BT Young Scientist

popular with all the politicians as they studied carefully her scientific investigation into rational decision making and voting fairly.

By Ms Karen Cashman

“Do 18-year-olds have the cognitive ability to vote fairly?”

I entered my project in the Senior Social & Behavioural category. I wanted to enter the discussion about lowering the voting age to sixteen from a scientific point of view.

Congratulations to our Young Scientists, Nakai Mudiwa (5th Year), Natan Gorzelańczyk, Allegra Zipser and Tom Lenehan (3rd Year) and Oscar McGowen and Casper Ryan (1st Year). It was a great achievement to have three Newpark BT Young Scientist projects qualified for the BT Young Scientist Competition 2023 which took place in the RDS between the 11th –14th January 2023. The team of judges screened almost 2000 projects nationwide and choose three of our projects to complete in the final of the competition. The students along with their teacher worked tirelessly during the weeks coming up to the competition and over the Christmas holidays to complete their projects to a very high standard.

Newpark had big successes in the RDS with Nakai Mudiwa winning second prize in the senior individual category with her project entitled “Do 18-year-olds have the cognitive ability to vote fairly” and Natan, Allegra and Tom received a highly commended award for their project entitled “Fuelling Newpark with Food Waste”.

There was a lot of interest in all the projects from the public and many high-profile politicians, and they were inundated by special guests calling to their stands over the four days. Casper and Oscar were a big attraction in the RDS, they had many visitors including Minster for Education Norma Foley, Tánaiste Michael Martin and junior Minster for Finance Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. The third-year young scientists also had many visitors. Leader of the labour party Ivana Bacik and Green party leader Eamon Ryan showed a keen interest in their project when they visited their stand. Nakai was very

My hypothesis is that younger adolescents rely more heavily on their limbic system for decision-making and do not gain the ability to use their pre-frontal cortex for rational decisions as effectively and consistently as adults until about 25. I tested this by handing out decision making styles surveys to 50 students from each year and 50 teachers as a control. I used the quantitative results of this survey together with research on the maturation of adolescent brains and the processes involved in decision making and voting in particular to prove or disprove my hypothesis and then apply it to the current discourse around the voting age.

By Nakai Mudiwa, 5th Year

“Fuelling Newpark with Food Waste”

We entered our project into the intermediate chemical, physical and mathematical section.

We worked on a project in which food waste bins were placed around the school, and all the food waste produced by the people at Newpark would then be collected and turned into methane - a gas that can power our Bunsen burners in the science labs, or possibly even more of the school.

This project is great for the environment, as not only does it take food waste out of the landfill, but it also reduces the amount of gas we are emitting into the atmosphere, by using the waste scraps of food we throw away instead! During the current energy crisis, we want to see if we can turn waste in money.

Thanks to Mr Murray & Mr O’Neill for sharing their engineering expertise with us.

By Natan Gorzelańczyk, Allegra Zipser and Tom Lenehan, 3rd Year

“Do your perceptions affect your ability to succeed?”

For our project we tried to find out whether if you are given an easy puzzle but told that it is a hard one, would you struggle to finish it because you think it is hard.

We wanted to prove to our fellow students that their perceptions might be preventing them from reaching success. We entered our project in the junior Social & Behavioural Science category.

By Oscar McGowan and Casper Ryan, 1st Year

Do you think you have what it takes to be next year's representative for Newpark in the BT Young Scientist Competition? Why not start brainstorming ideas now, invest in a project diary and start writing in your ideas and research – we look forward to hearing from you with your ideas.

On the 17th of November, the Irish Science Teachers’ Association (ISTA) hosted science quizzes in fourteen separate locations around the country. Thanks to Newpark being a member, we got to put forward two teams into the Dublin regional quiz held in Trinity College. Newpark Team A (the letter allegedly being nothing to do with quality...) was Adam Merabet, Lily O’ Flanagan and Edith Kelly and Team B was Isobelle McSweeney, Erin Kirby, and Jack Bradshaw.

All the extra study sessions and random online science quizzes had led to this. Both teams had done some preparation beforehand but going into the quiz I don’t think we were at all confident. We knew the questions would be difficult and a conversation with the St. Andrew’s teams on the DART revealed they had an algorithm for picking their teams, so I believe this lack of faith in our abilities was somewhat justified.

We were greeted by two of our lovely science teachers, Ms Farrell and Ms Cameron, who had held those extra study sessions for us. And then we were ushered into the lecture hall filled with students from around the country. The lecture hall was filled with students (sixty teams), teachers and perhaps an over-eager parent or two.

There were eight rounds with six questions each, with a lot we knew and some we didn’t. Yes, van Leeuwenhoek is the Father of Microbiology and no, the cow is not Ireland’s largest land mammal. As you can imagine, the questions were hard but both teams fared surprisingly well throughout and by the eighth and final round we were both in the top ten with Team B one point off first place. By the end it was all tied up and first place was to be decided by a sudden death round between Newpark and Wesley. An amazing hunch from Isobel resulted in our victory with the other Newpark team also coming fifth, securing our places in the ISTA Nationals.

Progressing on to nationals our teams came 4th and

A big thank you to our science teachers, Ms. Farrell, Ms. Anderson, and Ms. Cameron who enabled our participation in this quiz, it was great fun.

By Jack Bradshaw and Edith Kelly, 6th Year

Maths Week

The annual Newpark Maths week was held during Monday 17th and Friday 21st of October 2022. It was fantastic to see so many students and teachers take part in the various activities held in Newpark.

Activities and events included a Daily Maths Problem open to all years and staff, a Junior Cycle Poster Competition – ‘Maths Eyes’, BIMDAS Bingo for First Years and Transition Year reviewed the film Moneyball.

Junior Cycle Poster Competition

Well done to all the entrants in the maths poster competition. All posters were brilliant. It was clear that a lot of time and effort went into creating and designing these posters. Well done to the winners of the Junior Cycle Poster Competition:

1stPlace: Bella Kenneally 1NCR

2ndPlace: Helena Adamsons 1NCR

3rdPlace: Kate Glanville 3EOS

Daily Maths Problem

Well done to our daily prize winners:

Monday: Mimi Reuland 4LMY

Tuesday: Isobel McSweeney 6AFX

Wednesday: Harry Bradshaw 6CH/KC

Thursday: Oisin Twohig 2WFE

Friday: Sol McCullough 1DK

Eight students got four out of the five days’ problems correct. Congratulations to:

Tora Groarke 2SCN

Martha Bray 4KD

Luke Conaghan 4KD

Indiana Gallanagh 4KD

Callum Cooney 6AC

Una Mckenna 6DM

Adam Merabet 6CBE

Harry Bradshaw 6CH/KC

Three students got all five days’ problems correct, which is an amazing achievement. They were:

Lily Crowley-Ollier 4KD

Molly Sweeney 4KD

Isobel McSweeney 6AFX

BIMDAS Bingo

The very popular BIMDAS Bingo was held on Thursday 20th of October 2022. It was great to see so many first years taking part and enjoying themselves. Lots of lines were called and treats were given to all participants. Great work to all involved.

2nd Year Mathematical Mummies

The mummies looked at the contribution the Egyptians made to the world of maths. They then used knowledge of surface area and problemsolving skills to estimate how much toilet paper it would take to mummify their team-mate.

The brave volunteers were then mummified to see how close their estimations were to the surface area of their teammates.

Ms Karen Cashman

Thank you to all the staff and students who took part in the various activities during the week. A special thank you to all the teachers in the Maths Department who helped run and facilitate the activities.

MsSiobhanCostello

World Wise Global Schools

WorldWise Global Schools (WWGS) was set up in 2013. The aim of the programme is to engage students in quality global citizenship education to increase awareness and an understanding of the rapidly changing, interdependent and unequal world in which we live. This is done by challenging stereotypes and encouraging independent thinking,

Global Citizenship Education (GCE) is Ireland’s national Citizenship Education and is part of Irish Aid’s WorldWise Global Schools programme for postprimary schools. GCE helps students critically explore the root causes of global justice issues and how they interlink with our everyday lives. GCE inspires global solidarity by supporting people to fully realise their rights, responsibilities and potential as global citizens in order to take meaningful action for a just and sustainable world. Over the past term, the WWGS committee has promoted a number of causes to increase Newpark students engagement and awareness around global issues.

European Languages Day & Celebrating Diversity

September 26th

“The European Day of Languages is a celebration of the rich tapestry of languages which make our continent so special. Linguistic diversity is our cultural heritage. It helps us appreciate difference and helps us understand that diversity is our strength. Let us value all languages in Europe.” Statement from Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary General of the Council of Europe

To celebrate Newpark’s diversity, the WWGS committee asked all years to design and colour the flag which celebrated their origin and diversity. Newpark has a wonderful multi-cultural community, and this was reflected in all the flags which we then hung up along the T corridor which is the Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) corridor. They were from all four corners of the world with many students celebrating a dual or multi heritage.

Jersey Day

October

2022

On the 13th of October, GOAL visited Newpark to promote their national Jersey Day fundraiser but also to create an awareness and educate 2nd and 3rd year students about the seventeen interlinked Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the part they play, with a focus on a number of the SDGs including Clean Water and Sanitation, Zero Poverty and Reduced Inequalities. It was an engaging and informative talk, and a very successful Jersey Day was held on the 14th of October which raised €615 for GOAL.

100kms in a month for Ndiini School Food Programme,

20th October – 20th November

On 11 October, Margaret Dempsey spoke to TYs about her charity Ndiini School Food Programme, Registered CHY No. 20136. She discussed its foundation and the role of the charity in Kenya. Again, there was a focus on the SDGs mainly Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty to encourage students to have an increased awareness around food inequality and waste.

At the end of the lecture, students were encouraged to sign up to a 100km walk/run in a month in aid of the charity or to promote a brown bin campaign within the school to highlight food waste.

The following students took part in the 100km walk/