Michael Murray, Colaiste-Chroi-Naofa
On Monday the 23rd of January I attended the transition year programme of BEES. This programme ran for the whole week with various different lectures and practicals such as Zoology, Environmental Science, Geology and Plant Science. My favourite lecture was on Marine Biology on Monday. This lecture was given by Dr Ruth Ramsay. In this lecture we learned about the various different groups of animals that live in the sea such as phytoplankton. Then Ruth explained to us about all the different marine habitats for example the continental shelf where most species of fish occur. We were also informed about the school exchange programme where by you could study in a different county for a year, the most common countries students went to were the US and Sri Lanka.
My favourite practical was the Zoology practical which took place in G13. In this practical given by Prof. Gavin Burnell we studied sea urchins. When we walked in we noticed 9 bins with a lid covering what was in side. We were then told to lift the lids. In the bins were purple sea urchins. Prof. Burnell then began to teach us about the urchin and its environment. One of the most interesting things about this practical was that we learned that sea urchins use rocks and shells as protection from uv-rays . We then began to construct an experiment to demonstrate this but unfortunately it did not work out.
As an added bonus to the week we were allowed to enter the BEES museum which was extremely exciting . In this museum we saw many different stuffed animals and skulls.In my opinion this week was extremely interesting and I hope to attend BEES in the future.