GMIT hosts regional heat of Young Scientist SciFest

Science students from over twenty secondary schools in Galway, Mayo, Roscommon and Clare are to take part in a major project exhibition in Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) next Thursday 16 May as part of the 2013 Young Scientist SciFest.

Co-ordinated by the GMIT Schools Liaison Office and GMIT Science School, over 70 poster projects on a wide variety of interesting topics will be on display, such as:

‘An Investigation into How Music Affects Athlete Performance’ by Stephen Callanan and Jason Keane, supported by teacher Lisa Kelly of St Brigids Vocational School, Loughrea;

‘IVET- An App Designed for Farmers to Diagnose Common Animal Ilnesses’ by Chris Gainley and Adrian Rowland, supported by their teacher Kieran Hall, of St Gerald’s College, Castlebar;

‘Does the Size of Population of an Area Affect the Ability of GAA Clubs to Win Trophies’ by pupil Keelan McMahon, supported by teacher John Sims, of Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare.

These and some 70 other exciting projects will be on public display in the GMIT Café Foyer on the day (16 May) from 10am to 1pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend.

SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science competition where second-level students showcase their science, technology and maths projects at a series of one day science fairs held in the 14 regional Institutes of Technology and the University of Ulster, Magee Campus, Derry.

The winners from each science fair will go on to compete at the national final in November. The SciFest programme is primarily sponsored by Science Foundation Ireland’s Discover Science & Engineering Programme and Intel Ireland. It is also supported by a number of other companies and organisations.

In addition to the Sci Fest poster exhibition in GMIT, the event will include a Science talk and demonstration of an Electric Ireland eCar which is on loan to the GMIT School of Engineering this summer, promoting GMIT’s energy engineering undergraduate programmes and the work of researchers in the GMIT Centre for Integration of Sustainable Energies (CiSET).

GMIT Schools Liaison Officer, Dr Carina Ginty, says SciFest2013@GMIThas attracted the largest ever number of entries from secondary schools in the history of GMIT hosting the event. “The aim of this event is to encourage a love of science through active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning, and to provide a forum for students at local, regional and national level to present and display their scientific investigations. Sci Fest in GMIT will showcase a range of exciting scientific discoveries and learning experiences.”

For further information on this event, contact the Schools Liaison Office slo@gmit.ie or visit www.scifest.ie