Maite's

Well, as i can see, from previous blogs, im not the only one amazed at how fast this 1st year ofcollege has past!! I really cant get used to the idea that it's almost finished!

But im amazed aswell at the fact that when i look back at our first day in CIT, our first lectures, getting to know people in our class, our lecturers, and where the classes ( canteen, and toiletsincluded!) are, etc.. it seems so far away! I feel like that person i was back there, has changed a lot, and hopefully in a good way.

Even though sometimes i still get existential with this course, ie. I wonder if I should have done art, or maybe translation, or studied here or there, I always end up at the same place where it allstarted, biomedical science.

I chose this course because: 1. I love biology, 2. I'm very curious about how things work, and 3. I like the potential it has, as a way of changing someone's life in a medical aspect.

Not only i have found this course exciting, specially this semester, but aswell I grown very fondof my new friends and classmates, and therefore I think it'll be hard to get rid of me in the nearfuture! :)

Since February I enjoyed the course in a much different way than i did previously. I found all thesubjects much more interesting and hitting the areas i like in biology.

For instance I really liked human biology, really enjoyed the fact that we could find out abouthow the human body works in a much better detailed version than what the Leaving gave us. Therefore, really loved it!!
And most of all: the dissections, it was one of the greatest experiences in the labs , next tomaking my first (crappy) blood film, I had this year.
How can I explain to outsiders the enjoyement of cutting through rat's guts? :D

I thought it was like an eye opener! The textbooks diagrams can sometimes be far from whatorgans can really look like!!

And even thought somethings might make this course hard (maths, physics..), because, of course is not all sunshine and flowers, I think is worth it to put the hard work into it, because at the end, you do get rewarded! If we look back to the start, we now know so many things!

Aswell this year I got a very surprising experience, which was to be a group leader, and not only once...but twice!! Where has the mercy gone? :)
And I have to say that I'm grateful, even though i might have repeated several times a day "¿por qué yo?"(why me)!!, to have given such an opportunity, because i never imagined myself doing such a thing!I mean, i talk a lot, but I wouldn't go for president!! :)

Anyway it has been rewarding how to learn "teamwork", and i have to say I really really liked to work with the "nervous system group" I thought it was a very exciting experience because, honestly, we were and are all crazy, and in very very different ways! And the reason why I really liked working with these 5 individuals, is because even though we are all very different, we were able to show that teamwork is possible, and we were able to put together our ideas in a very easy way, even if it had to take 10 mins, or 5 hours, and getting along :)

So overall college is being a wonderful experience, with its expected ups and downs (exams).

And I would like to thank our course coordinator, Siobhán, because I thought, she really took care of us. She made sure that we understood the lectures, and when we did some lab practical, or some project well, she was enthusiastic and encouraging. And aswell I appreciate lecturers that like to make contact with the crowd, because it makes going to college more enjoyable.

Aswell im happy to now know how to use or do or know about, many things like dropbox, twitter blogs, etc... Even though at some point I have questioned it's use, but I question many things anyway... :) and knowledge never harmed anyone, specially if its useful in the end!

And that's all!
So roll on new experiences next year!! :)

Maite

Nikoletta's

It's impossible that it has passed so fast. First year in Biomed is
already over, the scared kids you met on the first day have become
your friends and labs are the most relaxing thing ever (especially
when it comes to dissections :) hehh.
I have to admit that coming into the course, I wasn't totally
satisfied. I expected something much more exciting. However as the
time progressed the lectures became more interesting, and I started to
enjoy them, specially cell biology, hematology and Health Science.
Human biology was a bit of revision for me but I really liked making
the presentation part of it. When you work with a great group of
people, where everybody actively takes part in the project and always
comes up with more crazy ideas it’s real fun.

I have to say I'm glad we got Siobhan as our year coordinator,
because when you come into a new environment you really need somebody
to show you around and help you with problems that you have adapting.
And she was always there for us, asking if we are ok, helping with the
math problems, and showing new things to make our lives easier-
glorious Drop box ;).
Even though she made us use twitter which I still can’t get my head around :),
I think she is a great lecturer who can really make the students love
the subject she is teaching.

That would be it; I hope second year is even better than the first one!!!!

Nikoletta

Amanda's Reflection

I can't believe a years gone by already!! Where did the time go?! Hard to think that this time last year I was cramming for the leaving cert! Although I was looking forward to college and freedom I didn't realise how much work college would bring! A common misconception amongst 6th years!

Have to say I love the course and the class! Made so many new friends! My favourite part of the course is the Biomed labs and least favourite part is the Chemistry labs! Its awful rushing on a Friday evening to try and make the bus home!

I loved how in Human Biology we got to make podcasts and video clips! It makes it so much more modern and relevant, I can really see it coming in handy in the next few years of college! Its such a useful skill to have! Overall, I really liked the Human Biology module. It was fascinating to learn about anatomy in much greater detail than we did for leaving cert! Didn't really enjoy the dissections too much though! The vegetarian in me objects! Still, it was great to actually see the strutures we've been learning about since Junior Cert in the flesh! Pardon the pun!

The notes for this module are brilliant, very straightforward and to the point! Theres nothing worse than getting notes with loads of filler! The lectures were great aswell, explaining the more difficult aspects of the notes! Siobhan made it way more easier to understand!

I'm dreading the end of year exam though! I've gotten so used to continuous assesment, one exam worth 60% is a lot of pressure! This and Physics (worth 80%!!) are the two exams that have me most worried! Although at least for Human Biology we have 30% for our e-portfolios to take a bit of the pressure off! No such luck for Physics though! The other 20% is made up of ridiculously difficult labs and impossible homework! Oh dear...

The e-portfolio was a great experience! I learnt so many skills that will be very beneficial in the future! I think its a great idea that Siobhan got all the biomeds to join twitter aswell! Its such a handy way to communicate! And its also a good way to read some Science news! www.twitter.com/biologynews is a great one for interesting tidbits of information!

I really can't wait until all our exams are over and to do it all again next year! This'll be my last blog of the year but I have a feeling I'll be doing more next year!

Cheerio!

Mandy

Viktoria's Reflection

I can not belive that this first year is almost finishd, it went so fast. :)I really enjoyed this college year. I made so many new friends, get really good experience but also I relased that college is not only fun, it is very hard work. I can see that now very clearly when all exams coming.

The human biology was one of my favorites module, because I really enjoy study about the human body. I think, I enjoyed the most dissections. They were very good experience, maybe not always very easy, I mean now the rat dissection were the smell was killing us :) But still I think dissections were very helpful, because we had opportunity to see how really organs looks in the body and where they are located. And of course I have to mention the lab reports which where more straightforward to do than in the first term :)

I think the topics of this module were very interesting and the notes on blackboard very helpful. The lectures were presented very clearly and were easy to understand. Thank you Siobhan :) . Unfortunately , there is quite big bunch of the notes to learn now :)

I think the idea about the project as the part of the module was very good. Thats easy way to get 30 %. I really enjoyed making the presentation with our group. Our group was very organized and everybody were very involved in. I hope our group leader will not complain about us :) because sometimes we behaved very crazy :) especially I liked to do the podcasts, becuse it was something new for me, and I think it can be useful for me in the future.

I think it was very interesting to folow the twitter, even I am not very “technology person”. It was very profitable to follow some of the science twitter. It is very easier and faster way to contact with class friends and lecturer.

I still did not finish this year and I am already fraking out about the next year :) I hope it will be not that hard as second years mentors say us :)

Viktoria :)

Ian's Reflection

So here we are coming to the end of first year. It's hard to believe that the year has gone so fast. I guess time flies when your having fun and that's certainly one word that featured heavily in my first year experience.

I cannot fault CIT in many ways. The lectures were always interesting, the lecturers were always helpful and the whole experience was a very enjoyable one. The technology part (blackboard, twitter etc.) was a bit head wrecking at the start but as the year progressed it became more and more a part of my life and an essential part of college work.
The blogs idea was also a bit annoying at the beginning but as I write this final reflection (finally) I can look back on previous blog entries and laugh at the problems of the beginning of the year.

Such problems have included the physics and maths is UCC, paying for labs etc. Most of which have been solved but some which still continue to irritate.

As for the learning aspect of college the material has been very interesting and I am really glad I choose this course. I really couldn't ask for more in the way of knowledge and new experiences. The disections being the most significant new experiences and probably the most enjoyable.

So I guess it's time to sign off and get back to studying for the end of term exams. eeek!

Here's to an even better second year :-)

Ian

My Reflection

Okay so here we go , 1st year as a biomedical scientist is almost at an end, and what a year it was. Really only feels like a few weeks not a year.

To be honest coming into this course I hadn`t really a clue what it was exactly about. I decided to do this course just because i loved biology for my leaving cert. Turned out to b a really good choice. Not alone do i actually love the course, but I can see myself getting a good degree and hopefully, fingers crossed a good job.

Reasons why i think this course is so enjoyable probably starts with all the other students. From the first week everyone seemed friendly and willing to have a laugh and occasionally do a bit of work , when it was needed. The students are from all over so there is a good variety of people with different ideas and interests which really makes the whole first year experience more enjoyable.

Then we have the lectures. We have Siobhan, from day 1 she has made herself available to all students at any time if they have any questions or queries. If we had any problems with anything relating to college she was ALWAYS there to give advice and a helping hand. At the end of the day she didn`t have to any of this! People who don`t have Siobhan might think I`m being a teachers`s pet here, but anyone who has had any experience with her knows that everything that I said is 100% true.

She is more than just a advisor as well. From the very beginning she has got us using technology with our studies. Firstly she had us doing blogs, which i hated , but now for this 1 its not such a big deal anymore. Its just another part of college life. Doing lab reports on the computer at the beginning was a nightmare also but now with bit practice and direction from Siobhan they`re quite easy (not that i want to do more or anything). I`m using twitter now, not alone for updates for college stuff but also for updates on materials to do with my field of study.

All the lecturers that we have had since the beginning were all good. Honestly can`t complain but any of our CIT lecturers , UCC on other hand didn`t exactly live up to highest expectations. Physics was grand , In fact Paul (our lecturer) made a subject that was boring to me physics very enjoyable. Maths on the other hand was a bit of a disaster. I was lucky in that i would of been fairly good maths before i came to college but didn`t find the lectures helpful at all and i think not many people did.

Well this my final blog as first year , :D as you can see I`m absolutely devastated.

Roll on second year!

Aindriú

Ger's Blog 3

hello again, this is my 3rd blog and a lot has changed since i first started writing these - most notably the weather, its freezing all day every day now! The heating in our appartment is broken so i find myself wearing two jumpers inside, the joys of it.

Anyway college is going grand - I have a few christmas exams coming up so plenty of study to be done. We were knocked out of the freshers football in the league last wednesday so that was a sickener. We'll just have to get training for the championship in january. I'm looking forward to the christmas holidays - even if it is only for two weeks. A bit of time off to relax will be nice over the christmas - watch a few DVD's, play the playstation, munch on a few sweets, that's what it's all about really. Hopefully i've been a good boy this year, I don't want anything like this happening again.......

Were not starting CIT lectures after christmas unitl the end of january so that means we'll only have a few half weeks of lectures, only UCC lectures for january - saweeet. Plenty of time to get my stuff in order again. It's a shame about the Mardyke Arena and the flood damage, I used to go swimming every tuesday in between lectures and I know a few people on our course use the gym there regularly, so hopefully it will be up and running again soon.

That's all for the moment. Class party coming up on thursday, should be a good laugh, they usually are. Were going bowling I think, so that'l be interesting. I wonder is Siobhan any good at bowling??