Borrisoleigh Schoolboys Attend Transition Year Physics Exerience in Trinity College Dublin
Nicky Cooney of St Joseph’s College, Borrisoleigh, wrote about his experience in Trinity College, Dublin.
“John Ryan and myself, Nicky Cooney of St Joseph’s College, Borrisoleigh had the privilege of attending the Transition Year Physics Experience (TYPE) in Trinity college Dublin.
John Ryan and Nicky Cooney
To start our wonderful experience we listened to an introduction from Prof. C McGuinness
explaining what lay ahead for us and how lucky we were to be there. He wished us a week of
fun learning. All of our lectures took place in the famous Schrödinger theatre. Schrödinger was a famous Austrian physicist that wrote the book ‘The Meaning of life’.
At the start of the week we were assigned projects to research and present at the end of the
week. John’s project was based on Carbon Nanostructures and my project was based on
Galaxies and their shapes.
During the week we attended many lectures and talks from various experts in their specific
fields. The lectures that I found most fascinating were on the topic of nanophysics and
astrophysics. Particle physics piqued John’s interest the most.
St Josephs College Borrisoleighl presents cheque of €370 raised by Jersey Day held in the school to support the Mary Slattery Benefit Fund.
The professors were so enthusiastic when giving their lectures especially Professor Eric Finch, a renowned physicist who gave a riveting lecture on ‘The Powers of Ten’. As soon as he started the lecture every student was so intrigued by his enthusiasm and he maintained our full attention for the entire talk. We were left in complete awe.
Nanophysics was really interesting to me. We had various lecturers for this particular subject
such as Arlene O’Neill and Valeria Nicolosi, an Italian physicist. These lectures grabbed my
immediate attention because these nano particles are the solution to our energy problem
globally. Our final lecture at the end of the week finished with a bang, literally. We studied
particle physics which was so much fun and it answered a lot of my questions about our
universe and what it is made of.
We went on a trip to Birr Castle Observatory during the week which was brilliant because we
were shown the telescope that was at one point the biggest telescope in the world. We went to see how we can measure solar flares and how this affects our planet. This is the famous LOFAR project. Solar flares can interrupt certain things on our planet like communications and radio. Collecting data from these flares is important because if we are to understand them, we must study them and Birr castle gives a huge contribution to that study.
On the final day we presented our projects. Judges came around to each project to ask us
certain questions on our project and what we had learned.There were prizes given for these presentations and their content. Luckily enough, my project on Galaxies, was chosen for the prize. This was a great end to a fantastic week.”
