Our second meeting was held during activities on Saturday Oct 22nd. The purpose of this meeting was to look at various social media apps to see how we could develop an online presence for our Project. This would also be used as part of our Outreach and Communication Program.
To kick off the meeting Jaime and Santigo gave a short account of their participation in the TY Academy as well as showing of their very nice hoodies!!! Following a short discussion we decided to set up a project Webpage, Instagram account, Facebook Page and Blog. This was a area in which most pupils felt comfortable and we successfully set all four up on the night. Instagram (Laetitia von Schoenburg and Teresa Clemente) Facebook (Marie-Paulie Bleyl and Tara Lee) Website (Caroline Meincke) Blog (All will contribute)
0 Comments
As part of our preparation for CanSat, 5 team members (Andre Stokes, Jaime Segui, Grigory Kryukov, Santiago Puelles, William Zitzmann) were selected to attended a three-day course called TY Academy, organized by the Bank of Ireland and held in the Helix at DCU.
On the first day we were divided into 18 groups of 5 pupils. The theme for the day was team building and bonding. We built spaghetti and marshmallows towers, with the objective being to build the tallest free standing tower. William's team won the challenge and received vouchers for Penney's. After this we built a sumo-robot out of lego pieces and then challenge teams to a 'Robot Battle'. The next day and a half was devoted to the planning and preparation of our main project, which we had to present on the afternoon of the third day. The project's goal was to create a company which was targeting student going into university. All groups then presented their ideas to a group of 'Dragons' who then selected the most viable company idea. The group that created the best company won an iPad mini and invest from the Dragon's to convert the idea into reality. This academy was great fun and we really learnt about teamwork, marketing, how to create and manage a company. It was an amazing experience and we will encourage pupils to attend this event next year. Jaime Segui / Santiago Puelles
The project will have many areas - DESIGN - the can, parachute, antenna and radio receiver, PROGRAMMING - the on board computer, testing and calibration, diagnostics and data retrieval, OUTREACH - building a social media platform and communication with local schools, SPONSORSHIP - look for sponsorship or raising funds to buy equipment for the project. Our first task was to think about the project under the headings - HOPES, FEARS and NEEDS. On three tables there were large sheets of paper named: “Hope”, “Needs”, and in the last one “Fears”. We wrote on a post-it one sentence for each. In “Hope”, we wrote what we hoped to learned. In “Fears”, we wrote what were afraid of not being capable of doing. In “Needs”, we wrote what we felt we needed to make this project a success. After that, we divided into three groups, each group taking a section. Then each group picked a spokes person to explained what we wrote and what we were all feeling. After that , we divided into two groups based on our interests - Design and Outreach. Everyone spoke and talked about what they could bring to the project. We soon realized that we have a lot of expertise in the group already. We then concluded our meeting. In short, I think it was a really useful and helpful meeting and now that we know what each of us is going to do, we can start preparing for the championship! Teresa Clemente My physics set was lucky to be chosen to go to DIT (Dublin Institute of Technology). Kevin;s Street during Spaceweek for the launch of the 2017 CanSat competition. When we got there, there were representative pupils from many Dublin schools including Blackrock, Belevedere and Gonzaga College. I sat at the very front, to be able to listen carefully. Dr. Paul Doyle head of Computing in DIT gave the opening address before handing over to Dr. Damian Burke who give a detailed presentation on the goals of the project and outlined how similar the project was to the satellite work currently ongoing in NASA and ESA. As I listened to his speech, I agreed strongly with him that governments should support space exploration more. Next came the Confey Students, who represented Ireland in the European Cansat Competition. They were presenting their experience and I could really see the amount of effort they had put in. They insured me that winning is totally possible, because the Irish team went really far in the competition. After the Confey Students, a real engineer who worked in this field came to give us a talk. The space information he gave me was very interesting, especially when he was explaining how spacecraft can take off from earth and go into space. In my opinion, the best part was the sandwich break and we all enjoyed the exotic range of sandwiches and juices on offer. While enjoying the snack, we were divided into two groups to make a short video about any topics on space. My group chose to do ‘Commercialization of space’. Since it wasn’t a competition, that definitely took pressure off. However my group tried, and we surely practiced some team work. After everything was done, it was time to go back. The bus returning to school was full of excitement for the next step of participating and hopeful for success. James Park |
AuthorThis blog is maintained by the CanSat team. Categories
All
Archives
June 2017
|