My year with Bridge21
We asked (on our Facebook page) if any of the students who we’ve worked with this year would like to write a bit about their experience with Bridge21. Here is one response….
“I have had an unbelievable year in TY but one of the highlights would have to be Bridge21. I have to admit at the start I had my doubtsand fears about what it would be like. Some of which included talking and working with people you’ve never met before, not knowing what to expect when we went into bridge the first day and other stuff like having to get up and present projects in front of everyone else. Luckily I had some great friends with me so I had a great time. Along with my friends there were some amazing people in with me and I can’t thank them enough for making the week brilliant.
I remember going in to town on the first morning. Thinking about all the fears I had, but all I could think of was, “will the place where we’re going to get food be nice?” But as soon as I met up with my friends and Kevin at the gates of Trinity everything was all good. Well that was until he made us go over to and talk to all the other people that we had never met before but it was actually easier than I initially thought it would. Everyone was very nice and we all felt the same way.
The first workshop or ‘week’ we took part in is what Kevin likes to call the ‘core’ week. This involved making films with different techniques like stop-motion, making advertisements and radio ads and talking about what college is like. On the first day, we played a few ice-breaking games to get everyone introduced to each other and we were told to go off and make a film about whatever we wanted! The next day involved more film-making but this time with play-doh. We made stop-motion films, which involved taking a picture for each movement then playing them really fast together to get a moving picture. The third day we talked about possible inventions that could come about in the future and then had to come up with an advertising campaign for some of these inventions. On the final day we talked about what we did and didn’t like about school and then what we wanted to know about college it is called Bridge2College after all!
I had a brilliant first week in Bridge21 and after that every chance I got to go back I grabbed with both hands! I attended a couple of maths workshop days where we talked and learned about scientific notation. We also used applications developed by a student in college. Both days were very enjoyable and I learned a lot.
I suppose these lead into the computer science week/workshop. In this we were taught the basics of computer science and programming. To do this in the simplest way we built and programed Lego robots to go around an obstacle course. The next day we started to use a program called SCRATCH. This teaches basic computer programming and is used in schools across the country. On the second and third days of the week we used this and created different projects such as simple computer games and simulations. On the last day we reprogrammed a WII remote to allow it to track an LED on a computer screen and allow it to become a remote control for the games we made the days before. That week really benefited me a lot and really enjoyed getting back to Bridge again.
The third and final workshop I took part in was designed by Kevin himself. It was called Learning Circles. It was all about how we think students should learn in school. We had to create and facilitate a 30-minute workshop for the other students there and had to teach them about a particular topic in the way we think school should be. We incorporated different media sites such as YouTube and used interactive programs such as SCRATCH to teach the students. Our topic was the Space Race of the 1960’s. We made a video about it to explain the timeline in the simplest way we could. We also used drama as a way of teaching by getting the students to act out what they were learning. All in all that was one of the toughest and most fun things we had done in Bridge.
The whole of TY has been amazing for me but my highlight would have to be Bridge21. The reason why is simple, like the program itself. The people were amazing fun, the workshops were fun and I had a brilliant time.”
If any other students would like to write about a day or a week or just tell us a story about your time with us, send it to info@bridge21.ie. Thanks!
