí an triú turgnaimh faoi cobhsaíocht. Agus bhí an ceathrúr turgnaimh faoi cheannairí. "Dream Team" an t-anim ár tionscadail.

Bhí na lae fhada ach bhain mé an taitneamh as. Gach lá d'éirigh mé ag leathuair tar éis a sé. D'fhag mé mo theach ar ceathrú tar éis a seacht nuair a raibh daid Jade ag tabhairt síob dom nó a seacht a chlog nuair a raibh mé ag tabhairt síob do Jade. D'oscail an taispeántas ar a naoi a chlog sa maidin. Dhún sé timpeall cúig a chlóg gach lá. Chuaigh Jade agus mise le bia ansin agus bhíomar ar áis le na gníomhaíochtaí tráthnóna. Bhí dhá discó againn agus bhí tráth na gceist agus oíche cáirióice fresin.

Bhain mé an taitneamh as an am a chaith mé ag Eolaí Óg mar bhí na daoine den chéad scoth agus bhí an eolaíocht thús cadhnaíochta.

Brooklyn

This week we just started reading 'Brooklyn' by Colm Tóibín, in English. I'm really excited to read this as the recent film adaption was a huge success and was nominated for nine Oscars including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film. I'll tell you what I thought of the book when we're finished.

Einstein's Riddle

So the other day I solved Einstein's Riddle in 32 minutes. I have no idea if that is a good or bad time but I thought I'd share it with all of you so you can have a go yourselves. 

The riddle is rumoured to be written by Einstein as a kid however there is no evidence that he did write it. Apparently only 2% of people can solve this but I don't know if there is any scientific evidence to support this. 

There are five houses in five different colors in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The five owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage. Other facts:

1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The green house's owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water. 

The question is: who owns the fish?

You can check out the answer here: 

http://home.earthlink.net/~jwolfe851/SolToEin.htm

Just Dance!

Today in P.E. we were doing dancing. So just imagine 60 girls lined up, looking at YouTube videos of Zumba and Just Dance projected onto a wall and trying to copy them. That was our P.E. class today.
As crazy as it sounds it was actually good craic. Between whacking into each other and amazing moments of collaboration it was a really good class. We got fitter and had a really good time doing it.

BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition!

So last week from Wednesday 6th until Saturday 9th I was at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with my partner Jade Wolfe.

Our project was an investigation into some of the factors that affect team efficiency. Basically we investigated how different things like how well you know your team mates, the age of team mates, what type of leader a team has and how stable the team members are would affect how well a team perform. 

Sadly we didn't win any awards but we still had a great time. 

We made loads of new friends and we had a different activity every night. Most days we were there from about 09:00 - 17:00. In the evenings we would come back for about 20:00 and there would be a disco, quiz or karaoke. Sounds a bit cringy right, but it totally wasn't. It was actually some of the best nights of my life.

On the Friday there was the awards ceremony and the girls beside us won first place in our category for their project "Gambling: A Silent Epidemic". We became really good friends with them over the course of BT. We met loads of new people that I'm sure I'll be friends with for ages. 

Most of the main events were held in the main hall.There was a really cool set up. I really loved the stage. 

Some of the science there is really cutting edge and could have such a big impact on the world. One of the project I really loved was one to do with a disease that affects coffee plants called coffee rust. Two boys from Synge Street CBS made "A Mathematical Model of Coffee Rust". They won an Intel award fro their project so they win an all expenses trip to America to compete in another science fair with their project. They also won another award but I can't remember exactly what it was. 

I really miss BT and would recommend everybody to try to get involved because you have great times that you can never forget and you find some of the nicest people. The couple of days off school isn't so bad either. Congratulations to anybody who made it there this year and googd luck to anybody hoping to enter next year.

RCSI

Today I went to the Royal College of Surgeons Open Day. I did the medicine workshop and had the 9a.m. tour too.
In the morning we had a tour of the college before making our way to a lecture theatre for talks from the SU president, a present student and the heads of Medicine, Physiotherapy and Pharmacy. We also had a short talk on admissions before observing a live surgery.
In the afternoon we were divided into our workshops of medicine, physiotherapy and pharmacy. As part of the medicine workshop we got to see a baby during an ultrasound, determine somebodies blood type, insert a feeding tube into a mannequin, take blood from fake arms and take each other blood pressure amongst other things.
The food was also really good especially because it wad free. Who can resist free food?

World Braille Day

Braille is a writing system used for visually impaired and blind people. Braille writing is made up of

"cells" which contain raised dots. The arrangement of the dots determines the character.

Braille is named after its creator Louis Braille, who created the writing system in 1824 aged 15. Braille was blind in both eyes. The system allows millions of people to read and it is still being used today.  He modelled the system off an earlier failed military code called night writing.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I hope everybody has a wonderful prosperous year filled with adventure and good people.