Revising: Food

First years are revising for the summer tests and making mind maps.
Well done Olivia and Ben for making these posters! They are detailed, colourful and very well laid out!

 Click on the picture to see it in more detail...

Transition Year Website!

Two Transition Year students; Vincent Savage and John Harrington have been nominated for an award for the Eir Junior Science Award for creating this Science website! This website is full of study notes for the Junior Cert. There is also study notes for History. I think it's really helpful as it breaks down each topic which makes it easier to revise. Once you have revised each topic it also gives you the option of testing yourself. Go check it out!

~ Emer

http://youngscientistsand.wix.com/strip-header-layout#!food/tfixp

The Eye

Abby has done some great work researching the eye... well done Abby! 

The Eye:

• The eye is a very important part of the body it lets us see things. The eye consists of many different parts, Each of these parts has a different function:

  

Different parts of the eye:

• SCLERA-  This is the opaque layer on the outside of the eye, its function is to protect the eye.
• CORNEA- This part of the eye acts like a window, it controls and focuses the amount of light allowed into the eye.
• PUPIL- This is the part of the eye which light passes through.
• LENS- This is the part that lets us see shapes as they are and at different distances, it allows the real image to be formed at the retina.
• IRIS- This is the coloured part of the eye, it helps control the amount of light entering the eye. when the light is bright, this part of the eye closes the pupil to let in less light and when there is low light this part of the eye opens the pupil to let in more light.
• CILIARY BODY- This part of the eye realeases a clear liquid called aqueous humor, it also changes the shape of the lens when your eye focuses on something.
• CHOROID- This part of the eye looks mainly at helping the outer layers of the retina, it also controls heat and pressure, whilst absorbing excess light to try and avoid reflection.
• RETINA- This part of the eye is a light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, it converts light energy that reaches it into signals which are then sent to the brain by the optic nevre.
• FOVEA CENTRALIS- This part of the eye is tiny but responsible for providing us with our most clearest, sharpest vision, by having a healthy fovea, it is the key to reading, watching T.V, driving and other activities that need to see things in detail. this part of the eye has no blood vessels. 
• OPTIC NERVE- This part of the eye transfers visual images (what we see) to the brain from the retina through electrical impulses, it is made up of nerve cells.
• SUSPENSORY LIGAMENT- This is the part that supports the eye, it forms a hammock beneath the eyeball for this support.
• BLOOD VESSELS- These are capillaries and arteries throughout the eye.
• OPTIC DISC (BLIND SPOT)- This is the part of the eye where the *ganglion cell axons* leave the eye, because there is nothing overlying this, it results in a blind spot in each eye.

The Optic Nerve (Blind Spot):

• To find your blind spot here is a quick experiment:

- Put your right hand over your right eye, and stare at the black dot.

- Move closer or further away, and you will find you can't see the ➕ anymore, this is because that is your blind spot!

The Retina:

• Here is a picture of Miss McCarthy's retina:

 

Science behind music

Emer has spent some time studying the science behind music... Well done Emer! 

The Science Behind Music 

• Music plays a huge role in teenagers lives. 

Although we find music as a luxury, it is also a necessity. Research shows that we should listen to more music than we do. 

Teresa Nakra, the professor of music at The College of New Jersey says "Music is exercise to the brain". "It engages your brain in different levels of thinking". 

When we listen to music the brain dissects the song that we are listening to. The brain is trying to follow the downbeats and upbeats of the drum, while recognizing the different octaves and notes of the horns and the voice. 

Research shows that the brain produces brainwaves from music with a strong and defining beat. those brainwaves determines our level of concentration and alertness.

Different types of music has different has different effects on us:

CLASSICAL MUSIC ~ This slows down your heart and breathing rate, this is why you would usually listen to it when you're relaxing.

ROCK MUSIC ~ This clears our minds when in the middle of stressful activities.

POP MUSIC ~ Pop music has the same effect on us as rock music.

BLUES MUSIC ~ Calms down your nerves.

REGGAE MUSIC ~ Calms you down when your angry.

LOVE SONGS ~ Makes you feel better after a breakup.

DANCE MUSIC ~ Makes you feel good.

RAP MUSIC ~ Can alter your mood.

HEAVY METAL ~ Can have a negative effect on your mood.

COUNTRY MUSIC ~ Can lead to depression.

Besides being a background or a mood enhancer, music can also be a person's companion.Robert Young McMahon has said that "music can be or friend, especially in times of loneliness".

Revising graphs (second year physics)

Flash Mob at Coláiste Muire

Coláiste Muire flash mob takes the internet by storm!

We are very excited to see the response online to the the flash mob organised by the PE department to promote mental health awareness this week at school. Well done to Ms. Moriarty and all the students who practiced and prepared for yesterday's outstanding success.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqSqoYsPCpY 

We have even been featured in the Irish Examiner!

There's no stopping the students of Coláiste Muire!

Revision... where to start

When you are faced with a long list of chapters to revise for the summer tests or even the whole book for your state exams in June, it can feel intimidating.

The first thing to remember is that you have already learned this material, so you are not learning it all from scratch. Don't worry if you don't remember everything straight away, when you start to revise, you will recognise a lot more than you expect.

Here is one way of breaking all of that revision into manageable chunks:

1. Make a list of topics/chapters that you need to revise. 
2. Challenge yourself to get all of the important information in that chapter into one page. You might need to make a rough version first. 
3. Practice answering past exam questions or the questions at the end of the chapter. 

Here is an example of the list of topics that my second year science classes need to revise: 

My students have done an amazing job of creating a one page summary of topics in physics. Here are a few examples of their work. You can see that even though they are all revising the same topics, each poster is quite different. Using colour and little sketches or pictures helps to make the poster really stand out.   

Remember that there are three steps to help you get started: 

1. Make a list 
2. Put everything you need to know on one page 
3. Practice answering questions 

"Tús maith, leath na hoibre"

Miss McCarthy 

Wellbeing Week Posters: Smoking is bad for your health

Well done to my first year science class who did some amazing work over the holidays to produce these posters for Wellbeing Week. The idea was to create a poster which showed the negative effects that smoking can have on your health, and focusing on the lungs as we have been studying breathing. Here are a few of my favourite posters!

Physics Revision Chart!

Welcome back to school everyone! We have only eight weeks to go until the summer tests begin! Second years don't forget to revise your physics calculations and definitions... a lot of them are related to length or distance in some way. I created this chart to show how all of these quantities are connected. Remember, if you have a question, write it down and don't forget to ask before it's too late!

Happy revision,
Miss McCarthy