St. Patrick’s School Senior Maths Team Advances to National Finals
We’re thrilled to announce that one of our senior maths team from St. Patrick’s College has secured a coveted spot in the upcoming Team Maths National Finals, set to take place later this year in Maynooth. Following a rigorous regional competition, our team emerged triumphant, showcasing exceptional mathematical skill and teamwork.
The regional rounds featured fierce competition, with a total of 15 teams vying for victory. The mean score among participating teams stood at an impressive 9.4, with a standard deviation of 3.77, underscoring the high level of talent and dedication present throughout the event.
In a display of sheer brilliance, the winning team from St. Patrick’s School achieved an outstanding score of 16 points, demonstrating their mastery of mathematical concepts and problem-solving skills. Their stellar performance not only secured their place in the national finals but also served as a testament to their hard work and commitment.
Congratulations are also in order for the runners-up, with Loreto securing second place and a joint third-place finish for another team from St. Patrick’s College and Ard Scoil Pharaig. Their impressive achievements highlight the depth of talent within our school community and reflect the collective effort invested in honing mathematical abilities.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the participants who competed in the regional rounds, contributing to the success of the event. Your dedication and enthusiasm have made us proud, and we commend you for your exemplary performance.
As our senior maths team prepares to represent St. Patrick’s College on the national stage, we wish them the very best of luck in the forthcoming finals. May their passion for mathematics continue to inspire and their determination lead to further success.
IMTA Junior Mathematics Competition
The Junior Mathematics Competition is held annually for First Year Students. The competition was developed and organised by Michael Moynihan and has been running since 1994. It consists of a school round where multiple choice brain teasers are answered within a class period.
This year during the week of February 28th all first year students at St. Patrick’s College participated in the competition. We would like to congratulate the students who gained a top ten place in their year group. They are Ben Reilly, Mark Shiels, Darragh Smith, Darrah Reilly, Scott Burke, Brian Burns, Cillian Njamen, Diarmuid Hyland, Harry Butler and Kornel Szpak. Congratulations to all of the students who participated and to their Maths teachers for facilitating ( Mr. Quinn, Ms. Maybury, Mr. Mc Nerney, Ms. Keogh, Ms. Shiels and Ms. Corcoran). In the photo are (left to right) Darragh Smith, Cillian Njamen, Kornel Szpak, Darrah Reilly and Diarmuid Hyland). Well done!
AILO Linguistic Olympiad Workshop
AILO introduces students to linguistics (i.e. the study of human language) and to the application of logic to problems of language understanding and translation. The goal is to develop students’ problem-solving skills and to inspire them to consider the fascinating range of Careers at the intersection of computing, linguistics and language.
Round 1 Maths Olympiad
Students in 5th year availed of the opportunity to participate in The Irish Mathematical Olympiad (IrMO) is a national mathematics contest for secondary school students. This competition challenges students’ mathematical and problem-solving skills. Successful students will be then offered the opportunity to attend enrichment classes at a variety of centres nationally. From this a team of six students are chosen to represent Ireland at The International Mathematical Olympiad. Best of luck to all involved.
TU Tallaght Coding Module
TU Tallaght invited St Patrick’s College students to participate in a coding module pilot where students learned to use HTML, Microbit and Pyton. Students involved will receive a certificate after completing an assessment in each module.
Bebras Problem Solving Challenge
TYs in Ms Corcoran’s Maths class participated in the Bebras Problem Solving Challenge. This event involves students solving interactive tasks online and is run in 60 countries in November. Those students who do well in the competition will be invited to compete nationally. Well done all involved.
John Hooper Statistics Competition National Winners
The John Hooper Statistics Competition is a statistical analysis competition organised by the Central Statistics Office. The goal of the competition is to improve students’ abilities to describe their environment with the help of statistics and to use statistics as a tool for making sense of daily life. Students team together to research a topic of interest, analyse data collected and curate a digital poster and in doing so develop a host of 21st century skills. Every year students from St. Patrick’s College enter this highly competitive event and in April last Jack Browne, Daniel Brady and William Mc. Gibney succeeded in achieving an Order of Merit with their research topic. Unfortunately, the national awards ceremony held each year in October was cancelled this year. Well done to the students involved.
The results as the digital poster designed by this team can be viewed at https://www.cso.ie/en/interactivezone/johnhoopermedalforstatisticscompetition/johnhoopermedalforstatisticscompetition2020/johnhoopermedalforstatisticsresults2020/
John Hooper – A Students Perspective
Completing the John Hooper Medal for Statistics Competition was definitely a highlight of our TY experience. From completing our project entitled “screen dreams” we learned how to gather data, how to interpret and analyse data and how to present data effectively.
In order to complete the project, we gathered a sample of data from each year in the school and compiled and analysed the data received. We made correlations between the data and the effect it had on peoples screen time.
We also learned how to work effectively as a team and how to communicate with each other in order to complete the project.
We learned about the appropriate methods for representing data such as using pie charts, line graphs and bar charts.
Our project also enhanced our knowledge about peoples screen time and habits when using their devices. We learned the majority of our sample spend in excess of 4 hours in front of screen and they used their devices most before going to bed between 8pm and 10 pm. We then guessed that people may be having “screen dreams”
Overall, completing our project helped us bond together as a group while learning the important skills of communication and statistical analysis which may help us in our future career paths.
William Mc Gibney, Jack Browne and Daniel Brady
AILO (All Ireland Linguistic Olympiad)
AILO or the All Ireland Linguistic Olympiad is a contest in which secondary school students develop their own strategies for solving problems in fascinating languages from around the globe. Students must use their ingenuity to solve puzzles such as deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, decoding numerical spy codes, and interpreting ancient Mayan poetry. No prior knowledge of linguistics or a second language is required, as even the hardest problems require only logical ability, patient work, and a willingness to think around corners.
AILO introduces students to linguistics (i.e. the study of human language) and to the application of logic to problems of language understanding and translation. The goal is to develop students’ problem-solving skills and to inspire them to consider the fascinating range of careers at the intersection of computing, linguistics and language.
On Monday, January 25th nine students from St. Patrick’s College competed in this challenging contest where the students undertook 2.5 hours of rigorous problem solving. Nationally 61 schools participated with the top 100 students going forward for the National Final in March. Those who succeed at the National Final will go on the represent Ireland internationally. This year the school is delighted to announce that two students from Transition Year have qualified for the National Final. They are Ahmed Cheema and James Dolan. This is a fabulous achievement by both students and their teacher Ms. Corcoran. We wish both students the very best of luck in the National Final in March.
Across is a piece penned by the successful students.
James Dolan
My teacher gave us various linguistic questions for us to practice on, and we met up every Tuesday to correct the questions and see how we did. The questions are focused around working out the grammar and rules of a specific part of a language, based on the few translations that are provided. They are difficult questions but really enjoyable when you solve them. I found the questions in the competition especially hard, and was very happy to see that I qualified.
Ahmed Cheema
Participation in this year’s AILO preliminary round was a great experience. It’s a great competition for challenging your problem solving skills, and you feel immense satisfaction when you complete a tough question.
Maths Week
Week is an international event originating in Ireland, where the world celebrates that ‘Maths Matters’. This was the motto of Maths Week events and competitions held this year in St. Patrick’s College, Cavan. Junior and Senior students participated in a host of school based and national competitions ensuring that students in the college get a flavour for Mathematics outside of the classroom and the importance of the subject in many sectors of everyday life. The national event held during October envisions “a society that values the power and beauty of maths
and fully realises its potential to promote human flourishing”. Annually the event attracts 400,000 participants across Ireland and involves the participation of a multitude of organisations.
Our school marked the event in many ways. The following events took place
- Mangahigh
- Maths TV
- Maths Olympiad
- Poster Competition
- Simultaneous simultaneous equations
- Bebras Problem Solving
- Daily problem-solving puzzles
Well done to all students for their participation and in particular those who collected certificates and prizes for winning different competitions. Thank you to Ms. Fitzmaurice and Ms. Corcoran for coordinating the whole school event and to the Maths teachers in the school for facilitating and hosting different events throughout the week.
