This year SETU has run a programme where people can attend different tester courses, to see if they would like to pursue it at third level. On Wednesday the 29th of March, a couple of Presentation’s TY students seized the opportunity, and took part in SETU’s “try physics” programme. People of all ages were there, from TY students to leaving cert students, all interested in possibly doing some form of physics in college.
The day began with some quantum computing. Here the students got taught the basics of quantum computing, the example of Schrödinger's cat, and created and entangled quantum state. After this, they moved onto something a bit lighter, and everyone got to observe a few demonstrations of light and sound. It was explained how sound and light travel in waves, and everyone got to see how many hertz they could hear up to.
For the rest of the day, the students did an experiment to find the Earth's acceleration due to gravity, observed an experiment using liquid nitrogen, and got a talk about the big bang theory. Then at the very end, there was a talk about careers in physics, as well as degrees and courses. Overall, it was a very insightful day, as well as fun, seeing what the subject is like outside of secondary school.
The SETU “Try Law” day was filled with lots of fun activities and team building experiences! The day started off with a quick talk from Dr. Elliott Payne about different people in law and their different types of law they practice in. The students then got to learn more about the Irish Legal Systems and more about the structure of the law by Ms. Anne-Marie McGrath. They soon got to take a quick break and were back into the deep end as the uplifting and enthusiastic Ms. Deirdre Adams took a look through a criminal law study, and in the end, the students had to try and plead whether the defendant was guilty or not guilty. This really was a great activity as it made them think about whether they would want to be on the defense side of the law or more of a judicial side. After another quick lunch break, they got back into the Irish Constitution with Dr. Jennifer Kavanagh who took the students through the different sectors and off why the Constitution is so important in law. Ms. Carmel Brennan then finished off the day with a quick talk about careers and some courses that SETU offer, if anyone was ever interested in studying law further. Overall, it was a great day. All the professors covered a lot of areas where there may be questions and gave a wide range of what the courses would look like. I would highly recommend anyone who is debating law to try out the “Try Law” day in the future!
Written by Millie Power, TY Student.