18
Aug
2020
The UK is Wrong to U-turn on A-level Grades
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At the moment there is a lot of fuss about the A-level grades awarded in the UK. This year, due to Covid-19 the grades awarded were based off of predicted grades from the teacher of the students. Now, what is interesting is that every year in the UK teachers must give predict grades anyway! Why... Read More
7
Jun
2020
Self Hosting
Pingdom provides a nice tool where you can see how quickly your webpage loads. It’s a nice thing to know and normally I get speeds of 1.5 to 2 seconds however once in a while I get super low loading times. I’m not sure what the conditions are for this but I suspect there are... Read More
17
May
2020
Dicey Dungeons
It took 67 hours but I finally finished Dicey Dungeons. It is a very Mathematically satisfying game since the core concept of the game is rolling dice to place on cards. Now, I’ve actually simplified it. The game starts off like this but builds in complexity however it still hinges on dice rolls. Anyway, it’s... Read More
2
Mar
2020
Lidl Bananas
Lidl sells bananas, no surprise. What drives me bananas though is that the non-organic bunch of bananas is wrapped in a plastic bag (I expected better from the Germans on green issues)! This is madness to me, I’ve been trying to reduce (at least a little) my use of plastic and one way I’m doing... Read More
25
Feb
2020
Lent
Although I do not recognize myself as Catholic (rather Protestant) I do see the value of Lent, and although I do not “do Lent” every year, this year I’m going to go pescatarian for Lent. This I guess is my version of going a bit more Vegan / part-time Vegan which is becoming more popular.... Read More
23
Feb
2020
Calculators, Help or Hindrance to Mathematical Education?
When I was a JC student (Irish middle school) we were not allowed to use a calculator in class or the exam but then the calculator was introduced for LC students (senior high school). One thing that perplexed us students at the time was this, why were we allowed to use the calculator “next year”... Read More
15
Feb
2020
The “New Standard” in Science Education
In 2019 the two tier exam system for JC Science (Junior Cert “Middle School” Science Exam) in Ireland was replaced by a common level. So, instead of having students choose which level they want to take, i.e ordinary or higher level they now have one level to take, common level. A teacher I work with... Read More
31
Jul
2019
Leaving Cert Applied Maths Higher Level 1979
Question 1 i) How may a velocity-time graph be used to find the distance travelled in a given time? ii) An athlete runs $100$ m in $12$ seconds. Starting from rest, he accelerates uniformly to a speed of $10$ m/s. and then continues at that speed. Calculate the acceleration. iii) A body starting from rest... Read More
3
Jul
2019
Leaving Cert Applied Maths Higher Level 1978
Question 1 A driver starts from rest at $P$ and travels with a uniform acceleration of $a$ m/s$^2$ for $T$ seconds. He continues with uniform velocity for $3T$ seconds, and then decelerates uniformly to rest at $Q$ in a further $2T$ seconds. Express the distance $PQ$ in terms of $a$ and $T$. Another driver can... Read More
26
Jun
2019
Adventure Rooms Dublin
So, myself and a bunch of teachers had a go of the Adventure Room in Dublin, the 5 of us attempted “The World Trip” room. We have heard of these escape rooms before and we thought it sounded rather interesting. Basically I would describe it a sort of Crystal Maze although much more interesting and... Read More