Tech malfunction fails to ‘psych out’ St Mary’s popular TY students!
ST Mary’s Secondary School in Macroom recently competed in UCC’s Psychology Dept’s annual ‘Psychslam’ competition. The competition provides a platform for Transition Year students to go on stage and voice their opinions on several psychology related topics.
Each team was allocated a topic to prepare and each school was given an opportunity to pair up with another “buddy school”. Our team was paired with Charleville CBS. The purpose of this activity was to get other students’ opinions on our school’s project. On competition day, we also had the reassurance that at least one school was cheering for us.
St. Marys’ team consisted of: Erin Leahy, Kate Murray and Sarah Wynroe (presenters) and Hanna O’Donovan, MaryAnn O’Shea and Nicole O’Connor (researchers). The topic our team chose to base their project on was ‘Is School Killing Our Creativity?’. The project required a Pecha Kucha style PowerPoint. The presentation was in front of an audience which consisted of opposing teams, parents, teachers and a judging panel of three.
While on stage, our team’s PowerPoint failed to play automatically like it was supposed to but Kate thought on her feet and solved the problem.
The three presenters were very comfortable with their topic and well prepared. They included theatrical performances and colloquial conversations, whilst also interacting with the audience.
Then the judges deliberated. Considering how the St Mary’s team had a malfunction with their presentation and their project was more casual in comparison to others, they were not expecting to win anything.It was a massive understatement to say they were shocked when their names were announced as the winners of the ‘Audience Choice’ award.
All girls agreed were delighted with their performance.
Written by Jessica Buckley, Erin Leahy, Sarah Wynroe, Caitriona Moynihan, Rachel Bourgoyne, Hanna O’ Donovan.