Mid-West post-primary school students will be showing off their scientific knowledge at the regional SciFest fair, which will be taking place at LIT on Wednesday next at the LIT Moylish campus.
SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science competition where second-level students showcase science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) projects at a series of one day science fairs held regionally in the 14 Institutes of Technology, and St Mary’s College, Derry.
Ten major awards, including the SFI Discover Best Project Award, the Intel Award and the Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award are available at each of the 15 venues. Winners from each regional science fair go on to compete at a national final, which will take place this year in the Marino Conference Centre, Dublin on November 6.
Awards presented at the national final include opportunities to represent Ireland at two international science fairs; the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona and the International Environment and Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO) 2016 in The Hague.
LIT also has local support and/or sponsorship from Roche Ireland, Clarecastle; Cook Medical, Limerick Council Environment Office, EPI*STEM, Limerick Chamber of Commerce and Intel Shannon.
Irish Science Educator of the Year 2015, Sheila Porter, along with Michelle McKeon-Bennett, Head of Department of Applied Science, will officially open the event.
A native of Ennis, Colin McGann has been editor of The Clare Champion since August 2020. Former editor of The Clare People, he is a journalism and communications graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology.