YSI News 2016-2017

YSI News 2016-2017

YSI Students From Mercy College meet the Minister for Education, Richard Bruton

Transition year students, Kirsty Mullen (4.2) and Michaella Sattell (4.1) were delighted to be invited the the YSI and Ulster Bank Launch at the CHQ building in February to speak about their YSI projects and meet the Minister for Education Richard Bruton. 

Kirsty (4.2) spoke about their project on 'The Effects of Animal Testing' and Michaella (4.1) spoke about her project ' The Effects of Drug and Alcohol addiction on Family and Friends'. He congratulated the girls for their great work and awareness campaigns that they had organised at Mercy College Coolock. He knew our school very well. He congratulated them and asked them to continue to contribute in positive ways to our society throughout their lives.

A message from Michael D. Higgins (Patron of Young Social Innovators) He calls on all young people to get involved in YSI as 'YSI develops active, creative citizens who will lead the transformation of Ireland'. 

All YSI Students take part in STEM workshop

STEM and Social Innovation:  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths)

The YSI workshop looked at how Science, technology, engineering and maths have shaped our world. They have enabled us to build cities, to travel easily between countries and to communicate with each other regardless of distance. They have allowed us to build machines, to cure diseases and have even sent us into space. They provide us with tools to address some of the biggest challenges facing us, both locally and globally. Social innovators use them to change the world for good.   Our YSI students really enjoyed the STEM workshop given by Barry Peak (Educational Officer for YSI) in which they designed their own innovative ideas.

I lost all my Hugs to Drugs (4.1) YSI Project

As a part of our YSI Project we wanted to make students aware on how family and friends are affected when someone in their family has an addiction to drugs, alcohol or prescribed pills. This can really tear a family apart and we felt it was an important issue. We organised an awareness week with the following activities:

-a speaker to talk to us from the Mornington Centre, Artane
-a survey to get students opinion on our project
-wordsearches and quizzes
-a poster competition
-a short film (Rachel's Story) shown in the language lab at lunchtime
-a presentation to all year groups at assembly.
-intercom messages each day
-contacted Philly McMahon (Dublin Footballer)

We hope to continue our awareness campaign and more activities this term. We are looking forward to the Speakout at the Mansion House.

Students need to know that there is help out there: Text Teen to 50015 or Phone Childline 1800 66 66 66

Our Motto : Love the Addict, Hate the Addiction.

French Theatre For Schools (Junior Cycle)

We had the pleasure of the French Theatre Group again this year as they performed 'Le Porte Bonheur' to 1st, 2nd and 3rd year students. Their performance was amazing, fun and educational. Well done to the nine students from the school who took part, acted or danced in the play. The performances by these students were wonderful. Well done ladies. All students and teachers thoroughly enjoyed the production.

Green Committee

We are striving to achieve our 3rd Green School Flag on the theme of Water. Over the past two years, the green committee have promoted positive behaviour on water awareness in our school community. They have also organised numerous activities all related to the Water Theme (crossword & Word searches), Be Water Smart poster competitions, talks, speakers from Eco-Unesco, Clean Coasts and An Taisce, presentations, intercom messages, water experiments, an awareness campaign and much much more.

The green committee have also been invited to attend a number of Green School Water Forums and workshops where they learned a lot of information on water usage, wastage and conservation.

Some water facts:

• A person can only survive 5 or 6 days without water.
• A tap dripping once a second wastes 45,000 litres of water a year.
• A power shower uses almost 125 litres of water in 5 minutes.
• Approx 10 million tonnes of litter enter the world's oceans every year, weighing about the same as one million elephants.

How can you save water?

• Reduce the amount of time you spend in the shower and bath
• Don't leave the tap running
• Re-use water in the garden
• Use our new water recycling box in classrooms - which stores any plastic bottles with water, every Tuesday and Thursday the green committee will collect these water bottles and place the water in our new Water Butt.... in time this water will be used to water the plants and many vegetables such as (potatoes, beetroot, carrots, onions, parsnips, lettuce, tomatoes, green beans etc) in the poly-tunnel.

Green School Visit

We recently had a visit from a Green School Officer Clare Egan to inspect our school to see how our water awareness campaign went and how we maintained our standards on Litter and Energy. She met with the green committee and she was very positive and pleased with all the work over the two years. We look forward to hearing her feedback soon so Mercy College can remain a Green School. We appreciate and thank all students and staff for their recycling efforts, help and support. Get involved with us for World Water Day 22nd March 2017 and a fun competition run by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) more information to come!!

Green Committee Members

Emily Williamson, Danielle Clarke Byrne, Chloe Duffy, Shauna Byrne, Sabrina Halfaoui, Lauren Bell, Hazel Murphy White, Ellie Walsh, Katie Keating, Lauren Baker, Shauna Quinn, Aislinn Jones, Ellie Byrne, Chelsea Condron, Megan Carroll, Nicole Byrne, Houria Zaiter, Amy Whelan, Katie Downey, Taylor Richardson, Hannah Doherty, Nicole Wogan, Aoife Thornton, Tara Matthews, Laura Phelan, Lauren Murphy, Shauna O' Callaghan.

Don't Let your Tap Drip, That's a Water Saving Tip!!