How are you finding the year so far?

Following on from this thread, have your expectations of college changed from what you heard before entering to having been here for several weeks?

Did you come from an all boys/girls school and are still weirded out that you can sit beside the opposite sex in lectures?

Has the standard been what you thought? Did you think that there'd be fraternities called Kappa Kappa Gamma here?

Dave3x

Come on, you know there's no freshers on here. Just the same 10 people all the time, posting on lofty issues, and the occasional poster.

paperclip

I'm a fresher! Although I guess I don't really count as it's my second time being a fresher... but anyway, to answer your questions, I like trinity so far, it has a nice college community and the societies are good. I'm still waiting for fraternity jocks to come and pick me up with their letterjackets on.

Kurtosis

Fresher here too. Have to say I'm surprised I've been seeing all my old friends so much still...obviously it's going to take more than 5 weeks in college to separate us! (check back in a couple more weeks, it's bound to have changed :P)

Also I'm finding I've a lot more time on my hands than I'd expected. I'd been told my course (Pharmacy) had a load of contact hours, but not finding it too bad yet. (again, check back next term, this will probably have changed by then too)

paperclip

hey penguin, you're in my class! Who are you??
I'm theresa, you know, the one with the hairband!

regi

What is the deal with fraternities/sororities named after letters of the greek alphabet anyway?

ApeXaviour

regi wrote:

What is the deal with fraternities/sororities named after letters of the greek alphabet anyway?

Something to do with them hiding their secret names or something, at least originally so. Mostly trend after that I imagine.

I'm really glad we don't have them here tbh. Societies at least actually have a point, tend to have little or know "class" boundaries and only demand 2 euro instead of thousands.

Kurtosis

I'm Frank, were we talking coming in after the fire alarm went off during bio lab last week?

(sorry about off-topicness)

paperclip

Possibly! Are you the tall fella with the curly brown hair?

I really should stop wearing the headband so much, but my hair is in a transitory stage and it stops my fringe from heading into the eyes...you know how it is...

But anyway, small world, eh?

Kurtosis

Yeah kind of curly, gets more curly when it's longer. I sometimes have glasses on too.

Yeah, really is a small world, wouldn't be surprised if there's a few more from the class on here.

paperclip

We really should have a JF pharmacy thread, I know for sure that there are a few more of us lurking around...checking all the corners for aspirin tablets left carelessly lying around...

d4gurl

I didn't know what to expect tbh, I think freshers week was a great build up but then the frist week was kind of an anti-climax!That said I told myslef to give my course(scinece) a go for at least two weeks and now I can safely say I love it! just a quick question don't want to make a new thread I think its been asked before: Do we have midterms or christmas exams? Whenever you ask someone about exams no one knows!

xebec

d4gurl wrote:

just a quick question don't want to make a new thread I think its been asked before: Do we have midterms or christmas exams? Whenever you ask someone about exams no one knows!

Yes this has been covered in another thread. Don't think there are xmas exams for science, but not 100% sure. Personally only have exams in my BESS subjects, not in Engineering or stats subjects.

As for how the year is going, it's getting more and more stressful. Dealing with having to do a final year project for an external client, trying to keep my girlfriend happy, doing some work for a lecturer and still being involved in council etc. But guess it's all going to add to my planning abilities! Wish I was back in 1st year again, not sure I would have done a whole lot different but would definitely have gotten involved in more things earlier on. Have given up on study for today, drinking is far more fun!

sully-gormo

Things are alright, work is really piling up and im always behind. (Im in JF Th.Physics) What little physics we have is interesting but the pure maths is boring and tedious tedious tedious. I thought about changing but I changed my mind. Its kinda ironic that Special Relativity is my easiest subject. Made a good few friends though and been goin out plenty-sometimes i feel like im living out of my locker.Just have to go along to more societies

John

d4gurl wrote:

I didn't know what to expect tbh, I think freshers week was a great build up but then the frist week was kind of an anti-climax!That said I told myslef to give my course(scinece) a go for at least two weeks and now I can safely say I love it! just a quick question don't want to make a new thread I think its been asked before: Do we have midterms or christmas exams? Whenever you ask someone about exams no one knows!

In biology there's a multiple choice questionaire (MCQ) that doesn't count towards your final mark but is a good indication if you know your stuff and what you need to concentrate on (although it's really easy). In chemistry there's an MCQ that does count towards your final year mark. It's more difficult than the biology one and I recommend you do a bit of study for that. Nothing in maths (although maybe a small assignment) and I don't know about other subjects.

gymrabbit

I'm in final year and I'm enjoying the year so far. I've a LOT less lectures then last year and previous years (going from about 12-15 to about 5). But they're all not tutorial like so require loads of reading and thinking in preparation. Gone are the days of just turning up and expecting to be told what you need to know. Now we're expected to contribute to discussoins and such.

On top of this we all have our own final year projects to do. This term is mostly lab work, can be anything from 3 to 30 hours a week. You're more or less given free reign to do it when you want and how much you want to do. So requires a lot of personal organisation.

Next term we'll spend an equal amount of time writing our thesises. should be fun

paperclip

What's your thesis going to be on? I love hearing about peoples' theses.

gymrabbit

I love people asking me about it. And I love the way they laugh about it when I tell them.

There are about 20 different species of Bumblebee in Ireland. Bumblebees are big insects, bees, that go around feeding off pollen of different plants. By doing this, they pollinate the plants allowing them to reproduce. Bumblebees are important pollinators of many crops, including tomatoes. Bumblebees don't produce a lot of honey. Honey you buy in the shops are made by Honeybees which are farmed by bee keepers. Bumblebees are not honey bees in the same way dogs aren't cats.

Of these 20 different species in Ireland, about half are considered to be in decline. This means there populations are decreasing and they are in danger of becoming extinct. This means there will be no more species of this particular bumblebee wild in Ireland. It important to maintain biodiversity for a number of reasons. Firstly, it's simply ethical in my opinion. It's wrong for the direct actions of humans - habitat destruction (bulldozing meadows and building car parks), fragmentation (putting roads through the countryside) global warming (changes in the climate) to put stress on wildlife. Secondly, nature is a great source of resources for humans to exploit. By chopping down rainforests we may be destroying a particular plant that could contain a chemical that could be used as a medicine to treat human illness. Thirdly, it's better for the bigger picture of life itself that we don't go around tinkering with the little cogs.

OK, the loss of a particular species of bumblebee won't affect the pursuits of a cure to cancer but the principle has wider ecological impact.

Here are some pictures of 3 different species of Bumblebee queen, Bombus lucorum, Bombus terrestris and Bombus lapidarius.







They may look quite similar to you but would be very distinct to an expert. The queen bee is the big female bee that lays the eggs in the hive.

OK, I still haven't told you what my thesis is about. Well basically my supervisor and his research group have already confirmed that instead of being loads of Bombus lucorum there are in fact 3 bees masquerading as one. Bombus magnus, Bombus lucorum itself and Bombus cryptarum. To find this out, they collected loads of bees in the Wicklow mountains among other locations and used molecular methods to distinguish them. Basically, based on their DNA they showed they were different species. The problem is however, nobody really knows how to distinguish them based on their appearance. They're cryptic species, species that are almost impossible to distinguish based on their appearance. MY job will be to come up with a way to show that they're different and hopefully this method will be applicable in the field not just in the lab.

So what I'll actually do is measure different features of the bee, the shape of the wings, the size and distribution of the yellow bands, the length of the limbs and try and prove they're noticeably different. If it works, we've got a tool that can be used by ecologists in studies based on their behaviour, range, abundance, nesting etc. If it doesn't, maybe some one else can come up with a way of separating them maybe a laboratory method (genitalia).

europerson

That's a great project. Well done!

John

europerson wrote:

That's a great project. Well done!

Especially great considering he's doing theology.

europerson

John wrote:

Especially great considering he's doing theology.

Huh? Am I missing something?

gymrabbit

they be (punage) holy bees.

ApeXaviour

europerson wrote:

Huh? Am I missing something?

Yes.. you missed that john was lying in the name of humour.

I'm another final year, again doing a final year thesis/project. I'm actually really enjoying it, mostly because I actually dont have ANY lectures this term and cos I'm in Denmark. A "unique" cultural experience to put it mildly.
I won't go into what my project is about (cos I'm not exactly sure) but suffice it to say I have a big laser and a 50,000 volt electron gun aiming at various things in a high-vacuum chamber.

WunderFull

I found it behind the sofa. Har.

europerson

ApeXaviour wrote:

Yes.. you missed that john was lying in the name of humour.

So I've been informed. I'm do get jokes, you know...

Sangre

Better get cracking on that gymrabbit, don't want to fall bee-hind....

Not really sure what to make of Trinity yet, missed most of first month with professional exams. I also only have 6 hours a week so don't have to be in much, which I haven't been because I've stupidly busy until about 2 weeks ago.

Got my dissertation topic in with 30 minutes to spare.!

paperclip

How goes the examination time, people?

I have only one exam left tomorrow, chemistry...it feels as though I don't remember anything I learned for it whatsoever. Hope it comes back in the exam though!!

shay_562

I'm suddenly remembering why going to lectures is a good thing. I'm kinda caught between two ideas on Xmas exams; on the one hand, it's good to take stock, and trying to learn 9 weeks worth of stuff in 5 days has hardened my resolve to work harder next term. On the other hand, they're pretty irrelevant since most of them won't signifigantly boost your grade in the final exams and you still fail if you fail the final exam.

Finding it really tough - can't get into my dissertation at all and have loads of huge novels to read. I'm doing loads of work but it feels like I'm getting nowhere because I have so little to show for it, and I keep procrastinating.

paperclip

I always leave procrastination to the last minute.