SciFest Ezine, Volume 2, Number 3, February 2011

SciFest Ezine V O L U M E

2

N U M B E R

• Closing date for receipt of entries to SciFest 2011 is Wednesday 9 March

Log on to www.scifest.ie

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: SciFest 2011 Exhibition Dates

2

SciFest - A Teacher’s Story

2

SciFest - A Student’s Story

3

SciFest@ School

4

Introducing the 4 Scientific Method M&M Activity St Flannan’s College Reach for the Stars

6

3

F E B R U A R Y

2 0 1 1

SciFest 2011 Exciting New Award - Win an all-expenses-paid trip to America SciFest@Intel ISEF Award The Intel Best Project Award winners from each SciFest 2011 venue will be invited to exhibit at Intel in the autumn (SciFest@Intel). One project will be selected to represent Ireland at the International Science and Engineering Fair 2012 in Pittsburgh; May 1217. The teacher/mentor of this project will travel with the student/s. All expenses will be paid.

Intel ISEF 2010 San Jose, California—Opening Ceremony Students from all over the world display posters representing their countries

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, provides an annual forum for more than 1600 high school students from nearly 60 countries, regions, and territories to showcase their independent research.

SciFest Project Expands as Numbers Grow To increase participation in, and raise the profile of, SciFest two additional programmes have been introduced.

SciFest@School

SciFest@Intel

SciFest@School is where schools are invited to organize their own in-house SciFest science fair.

A pilot SciFest@School is already underway.

Five schools are participating in 2011 and it is hoped to expand the programme nationwide in 2012. Resources and Best Known Methods will be provided on the SciFest website.

SciFest@Intel is where each of the Intel Best Project Award winners from each participating IT/venue (SciFest@College) will be invited to exhibit at Intel in the autumn.

Projects will be evaluated and one project will be selected to represent Ireland at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which is held annually in May in the US.

PAGE

2

SciFest Exhibition Dates 2011 Closing date for receipt of entries to SciFest 2011 is Wednesday 9 March.

Entry forms and exhibition dates are currently being posted on the website as they become available. Please check the website regularly for updates.

Website: www.scifest.ie IT/Venue

Exhibition Date

Limerick

5 April

Athlone

14 April

Waterford

7 April

Dundalk

Students from Ballincollig Community School enjoying

Cork

8 April

Carlow

SciFest2010@CIT

Dublin

Scifest is a

IT/Venue

Exhibition Date

IT/Venue

Exhibition Date

Tallaght

10 May

4 May

Tralee

10 May

GalwayMayo

5 May

Blanchardstown

11 May

13 April

Sligo

6 May

Derry

14 April

Letterkenny

6 May

Not Confirmed

SciFest - A Teacher’s Story

wonderful way to develop the most hair-brained ideas.

There is the luxury of real discovery learning when there is no over arching concern whether an entry will be accepted or rejected.”

Dr Katie Corbett

SciFest 2010 @ North -West

Dr Katie Corbett, Skerries Community School, Balbriggan, Co Dublin SciFest is a wonderful way to develop the most hair-brained ideas. There is the luxury of real discovery learning when there is no over arching concern whether an entry will be accepted or rejected. Although the pursuit of the answer to a student's question is an end of itself, the carrot of being able to "show off" the result is quite important to even the least competitive teenager.

There is no need to fund raise for expensive overnight stays. Most schools are within a bus journey of an institute of technology. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to be exposed to a third level institution. They might not otherwise have this experience. There is a tour of every institute on the day of the competition allowing them to learn first hand about the science courses available there.

There are many students in September who are excited at the prospect of starting a science project. The deadline for BTYSE in October the same year is too soon for them and 12 months too far away. The lead in to SciFest has the "Goldilocks" (just right) timing for them.

Students hone their skills of inquiry learning through SciFest. They have the opportunity to choose a topic that is suitable in terms of their interest, ability and its scientific validity. The inquiry is student led and the work is largely autonomous. They learn new basic knowledge and skills. They must set tasks to achieve their goals. As this is their own work, their problems are largely unstructured and so will spend time reasoning solutions to these problems. They learn from their mistakes and have the time

The simplicity of the format is very useful for schools. Teacher substitution is only required for one day.

SCIFEST

EZINE

VOLUME

2

NUMBER

3

PAGE

to change direction without fear of not completing the task. They learn to collaborate within a group and may seek assistance outside the school. This is the essence of inquiry-based learning.

"Maintaining our leadership in research and

There is also the fun element for the participants, they learn in a way they never had before. They experience camaraderie within the confines of their own school.

technology is crucial to America's success. But if we Hannah Gibney Skerries Community School, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin

want to win the future — if we want innovation to produce jobs in

SciFest - A Student’s Story

America and not

Dr Katie Corbett, Skerries Community School, Balbriggan, Co Dublin This is a story of inquiry-based learning.

Hannah came to her teacher at the beginning of transition year with the unusual idea that she wanted to study ‘fear'. She researched background information and decided on a question: if people were exposed to their phobias, would this alter the sweat that they secrete? She called her project "The Stench of Fear". She set about securing a basic knowledge of her chosen area. With the assistance of her teacher she set out a series of tasks. Among the skills she acquired were the ability to organise groups of people and schedule meetings. She acquired IT skills necessary to make and show short presentations for her candidates. She developed her own methods of collecting sweat.

She also collected saliva in the off chance that she might be able to test this. She had found in her library search that salivary cortisol was elevated after stress.

With the help of her teacher she arranged to go to laboratories at DCU and UCD. She assisted in all analyses. She tabulated her results and drew her conclusions and wrote her report. She pre-

sented her results at the BTYSE 2010 where through constructive criticism discovered flaws in her methods. Hannah project was awarded "Highly Commended".

She redesigned her experiments, using new sample collection methods and submitted her project to Scifest at DIT Kevin Street 2010.

She won third in her category. Her study still lacked power, as the number of subjects was too small. She learned from her mistakes.

Instead of repeating all the old studies, Hannah decided to look at the effects of caffeine on the ability to deal with stress. With sufficient candidates in her study, effective collection methods and an ability to perform the assays herself, she showed that people with high caffeine intake were less able to cope with stress. For this study she won her category (Senior Individual Biological and Ecological Sciences) at BTYSTE 2011.

overseas — then we also have to win the race to educate our kids. ... We need to teach our kids that it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair."

President Barack Obama

Hannah's is a story of inquiry-based learning. From her faltering start in 2009, she grew in her ability to ask questions and solve problems. SciFest played an important part in that process keeping her focused at the end of transition year.

SciFest 2010 @It Blanchardstown

3

PAGE

SciFest is jointly funded

by Intel Ireland and Discover Science &

4

SciFest@School 2011 Science@school 2011 Wesley College The first ever SciFest@School took place in Wesley College, Ballinteer, Dublin on Friday 11 February. The projects were left on display until the following Thursday when students were presented with their SciFest@School Certificate.

Engineering as project partners

Science@School Coláiste Lorcáin Anne Lynch and Syl McEvoy , see below, both recently retired science teachers offer advice to the students at Coláiste Lorcáin, Castledermot, Co Kildare

Introducing the Scientific Method M&M Activity Materials: 1 regular sized bag of M&Ms per group 1 large size bag of M&Ms Fill in the following information as you work 1. Question 2. Hypothesis 3. Data –Total number of M&Ms in bag and number of each color of M&M in bag 1. Question: Decide on one question you would like to answer about your bag of M&Ms. Write it down. (DO NOT OPEN BAG) 2. Hypothesis: Guess what the answer to your question might be (Hypothesis).

Write it down. (DO NOT OPEN BAG) 3. Data Collection: Open your bag of M&Ms and answer your question (data collection/experimentation) (Do not eat the M&Ms yet) SCIFEST

EZINE

VOLUME

2

NUMBER

3

PAGE

5

Copy the tables below into your copybook. Count the total number of M&Ms in your bag and the number of each color M&M in your bag.

Group

Total Number of M&Ms in bag

Number of Green M&Ms

Number of Brown M&Ms

Number of Yellow M&Ms

Number of Orange M&Ms

Number of Blue M&Ms

Number of Brown M&Ms

Number of Yellow M&Ms

Number of Orange M&Ms

Number of Blue M&Ms

Record your results onto a class table Group

Total Number of M&Ms in bag

Number of Green M&Ms

1 2 3 4

Teacher’s Notes Introduction: The teacher holds up a bag of regular sized M&Ms. The Question: The teacher asks a question to begin the discussion ‘What things might we want to know about this bag of M&Ms? Students will probably respond with a variety of inquiries ‘How many M&Ms are in the bag?’ /’What color M&Ms are in the bag?’ /’How many of each color M&M are in the bag? ‘/ ‘How much does one M&M weigh?’ /’How much does the bag weigh?’

The teacher chooses one question.

A useful introductory question is--How many M&Ms are in the bag?

Students guess the number of M&Ms. Using the framework of students’ guesses, the teacher introduces scientific terminology.

Hypothesis: For instance, during the discussion of answers to the question of how many M&Ms are in the bag, the numbers put forth are hypotheses.

The teacher writes ‘Hypotheses’ on the board and lists the numbers volunteered by students underneath the word. After asking many if not all of the class to respond with a hypothesis about how many M&Ms are in the bag, the teacher asks—How do we determine which hypothesis, if any, is correct?

Data Collection: The teacher then introduces the concept of data collection to determine if one’s hypothesis is correct. The students opens their bags, count the number of M&Ms. The teacher asks the students to design a table on which to record their data.

Follow-up The teacher brings the class back together and asks all of the groups about their questions and the answers that were found. At this point, the teacher asks every group to fill out a class data table about the multiple bags of M&Ms. How many M&Ms are in the bag?

How many of each color M&M are in the bag.

Replicates: By collecting the data from all of the groups, the teacher introduces the concept of replicates/multiple trials. (One discovers that the number of M&Ms per bag is not constant nor is the number of each color in the bag resulting in variation between M&M bags and the potential for calculations using the data.

Data Analysis Using the data from the class, the teacher is able to address the idea of variance in data. To follow up the teacher asks ‘From our data, what would be an accurate way to determine the number of M&Ms in a random bag I pick up at the supermarket? ‘ The average of the numbers provides an accurate description of the number of M&Ms in a randomly chosen bag. Also, the average number of each color M&M per bag may be calculated. Students may also graph the data in histograms and/or pie charts (color-coded graphs follow easily from the M&M colors).

Extension Extending the concepts one step further, the teacher brings out a large bag of M&Ms and asks ‘Do we know anything about this bag of M&Ms based on our data?’

A discussion follows.

A student weighs an individual M&M. Dividing the weight of the large bag by the weight of a single M&M determines the number of M&Ms in the large bag (disregarding the weight of the bag).

(Ref: http://www.scienceteacherprogram.org/genscience/AMeyer05.html)

To download an entry form for SciFest 2011 click on the link below

www.scifest.ie Closing date for receipt of entries is Wednesday 9 March

Sheila Porter SciFest Project Manager IR2-1-T22 Intel Ireland Leixlip Co Kildare Tel: 01 606 8949 / 086 3796143 Email: sheilax.m.porter@intel.com

St Flannan’s College Reach for the Stars!

Michael Horgan, science teacher extraordinaire, St Flannan’s College, Ennis tells us how he led a group of his science club students to a third prize victory in the NASA/Ames space competition.

The NASA/Ames space settlement design competition is the latest venture undertaken by the science club in St. Flannan’s College in Ennis. The club regularly enters projects in SciFest, the BTYSTE and the F1-in-Schools Formula 1 motorcar design competition. In November 2009 an advert in ASTIR, seeking a school in Ireland to take part in a NASA project to design a space station settlement, took Michael Horgan’s attention. The students went on to win third prize in the competition and have travelled to Chicago to present their project at a premier space science conference!

Ready for takeoff The St Flannan’s team consisted of eight students from the Science Club. They began work on the project before Christmas 2009. The team consisted of one First Year student, Caitlyn Horgan; three second Years, Chloe Hayes, Hannah O Connell and Conor Arkins; and four Fourth Years Benjamin Suarez, Shane Duggan, Kevin Cahir and Bram Siebert. The team presented their project at the International Space Development Conference 2010 last May. The Irish team were given the challenging task to design the overall space settlement ship structure and its subsystems. The Japanese students were asked to design the power, energy storage and stabilising systems for the space settlement station and the American team were asked to focus on bioregeneration, recycling of water, waste disposal systems and farming/food production on the space settlement.

Chicago - the final frontier The team won 3rd place in their category. They were invited to display and present the project at the Annual International Space Development Conference in Chicago in May 2010. Sponsorship was actively sought. Thanks to Microsemi Ireland, Gort Road, Ennis, St. Francis Credit Union, Clare County Council, the ESB, plus fund raising efforts from the school, students and parents the dream became a reality and the students were able to travel to Chicago.

On the trip they met Charles Bolden, a former astronaut and currently NASA administrator and Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, who was part of the first manned-mission to the moon. The students also got to visit the renowned Argonne and Fermi laboratories where they learned about the advanced proton source, the tandem linac accelerator system and the search for the Higgs particle. The team got to see the Fermilab Tevatron particle collider, together with active scientists at work in the control centre hook up to the CERN large hadron collider in Switzerland. Inspiring stuff!

This year St Francis Credit Union is sponsoring students from St Flannan’s College involved in the NASA/Ames project and in the Irish Computer Society’s F1-in-Schools motorcar design competition. The team members in this year’s NASA contest are Caitlyn Horgan, Bram Siebert, Brendan Golden and Norbert Rosik..

Michael Horgan and the NASA/Ames team