On Thursday the twelfth of February, an engineer came into St. Corban's to talk to the 6th classes about what it is like to be an engineer and what engineers do. He introduced himself as Michael Regan and went on to show us a picture of a house on the whiteboard. He asked us if there was any problems with the house. A lot of the lads agreed that the foundations didn’t look steady. Michael said that this was correct and showed us a representation of the house. A brick  represented the house and there was a sponge underneath the brick to represent soft ground. Underneath the sponge was the teacher’s desk, which represented the hard ground. He showed us that when the heavy brick was placed on top of the soft sponge, the sponge sagged but the table didn’t react. This is what would happen if a house was built like the plans he had shown us. Then he went on to stick a couple of pencils into the sponge and placed the brick back on top. This time the sponge didn’t sag. This is because the pencils were transferring the weight of the brick to the desk. He explained to us that this is what the foundations of a building look like (in a simple form). That was only one of the projects in a very fun talk that I think all the boys enjoyed very much. Everyone was extremely engrossed in the talk and had a good time. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that in 10 years some of the pupils have gone on to become engineers.

From the 11th to the 17th October, it was Maths Week for schools all across the country. One of those schools was St. Corban's!

Mr. Ryan and his class had the job of organising a fun activity for the other classes to enjoy. Mr. Ryan taught his class some maths magic tricks, some maths games and the answers to a few maths puzzles as well!

The classes came in one after another and Mr. Ryan and his class did the activities with them. It seemed that every class was more amazed by the magic, more puzzled by the quizzes and more delighted by the games than the class before them!

The event was a huge hit! Not only did the participating classes have a good time but Mr. Ryan's did as well.

Maths Week was a great week in St. Corban's.

The sixth class maths group were going to have a brilliant day. They were heading to DCU in Dublin for a magic maths show.

10:30am = The maths class meet up in the yard.

10:35 am = The maths class leave on a bus to DCU.

11:15am = The maths class arrive at DCU

Now that the maths class has arrived at DCU , its time for show!

The show is under way and it is BRILLIANT! Andrew (the magician/mathematician) is teaching us loads of fantastic maths tips and tricks. The magic tricks are superb and are leaving everyone amazed!

Andrew pulls a piece of paper and a lighter out of his pocket. He sets the paper alight and when the fire disappears he is left with a €10 note in his hand! He presents St. Corban's own Eoin Keogh with the tenner!

Unfortunately for Eoin, the magician asked for the €10 back but gave Eoin a signed copy of his new book instead! He then folded the €10 note which transformed into a fake $1,000,000 note! He then gave the note to Mr. Lane who looks after the sixth class maths group in St. Corban's.

But like everything, unfortunately, the show had to end. So the students all ate their packed lunches in DCU's cafeteria.

The bus then drove us back to St. Corban's and the day was over. Everyone had a fantastic day.