SciFest Ezine, Volume 6, Number 4, May 2015

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SCIFEST EZINE May 2015

Volume 6 Number 4

SciFest student placed second in the world in American fair Christopher Carragher from Our Lady’s Secondary School, Castleblaney, overall winner of SciFest 2014, represented Ireland and SciFest at the Intel International

“I met students from all over the world, and heard speeches from famous scientists like Nobel laure-

ates Sir Harold W Kroto

Science and Engineering Fair 2015 (Intel ISEF) in Pittsburgh in May and came

and Martin Chalfie. It’s

second in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category. Christopher

been great to see all the

won not only $1,500 but also the honour of having an asteroid named after him.

projects that other stu-

Congratulations to Christopher, to his school and to his teacher Kathryn Higgins.

dents from around the

world have been working

Around 1,700 students from over 75 countries competed at

on and it has been brilliant

Intel ISEF for a prize fund totalling $4million.

to spend a week together sharing our ideas.”

The SciFest 2015 national final will take place in Dublin on 6 November.

- Christopher Carragher

In This Issue Page Number

 5th Year Students from Cork will compete in Amsterdam

Christopher’s winning project  SciFest 2015 breaks all previous records  Berlin Long Night of Science Thank You Contact details

Christopher Carragher, Our Lady’s School, Castleblaney, Co Monaghan

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Christopher’s winning project ‘Memory Buddy’ After becoming concerned about the

signs of short-term memory loss in a family member, Christopher set about designing an automated system called Memory Buddy.

Memory Buddy uses Google Calendar to alert the person about appointEllen Fitzgerald, Aoife Dolan and Niamh Nyhan

ments and medication via flashing lights, sound and also via the TV.

5th year students from Cork will compete in Amsterdam

It also includes a remotely controlled medicine drawer to give the appropriate medicine at a specific time –

Three fifth year students, Ellen Fitzgerald, Aoife Dolan and Niamh Nyhan

there’s even a feedback facility to

from the Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty, Co. Cork, will next

notify a carer when medicine has or

week be representing Ireland and SciFest at the International Environment

has not been taken.

and Sustainability Project Olympiad 2015 (INESPO) in Amsterdam. Ellen, Niamh and Aoife were the overall winners of the SEAI INESPO Award at the

Memory Buddy also includes an or-

national final of SciFest 2014. Their teacher Una Mayock will be travelling

ganiser for care rotas and appoint-

with them.

ments.

The girls’ project set out to investigate the possibility of replacing traditional street lamp bulbs with LEDs. An LED bulb was designed based on the components of a standard street light. The advantages of the LED bulb are presented.

The INESPO is an international Olympiad with over 40 different countries participating. It will be a tough competition and we wish the girls every success.

Christopher’s project is one of the many exciting examples of how SciFest empowers students to be innovative, to move beyond the classroom walls and to use modern technology to solve a real world problem.

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SciFest 2015 breaks all previous records SciFest continues to grow with more than 7000 students participating in the current school year 2014/2015. All 14 Institutes of Technology have now hosted their SciFest@College 2015 science fairs. SciFest@College NorthWest in Derry will take place on 12 June.

40 schools hosted their own SciFest@School science fair with a total of 4260 students presenting projects.

Information for teachers on organising a SciFest@School science fair and registration forms may be found at on the website at http://scifest.ie/scifestschool.

‘SciFest provides a wonderful opportunity for students of all abilities to work as part of a team and to research and develop their ideas in an area that interests them. The strength of this competition is its inclusiveness. The competiveness of the more able students spurs them on to perform and present work of a very high standard while the less academic students are exposed to and engage in science in a new way. They are only too delighted to speak to anyone who asks them about what they have done and what they have found out in their research. For the day they are listened to. They are just as important as everyone else. They are proud of their work!

Maybe science isn’t too bad after all! ‘ Dr Oonagh Redmond, Science Teacher, St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon

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Berlin Long Night of Science Students, Rachael Ni Dhonnachadha , Ciara McLoughlin and teachers,

Contact Us

John and Bernadette White from St Vincent’s Secondary School in Dundalk

e: sheila.porter@scifest.ie

will be travelling to Berlin in June to celebrate ‘The Long Night of Science’.

e: george.porter@scifest.ie

This prize, which is supported by the Irish Embassy in Berlin, was awarded to Rachael and her sister Shannon at the SciFest national final last Novem-

m: 086 379 6143 w: www.scifest.ie

ber.

Please check the website regularly for updates

www.scifest.ie Project Title ‘The Science of Punching’

Thank you As the school year draws to a close we would like to thank all those who have supported SciFest throughout the year:



Our partners and sponsors

SciFest 2015 Institutes of Technology

is supported by

St Mary’s College, Derry

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The SciFest board and members



The regional coordinators



The judges



The teachers



The students



Smart Futures, TY Ireland, and all who have given generously of their time during the year to help at SciFest events HAVE A LOVELY SUMMER AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU IN 2015/2016

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