• 5 Year 11 pupils attended the Seagate Summer School in July ‘08. All had an excellent experience.
• All Year 9 pupils attended the gb4fun road-shows on the 14th and 15th September.
• All Year 10 pupils travelled to Magilligan Field Centre to participate in the joint Geography/Science Field Trips. Work continues on the analysis of their findings for their projects.
• A meeting took place with June Coates and Mildred Gill to discuss St. Mary’s College co-organising the Seagate Real World Science Conference in November of this year. As a result we have agreed to assign our lower and upper sixth science pupils as mentors for the event.
• A Meeting took place with Leanne Doherty from Business in the Community to discuss the action plan for the forthcoming year. As a result of this two visitors from industry have already visited Year 12 AQA Science to help pupils with their ‘Science in the Work-place’ module. Also it has been agreed that we will stage a science employment day in June ’10. A trip to the Play-trail for Year 8 pupils to participate in an eco- activities morning has also been arranged.
• Meeting in Dublin on 24th September for Dissolving Boundaries with Carndonagh Community School– as a result a joint project for this year has been agreed as well as agreeing to have the face to face meeting in Dublin at the Young Scientist exhibition in January ’10.
• 20 Year 9 pupils were presented with certificates at school assembly for their successful participation in last year’s ‘Dissolving Boundaries’ programme last year. They completed an on-line science project with pupils from Carndonagh Community School.
• Revision classes have begun with Year 12 pupils who did not achieve at least a grade C in their Year 11 OCR GCSE. They are currently working on coursework with a view to resubmitting to improve their grade to a C or above. Revision classes for Year 11 and Year 12 OCR GCSE pupils begin after the Hallowe’en break.
• A year 8 class has been identified to participate in the ‘Forward Thinking in Science’ programme through the U.U. Science in Society.
• Mr. Andrew Cahalan from Du Pont came to speak to Year 12 pupils about their products and services for AQA Applied Science
• 20 Year 8 pupils visited the Play-trail and participated in an Eco-challenge. All thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
• 21 pupils from Year 10 attended the Ecology play entitled ‘Shadow-men’ in the Waterside theatre.
• Meeting with Mr. G. Hughes from SENTINUS took place regarding dates for forthcoming Specialist Science events – Robotics for Primary schools will take place on 30th Nov, 3rd Dec, 4th Dec, 7th Dec; Science Evening for Year 8 pupils and their parents on 13th Jan ’10; STEM Maths Fun day on 26th Apr ’10
• Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth science pupils identified as mentors for the Seagate Real World Science Conference on the 19th Nov.
• Winners were announced for the joint Science Technology Safety Poster competiton. The 12 winning entries will now be put together in a calendar.
• Meeting took place with Gillian from the Lough’s Agency regarding a series of lessons for Year 9 pupils based around ecology – habitats and food chains. This year we hope to do joint work with the Geography department for the Lough’s Agency visit with follow up lessons with Lough’s Agency staff in St. Mary’s College.
• Revision Classes began (Every Wednesday and Thursday) for Year 11 and Year 12 OCR Science for exams in January.
• Entries were submitted for 4 UU Step-Up engagement competitions and for 3 engagement lectures.
• News came through that St. Mary’s had 7 projects accepted for the BT Young Scientists competition in Dublin in January.
• Primary School Engagement Activity took place on 12th November. Lecture on ‘Exciting Science’ was enjoyed by all. St. Mary’s were represented by Mr. D. Goddard and Ms. J. Leinster (Student Teacher)
• Engagement lecture entitled’ Deadly Diseases – Can Swine Flu compete?’ took place on 25th November. All Year 9 pupils attended.
• One Lower Sixth pupil took part in a day’s work experience at the Pathology labs in Altnagelvin Hospital on Monday 23rd November.
• 25 Sixth Year science pupils acted as guides and mentors for the Seagate Real World Science Conference at Lumen Christi and 15 Year 10 pupils attended the science work-shops. St. Mary’s College will act as host school for the event next year.
• 27 pupils from the school traveled to Stormont for a reception to celebrate their qualification for the finals of the BT Young Scientist competition in Dublin in January. Pupils from St. Mary’s make up almost half of the total number of entrants qualified for the finals from N. Ireland.
• 275 pupils from 5 different partner primary schools attended the Robotics workshops in St. Mary’s College.
• Kirsty Molloy from Year 9 was awarded with an MP4 player as a result of winning the questionnaire competition after the ‘Swine Flu’ lecture.
• 17 pupils from St. Mary’s College attended the BT Young Scientist Finals Exhibition in Dublin. All pupils performed extremely well and Danielle McGlinchey and Joanna Munoz were highly commended for their project on ‘Odourless Fake Tan’. All pupils will now work towards taking their projects to Belfast for the N. Ireland Young Innovators in June. Danielle and Joanna also appeared on TV3’s ‘Expose’ programme discussing their project. (Available on School and Science Dept websites)
• Primary School ‘Funtastic Science’ and other Primary School activities began. All feeder primary schools’ pupils took part with over 600 pupils in total visiting the school for a half day.
• Meeting took place with Leanne from Business in the community to finalise the school Action Plan for the Year. Events with which BITC will help include the North West Schools festival of Science, a careers Blitz day for Lower sixth science pupils to visit the hospital and Invista and a careers fair for Year 11 pupils.
• Revision classes after school continued for pupils in Years 11, 12, 13 and 14. An average of over 40 pupils were in each day after school (Monday to Friday) for revision sessions. All modular exams for these Year groups have now been completed for January.
• STEM module application form was submitted including application for Primary School activities.
• 5 pupils from Upper sixth science received word that they have been chosen for the final stage of the selection process for the Ireland Biology Olympiad team. They will now travel to Coleraine on Thursday 4th Feb to take part in lab work which will be assessed. We wish them good luck!
• Preparations are underway for the trip in May to San Jose for Mrs. Blanking and the pupils who won the N. Ireland Young Innovators 2009.
• Two past pupils from last year’s Upper sixth science class were awarded bursaries of £1000 from the Honorable Irish Society at a function held at Magee Campus.
• The ‘Forward Thinking in science’ programme began with one Year 8 class on 22nd February. Lynda Porter from the University of Ulster ‘Science in Society’ team will take the Year 8 class for a series of workshops on Cloning and Stem cell research.
• Dr. O’ Kane from the University of Ulster spoke to all OCR and AQA Year 12 pupils about the Step-Up programme in the University of Ulster for Lower Sixth science students.
• STEM Module Bus coming to St. Mary’s College for a Forensics workshop on 24th February.
• One class of Year 8 pupils going to the City Hotel for STEM day on 24th February.
• Lorna Daly from L6 Science took part in a day of work experience at the Pathology labs at Altnagelvin Area Hospital on Tuesday 9th February.
• 5 U6 pupils competed in final of Biology Olympiad at Coleraine University on Thursday 4th February. Caoimhe Hamilton won the bronze medal, one of only six medals from over 300 entrants.
• 65 Year 11 pupils attended engagement lecture on ‘Sound at the extremes’ at the Riverside theatre in Coleriane campus of U.U.
• Primary school activities continued with P7 workshops in science, technology, P.E, ICT on Thursday 4th, Monday 8th, Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th February.
• Applications for Nuffield bursary were sent away for two Lower Sixth science pupils.
• Engagement competition entry was sent away for ‘Blazing Ballista’ competition.
• Mentors for Something’s cooking came to school to meet with C59 and Mrs. A. Kelly regarding entry for ‘Something’s cooking’ competiton.
• Meeting with Mildred Gill from Lumen Gill re. NW Schools festival of science resulted in decision to investigate possible use of Magee Campus instead of Millenium Forum. Shiela Porter from Scifest took part in meeting via telephone and has promised the help of Scifest who will sponsor almost all prizes. This year’s North west festival will also be officially affiliated with Scifest and INTEL.
• The ‘Forward Thinking in science’ programme concluded with one Year 8 class on the 3rd March . Lynda Porter from the University of Ulster ‘Science in Society’ team took one Year 8 class for a series of workshops on Cloning and Stem cell research. The series of lessons was a great success and the pupils will continue on the theme for a short project.
• Mood Boards for the Step-Up Engagement Competition ‘Something’s Cooking’ were submitted to the Step-Up office on 3rd March. 3 of the 5 groups then received the news that they have qualified for the final ‘cook off’
• The entry from St. Mary’s College for the UU Engagement competition ‘Blazing Ballistae’ also made it through to the final stage. More detail will follow.
• 65 Year 10 pupils attended an engagement lecture at the Waterside theatre entitled ‘Sport – An analysis of excellence’ linked to their topic ‘Fit and Healthy’ in Year 10.
• All applications were submitted for Advanced level science in sixth year through the UU Step-Up programme. This year there are over 45 applications to do Applied science in sixth year.
• Year 9 pupils continued with their visits to the Lough’s Agency as part of their joint work with the Geography Department. By the end of April all year 9 pupils will have visited the Lough’s Agency for talks on habitats, Food chains, the environment and for a fishing activity.
• All Year 8 pupils participated in the STEM quiz for National Science and Engineering week. Pupils in teams of five answered questions based on what they have learned this year in science, technology and maths.
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