Deep Blue: Innovations for the Future of our Oceans
National Science Week 2020 was celebrated at Kildare College with a range of engaging lunchtime and morning activities.
We started the week with an online quiz in morning Pastoral Care in which the whole College participated. Many of the questions focused on the theme for Science Week for 2020, 'Deep Blue: innovations for the future of our oceans'.
At lunchtime on Monday, 30 students participated in a sound bath experience run by professional sound therapist and musician, Heather Frahn. Students listened to quiet, subtle thrills of pure tones while lying on a yoga mat with their eyes closed in the Dance studio. Studies have shown that coherent sound patterns can help the nervous systems 'tune' themselves, in the same general way tuning-forks help experts tune pianos or harps.
Tuesday had students squeezing long streams of sodium alginate, by using a chemical reaction that created instant colourful and slimy gel worms.
On Wednesday, the Physics laboratory was at capacity with students using lasers to navigate through an oceanic themed obstacle course.
Thursday’s session involved students determining the sugar content in pre-packaged beverages and assessing what affect they are having on our health and environment. Who knew that pre-packaged beverages contributed to humans unknowingly eating and drinking enough plastic to make a credit card every week?
The week concluded with the screening of ‘A Plastic Ocean’ on Friday to raise students' awareness of the damage plastics are having on ocean food webs and species’ health.
Thank you to all the Science staff members and our laboratory technician (who is also a qualified marine biologist trained in Europe) for making the week such a success. As Claudio, our laboratory technician, was heard saying on Friday, “Che bella settimana”.
Paul Beltrame
Learning Leader
