Once again the very successful DCS Robotics team reached the final of the national competition in Galway.  A very early start on the Saturday morning saw Douglas Community School Fourth Years (and some Second Years) in the Radisson in Galway with hopes of reaching the European final in Germany.

The event is an international competition that starts in August with the problem being issued in the United States and Europe at the same time.  This year was based on table top tasks (a very big table!) for the robot, and a research project based around food safety.  Nearly 30 different tasks are set and you have to do as many as possible within the 2 minutes allowed.  We have been working on it since early September.  Many late nights and lunchtimes were spent, as well as teachers being very kind helping us complete the work.

For the presentation we created a website and looked at preserving food in the developing world.  The project opened and closed with a food safety rap of the semi-musical variety and contained our ideas on a PowerPoint for the judges to see our research.  The presentation was in a small room but the lads made it feel like an arena full of ideas.  The link to our web page is below.

The day of the competition is always a treat.  The compere is an English TV presenter and he keeps the whole thing fun.  There was lights and music, computers and laughter.  Some the colleges have stalls and there is a bit of food.  Our first event was the table robot.  Last year this was our downfall but this year things went better.  After the judges added up we felt it was a good start.  Then we had to answer questions on the team and its dynamics as well as our view on the value of the work.   Then we had a long chat with a technical team about the program and the build strengths.  As we waited for all this, the scores went up and we were in the lead after two rounds.  Even after three rounds we were third and into the semi-final.

Unfortunately we had a really bad run and missed a couple of the tasks by a centimetre and did not score the first round score even that would have got us into the final.  The lads were very philosophical and all said they had enjoyed the day.  The school should be really proud of them; they cheered not just for themselves but also for the Ursulines, Blackrock, Co. Cork, who came with just a couple of girls and were really grateful for the boost.  So we were third out of more than 40 teams who started out in the national competition and waited to see who had won.  Then a shock  – we got a special judges’ prize for the best participation on the day and the best teamwork and spirit.  There was even a cup made appropriately of yellow lego.  The lads were delighted and the trip home flew past.

All in all another great day for the school and praise all round for the lads’ attitude.  Everybody made a contribution; it was truly a team.  The team was Jordan Smith (Capt), Eoghan O’Brien, Pawel Kulicki, Matteo Campinote, Brian Creagh, Gavin Falvey, Fearghal Magner, Adam Dalton, Ciaran Devine, Leon Domoney, Daniel Mason, Brendan Couch, and Aaron Murphy.

Click here for the webpage that was created as part of our 2012 Robotics Competition. Our team created, developed and designed this page. It will provide information on various elements of food safety. We hope that you can learn about how to preserve and store foods. This website will also show our robots trip from lego to its glory. We hope you enjoy and learn a lot from us.

(Above: JP McCarthy, PhD student from UCC assists budding DCS mathematicians.)

Since September, Douglas Community School has been involved in running one of the first Maths Circles in Cork. These are after-school mathematics clubs for First Year students who have shown a particular interest in maths, and are run in conjunction with staff in UCC and CIT. Under the scheme, students from UCC are sent to any school interested in setting up a Maths Circle to help run the first number of classes. We were lucky enough to have J.P. McCarthy, currently studying for his PhD, who ran the first five sessions, in conjunction with teachers in the school. Since then, the Maths Circle has been run by Mr Ciarán Ó Conaill.

The classes are generally centred around problem-solving type questions, with students often working in groups of two or three rather than singly to solve puzzles. The aim of the classes is to continue to engage the more able students, and to challenge them in a subject they may find very easy in school. Given the enthusiastic responses from those involved, we seem to be achieving this aim!

All of the notes from the classes, as well as some supplementary material, are available online at oconailldcs.wikidot.com/mathscircles. We continue to be supported by UCC in the form of a dedicated website, www.mathscircles.com, which contains an ever-growing number of puzzles and resources for possible use in Maths Circles around the country, although it has to be said that DCS is one of the main contributors to the site in terms of adding puzzles and problems! We also look forward to having more students from UCC in the new year bring their enthusiasm and innovation to the students of Douglas Community School.

Ciarán Ó Conaill

Some Sample Problems:

1. In a knock-out tournament with 50 teams, how many games will be played?
2. Cork has about 270,000 inhabitants. How do you know for sure that at least two non-bald people in Cork have the same number of hairs on their head?
3. How many squares are on a chessboard?
4. A cable is made that runs all the way around the equator. After a few days, it’s decided that, instead of running along the ground, the cable needs to be 1 metre off the ground, all the way around the earth. How much extra cable is needed?
5. Add up all the numbers from 1 to 100 without using a calculator.
6. Make the number 1,000 using the number 8 eight times. You can use any operation (e.g. adding, subtracting, multiplying, etc).

Solutions:

1. Each team has to lose 1 match. You need 49 losers, so you need 49 games.
2. The most number of hairs a person can have is less than 200,000. So, the worst-case scenario is that you have 1 person with no hairs, 1 person with 1 hair, 1 person wih 2 hairs, etc, all the way to 1 person with 200,000 hairs. Now the next person must have some number of hairs between 0 and 200,000, so they have the same number of hairs as someone already counted.
3. There’s one 8×8 square, four 7×7 squares, nine 6×6 squares, etc, up to sixty-four 1×1 squares. That’s a total of 204 squares.
4. The circumference of a circle is , and the radius of the earth is roughly 6,400km, 6,400,000 m. Assuming that the equator is a circle, that gives a cable length of 12,800,000 m. To get the cable 1 m off the ground means using a radius of 6,400,001 m, which gives a length of 12,800, 002 m. That’s an extra length of 2 m, or 6.28 m. It’s a bit strange that this is so small, but what’s really odd is that the answer is the same, no matter what the initial radius. So the same would be true for the moon.
5. This is an old problem. The trick is to pair off the first and last numbers, so you look at 1+100, 2+99, 3+98, etc. There are 50 of these pairs (the last one will be 50+51), and each pair adds to 101, so that’s a total of 50×101 = 5050.
6. This requires a little, well, cheating. We need to use what’s called concatenation – joining numbers together. So one solution is: 888 + 88 + 8 + 8 + 8 = 1000.

This year Douglas Community School is running Supervised Study during certain school holidays for third year and sixth year students.

October Break – €40.00

Tuesday November 1^st –  Friday November 4^th

February Break -  €50.00

Monday February 13^th – Friday February 17^th

Easter Holidays – €40.00

Tuesday April 10^th –  Friday April 13^th

Normal school rules apply. Places are limited and allocated on a first come, first-served basis. Money is to be given to Mr. Wolfe.

Brendan O’Brien

Neil Bronks

Left to right: James Flynn, David Dunn (Common Purpose), Edvinas Bielskus, Stephen Lyons

Three Transition Year students have taken part in a programme called “Your Turn”, initiated by the Common Purpose educational organisation.  It ran for three full days in different venues around Cork.

Common Purpose believes that young people have an essential role to play in changing the way society works. The Your Turn campaign for 15-17 year olds aims to unlock their leadership potential by giving young people the information and inspiration they need to make a difference.

Your Turn seeks to empower local young people to develop their confidence and self-esteem, enable them to take up leadership roles within their communities and to participate effectively in decision making processes at all levels in Irish society.

Your Turn aims to:

• encourage an integrated approach to problem solving
• break down barriers and create an understanding of other opinions
• increase the percentage of young people involved in local and city life
• raise aspirations and expectations of transition year students with regard to their future and that of their communities, schools and youth organisations
• enable young people to make more informed life choices.

http://www.ouitolecrunch.com/sound-bites/finalists/finalists2.aspx

Shane O’Sullivan

All four original DCS entries can be listened to here.

On 3 March 2011, classes NT2 and NC2 had an opportunity to taste different types of cheese with Ms Moylan of the French Department.  Akhil Chellapuri of NT2 writes …

Aujourd’hui c’est jeudi le 3 mars.  Notre professeur nous a párlé des différents fromage.  Nous avons tous contribué de l’argent au professeur.  Elle a áchete quatre différents fromage: Camembert, Brie, Comté et Fourme d’Amert.  Camembert est un fromage dur de Normandy.  Brie est délicieux.  C’est un fromage du centre de la France près de Paris.  Comte est dur et le saveur est fort .  Fourme d’Ambert est un fromage bleu.  Il est trés salée.  Nous avons mangé du fromage avec des baguettes et craquelins.  Nous avons eu l’occasion de goûter des différents fromages parce que notre professeur, Ms Moylan, les a acheté.

Akhil Chellapuri

The Transition Year students at DCS recently entered the Le Crunch Apples Radio Ad Competition, for which they created and recorded radio ads to advertise Le Crunch apples. Working in groups of two or three, they brainstormed to create characters and catchphrases, stories and slogans. Those dedicated enough to give up their Wednesday afternoons then came in to record the ads. Instructed by Mr Ó Conaill, they quickly learned to use Cubase – an industry standard recording suite – to turn their concepts into ads, complete with overdubbing, sound effects, music, and more!  Mr Wolfe gave them his advice on many aspects of their ads.

While the judges have not had their say yet, the students are supremely confident that their ads are as innovative and entertaining as any currently out there!

The recorded ads are (click on each to hear an mp3 recording):

• “Locked In” – Trevor Barry, Gary Nason and Daniel Leahy.
• “Take Me Out” – Liam Ó Cuanacháin and Shane O’Sullivan.
• “Adam And Eve” – Stephen Lyons and Kieran Sheehan.
• “Snow White” – Trevor Barry and Daniel Leahy.

Ciarán Ó Conaill and Shane O’Sullivan

CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATE! – Radio ad reaches final!