Manor House School

Last week Manor House celebrated Science Week and the Science department arranged a variety of activities including Science quizzes, "pop-up" Science demonstrations and a Science workshop for all 1st years. Thank you and well done to the Science department for a great week! Ms Fagan made this video which gives us a taste of some of the week's activities.

Congratulations to our three 2nd year students who represented Manor House at the Dublin City University Scifest Competition 2017 on Friday 5 May. The girls, who won our internal Scifest competition in 2016 with their project entitled "Make Up Your Mind", competed with over 100 other projects in DCU for the opportunity to progress to the Scifest National Final.The girls asked if people were protecting their skin from sun damage by wearing foundation or facial moisturiser on their skin. They did a fantastic job of showcasing their project and were excellent ambassadors for our school. Congratulations girls! 

Many of our TY students have entered a Science video competition. Here are some of their entries.

The State Examinations Commission (SEC) has identified four Manor House students as high achievers in Science and Maths, based on their performance in the 2016 Junior Cert exam. They are Emma Byrne, Rahil Kassouri,  Síofra Kelly and April Sheeran. From a pool of equally talented students, six will be selected to represent Ireland at the International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO) in Bali, Indonesia (2 -11 December 2016) and six others will represent Ireland at the European Union Science Olympiad (EUSO) in Copenhagen, Denmark (7-14 May 2017). In order to be selected, the students proposed by the SEC will first compete in the National Olympiad which will be held in Dublin City University in October and November. We wish our girls the best of luck!  Congratulations to their teachers, Ms Ailish Dolan, Ms Finola Dolan and Ms Catherine Power for guiding the students thus far!

 

Manor House School has a strong commitment to the study of Science.  We are lucky to have five well equipped school labs. As well as offering Science as an option at both Junior Certificate and Leaving Certificate levels, Manor House actively promotes the Sciences with Field trips, Guest Speakers, Science Work placement programmes, Science Festivals, events during Science week and entering science competitions as they arise.

 

Science at Junior Cert

Science is a popular optional subject for Junior Cert Science. At Junior Cert level, Science is split into three areas:

• Biology is the study of living things. Topics include Microscopes and Cells, Food and Nutrition, Skeleton and Muscular Systems, Ecology, Plant Biology.
• Physics is the study of the interaction of matter and energy. Topics include Motion, Light, Magnetism, Electricity & Electronics
• Chemistry is the study of all substances (natural and man-made, toxic and nontoxic). Topics include Atomic structure, Solutions, Crystallisation, the Atmosphere, Plastics.

 

 

• Junior Cert Science has a strong emphasis on practical work.
• Students complete a series of Mandatory experiments over their three years of study worth 10% of their final mark.
• In Year 3, students complete two practical investigations worth 25% of their final mark.
• This means the written exam is worth 65%.

 

Leaving Certificate Science

Manor House offers a choice of four Sciences at Leaving Certificate Level:

• Biology
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Agriculutral Science is the science of farming. Topics covered include Genetics, Soil Science, Animal Physiology, Animal Diseases, Plant Physiology and Crop Production.

Each subject is studied at a more detailed level with a strong emphasis on practical skills.

 

Field Trips

We, in Manor House, believe that field trips are an excellent way to reinforce the Science learnt within the classroom and to highlight to students that Science really is absolutely everywhere. Field trips offered include visits to

• W5 Science Museum, Belfast.
• Bull Island Wildlife Reserve.
• St. Anne’s Ecological field trip.
• Space Camp, Brussels.
• Armagh Planetarium.
• Science Gallery, Dublin.
• Natural History Museum, Dublin.
• Educational events at Dublin Zoo.
• DIT Science week events
• Young Scientist Exhibition, RDS

 

Science Work Placements

• In Transition Year, a number of our keenest Science students are given the opportunity to participate in week long college placements in DCU and Trinity.
• This is a terrific chance for students to gain an insight into Science options at third level whilst experience college life!

 

Manor House Scifest 2014 - 2015 - 2016 - 2017

1st year Science students are encouraged to develop investigative and experimental skills by working on a year-long Science project and presenting it at an end of year Science fair. The standard of students work and the range of topics considered to date have shown  how  innovative the students can be! Well done to all the girls who have participated so far. Some of the girls intend to develop their ideas further and participate in the Young Scientist competition the following year.

Check out photos here.

 

 

Timetable

08.45am: 1st years have class as normal

10.00am: 1st years set up the exhibition in Gym

11.15am:  Judging takes place during break

11.45am:  Judging and all 2nd years attend

12.25pm:  Judging final and all 3rd and TY students attend

01.00pm:  Lunch

01.40pm: Judging final and all 5th years attend

02.00pm: Invited guests

02.30pm: Ms O'Neill makes presentations

03.00pm: Clean up!

REPORT AND PHOTOS HERE

 

 

The latest Manor House SciFest exhibition took place on Monday 9 May 2016 in the school gym. All our 1st years were involved with a total of 36 projects! Well done to all the girls and their five teachers - Ms Fullam, Ms Power, Ms Callaghan, Ms Cassidy and Ms Tracey. We were very fortunate to be joined this year by Mr. Rory Geoghegan from SciFest, who spent the day with  us. He was very impressed with the standard of the projects! All the students and teachers in the school visited the exhibition in the morning and we were delighted that so many parents and family members were able to join us in the afternoon for the presentation. Many thanks to our judges led by Ms Ailis Dolan and Mr Rory Geoghegan.

 

The standard was extremely high. In fact every single group put in a huge effort and had lots of fun! The judges found it extremely difficult to pick an overall winner. The runners up were Ciara Stack, Zara Twomey and Grainne Keogh. However the overall winning project, agreed by all the judges to be outstanding was "Make up your mind – are you protecting your skin by wearing foundation/ moisturizer?"Congratulations to the overall winners of Manor House Scifest 2016 - Eabha Murphy, Sabrina Steinberga and Saoirse Daly. The presentation was carried out by Ms O’Neill.  All students were presented with certificates and ten projects received medals for distinction. 

 

See photos from the 2016 Scifest

 

The 2015 winners, Jessica Ormonde and Sarah Challoner, represented our school at SciFest@colleges which was held in ITB on Wednesday 4 May. Theirs were one of over a hundred projects at the regional finals and they came 2nd in their category with their project "Study Smart". Well done girls and good luck to our winners in next year's competition!