MyScience.ie

493 primary schools across the country have received an Award of Science and Maths Excellence this year as part of the Discover Primary Science (DPS) programme. The awards programme which is organised by Discover Science & Engineering, acknowledges the efforts of primary school children and teachers who have demonstrated an increased knowledge and application of science and maths.

The awards are part of the Discover Primary Science programme, which is a flagship project run by DSE to facilitate teacher training in general primary sciences and promote science and maths among primary school students. Now in its sixth year, the programme has in excess of 3,000 participating schools, with over 3,700 teachers registered on the programme.

Commenting on the Awards of Science and Maths Excellence, Peter Brabazon, Programme Director, Discover Science & Engineering, stated, “On behalf of Discover Science & Engineering, I would like to congratulate all those students and teachers who took part in the Awards of Science and Maths Excellence on their tremendous work. The Discover Primary Science programme has continued its work in fostering an interest in the sciences among students and helping them to acquire skills that will stand to them as they continue their education. A key element of this was the incorporation of maths into this year’s programme, which reflects our efforts to assist in raising Irish students’ performance in the subject.”

In applying for an Award of Science and Maths Excellence, schools were required to keep a Discovery Log recording science related work carried out throughout the year. Credits were awarded for completing a certain number of activities from the DPS classroom activity pack as well as visiting one of the DPS accredited Discover Science Centres. In line with the introduction of maths in this year’s programme, participating schools were asked to give three examples of how they integrate the subject into their science work. Additional credits were awarded for taking part in a number of other DSE programmes including the Greenwave project (www.greenwave.ie), a mass science experiment tracking the arrival of spring across Ireland, as well as contributing to Science Week, DSE’s annual national week long promotion of science and engineering.

Please visit here for further information on the Awards of Science and Maths Excellence and the Discover Primary Science programme.

During the recent travel chaos caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, many stranded airline passengers and holidaymakers had to make their way home across the continent by any means possible. Airlines lost tens of millions of euro, and airports were turned into near ghost towns for days on end.

Why was the ash cloud dangerous?

The main danger of the ash cloud centred on two things:

- The reduced visibility caused by the ash made it near impossible for pilots to fly safely

- Once a plane tried to fly through it, the ash would turn to molten glass inside the plane’s engine, crippling it and forcing it to crash.

What can be done in future?

The next step for the aviation industry is to create a workable plan, to avoid the travel chaos witnessed in the last month or two. Several suggestions have been put forward.

1. Flying under the ash cloud.
Several European airlines, keen to get flights back in the air, have conducted test flights at lower altitude, with apparent success.

There are a number of problems with this however:

- The amount of fuel needed to fly at a lower altitude (where the air is thicker) would be beyond the capacity of most airlines, particularly for long haul flights.

- At lower altitudes, the air contains a high number of fine particles, which planes should avoid.

- There is no altitude level at which planes would be guaranteed to avoid the ash.

2. Flying around the ash cloud.
This technically would work, but the main issue with this is that the ash cloud cannot actually be seen. Satellite imaging, which the airlines rely on, can only show dense ash, and there is no way to judge the altitude it is at.

3. Lidar.
Lidar is a similar type system to radar, which can be successfully used to map the layers of ash around at different heights in the atmosphere. Using this, pilots could plot a safe path through ash-free airspace.

The problem with this is that the course of the flight would be taken out of the hands of air traffic control, and given solely to the pilot. The chances of two planes taking the same flight-path and colliding would increase dramatically.

Probably the best solution, according to Richard Taylor of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), would be for manufacturers to change the structure of their engines, so as to be able to withstand the ash coming in.

For more, click here

“>here

Good news for budding young astronauts – Cork Institute of Technology’s Blackrock Castle Observatory has revealed further details surrounding this year’s “Space Camp”, held at the Observatory for each of the last three years. Plans for “Space Camp 2010” include the usual space-themed workshops and this year, the camp will finish with participants building and launching their own rockets to launch from the observatory.

Themes for this year’s workshops have also been revealed, and will include topics like “Mars – the Red Planet”, “Comets and Craters”, and “The Search for Alien Life”.

The camp, aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 12, will be run at the Observatory through six sessions of daily workshops during July and August, and admission will cost €95 per child.

The aim of the camp is, according to camp coordinator Frances McCarthy, to “encourage and foster an interest in all things space-related”.

“We want to show exactly how all things astronomical impact on our daily lives”.

The schedule of the camp will run as follows:

JULY
- 5th-9th: MORNING (10am-12:30pm) or AFTERNOON (2pm-4:30pm)
- 19th-23rd: MORNING (10am-12:30pm) or AFTERNOON (2pm-4:30pm)

AUGUST
- 9th-13th: MORNING (10am-12.30pm) or AFTERNOON (2pm-4:30pm)

Further details of the camp can be found by clicking here.

An interesting story came through last week, which demonstrated the wide-reaching benefits of science and technology in the world of sport.

Quizzed at an Arsenal F.C. stakeholder’s meeting, Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis revealed how the efforts of the club’s medical team to prevent and contain injuries to Arsenal players has this season seen them introduce GPS technology to the training ground.

Specifically, the movements of each individual player are tracked by GPS satellites to help medical staff track two key indicators of potential injury – the player’s work-rate in training, and the ‘load’ on a player’s feet, which literally means the amount of time a player’s foot is actually in contact with the ground while he is running.

As Gazidis himself explains, “You can see if a player is coming up to a risk of injury in a subsequent game…if their work-rate comes down in training, and their ‘load’ increases. This can help you to predict when players are in a dangerous situation”.

The ability of technology like this to flag symptoms of fatigue and muscle injury shows the extent to which sport has embraced science and technology in recent years. It will be interesting to see how successful the GPS experiment will be – to fully reap the rewards, Arsenal will have to build up records of individual players to accurately gauge how at risk they are of injury.

Fewer players on the injury list will certainly increase the chance of silverware – something the Arsenal fans crave after five trophy-less years!

To find out more on this topic, click here

Atlantic Corridor conference on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education on 25 February 2010 in Tullamore Court Hotel, Co. Offaly.