Students who participated in SciFest today were treated to some goodies from the canteen and then had a their photo taken with their awards!
SciFest
Extra Curricular Activities
Scifest
What is Scifest?
SciFest is a series of one day science fairs, funded primarily by Science Foundation Ireland’s (SFI) Discover programme, Intel and Boston Scientific. It is also supported by a number of other companies and organisations.
SciFest@School is where a second-level school hosts their own in-house SciFest science fair. SciFest@School was introduced in 2011 and there has been strong demand from schools to participate – 57 schools participated in 2015/2016. SciFest@School is the first strand of the SciFest programme. Second-level students can also participate in SciFest@College in their local Institute of Technology or in DCU. Winners from these fairs go on to compete in a national final each November in Dublin for the chance to represent Ireland at science fairs in the USA and the Netherlands.
Students exhibit 43 innovative science projects at SciFest@Scoil Chonglais
On the 17th of May 2019, over 130 students from the first, second, and transition years exhibited 43 projects in SciFest@School in Scoil Chonglais. This was the school’s fifth year SciFest@School was hosted and it was the biggest one yet!
Students demonstrated their knowledge of science, technology, engineering, and maths through their creative and innovative projects. Some of the projects on display included floating gardens, the effect of nature on your wellbeing, the effect of catalysts on the rate of reaction.
The overall prize for first years went to a floating garden designed by Maeve Clarke, SarahMai Fitzgerald and Julie Nolan. The overall prize for second years went to Emma Byrne and Anna Cooney for their project ‘does nature affect your wellbeing’. The overall prize in the senior category went to Alex Godson and Roy Healy for their project ‘predicting designs of cardioid type shapes from the Simon Plouffes documents using scratch code’. Roy and Alexn, both TY students, competed at SciFest at Carlow IT and there were 57 teams competing.
The boys represented the school incredibly well and were awarded first place in their category. They both received an engraved trophy/plaque and I’ve attached pictures to this email.
Commenting on the success of the science fair, Ms. Patricia Gurhy said: “We are delighted to host SciFest@School in our school because the SciFest competition allows students to develop their study of science, technology, engineering, and maths, outside of the classroom and apply it to everyday life. All of the students have worked very hard on their projects and should be very proud of their achievements. We all wish the best of luck to the students going on to the next stage of the SciFest competition which will see them compete in SciFest@College.
Sheila Porter, SciFest CEO added: “Since SciFest@School was launched nationwide in 2011 it has gone from strength to strength. I am continually amazed by the passion and dedication demonstrated by the students. SciFest@School is a celebration of STEM subjects. It encourages students to push the boundaries of the classroom, use their knowledge of science, investigate, and be creative in their projects. The achievement of these students is an inspiration to us all and is a tribute to them and to the hard work and support of their teachers.”
Please see www.scifest.ie for further information.
