Alternative energy fuels optimism in engineering exam

LEAVING Certificate engineering students had already done a project and a practical exam, leaving half the marks to be accounted for in yesterday morning’s written exam.

For higher level students, whose project was to design and make a table tennis ball launcher, questions on the paper were well received according to Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) spokesman Kenneth Donagher.

He said there were a few small surprises but the paper was manageable. Some students might have found a question on solar power was a bit wordy and unclear but most would have been pleased with another about testing. It was nicely laid out and had what Mr Donagher described as a green tint, with a question on alternative energy sources included.

He said that ordinary level students needed quite an amount of knowledge for the practical questions on their paper, with one about welding being quite comprehensive. Otherwise, however, it was an approachable exam although Mr Donagher felt more direct links could have been made with their earlier project which required them to build a model tractor.

Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) subject spokesman Dr Lawrence Smyth said that the higher level paper featured very nice short questions. He said that illustrations were used tastefully and, although some questions had a lot of parts, students should generally be satisfied with the exam.

The applied maths paper brought Leaving Certificate 2007 to an end for almost 1,500 students yesterday.

ASTI spokesman Christy Maginn said the higher level paper would have been well received by those students who were familiar with previous exams and had done a reasonable amount of preparation. He said the questions on projectiles, collisions and connected particles would have been attempted by most students and would have given them a good start.

The final parts of questions about accelerated linear motion and relative velocity were quite searching, while the question about statics was probably the most difficult, according to Mr Maginn, who said the ordinary level paper was better structured than the higher level exam and featured clear diagrams.