Students’ song is out of this world

AN out of this world song created by a group of Ennis students has helped them secure top prize in a national science video competition.
Coláiste Muire Ennis Transition Year students Neila Ryan, Gemma Hannon, Laura Hayes and Aimee McNamara were among the winners in the ReelLIFE SCIENCE Video Competition Awards.
The students were named winners in the Best Science Song category, voted for by the public, for their tune ‘Are Aliens Real?’
School principal Jean Pound explained, “ReelLIFE SCIENCE is a novel science video competition for Irish primary and secondary schools, which aims to promote science in the classroom and beyond, by inviting students to produce a short video communicating a scientific topic in an engaging and entertaining way.”
She outlines that Neila, Gemma, Laura and Aimee wanted to make people aware of the possibility that aliens actually do exist with their short video clip.
“In their song they outlined how big the universe really is,” said Jean.
“They conducted research online and then used this information to write lyrics with the tune inspired by Vance Joy’s ‘Riptide’ on the piano to showcase their information to support their theory that ‘Aliens are Real’.”
Another group of TY students, Niamh Mulligan, Sarah Barron, Sarah Gorman and Emma Egan came second in their category of the competition with their video clip entitled ‘POV the day in the life of Beatrice.
The ReelLIFE SCIENCE video competition took place as part of Science Week 2021 and the Galway Science and Technology Festival.
Almost 500 short science films were entered into the competition by over 3,000 science enthusiasts from 135 schools and youth groups in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Winning videos were selected by a panel of guest judges including NASA astronaut Colonel Greg Johnson, UCD Professor of Zoology Emma Teeling and the 2021 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition winner, Greg Tarr from Bandon Grammar School in Cork.
Addressing the young film makers at the awards ceremony, Professor Emma Teeling, said, “It has been such a fantastic pleasure to view all of your videos – they’re wonderful!
“It really gives me hope for our future if the youth of Ireland are studying science and understanding science and producing these videos that can communicate science to the world.”
Speaking about ReelLIFE SCIENCE, Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Science for Society at Science Foundation Ireland, said, “I’d like to congratulate all the young people, teachers and youth workers from all over the country who submitted videos to ReelLIFE Science.
“SFI are delighted to support this initiative, which encourages young people to be creative and connect with science and technology. I hope you enjoyed the experience and will continue to take other opportunities to explore STEM.”
The ReelLIFE SCIENCE programme challenges young people in schools and youth groups around Ireland to engage with science and technology by producing short educational videos, while developing their communication and digital skills.
Since being launched in 2013 by Dr Enda O’Connell from the College of Science and Engineering in NUI Galway, and a team of volunteer scientists, this challenge has been met by more than 20,000 participants in over 600 schools and youth groups around Ireland.
The winning videos can be viewed at www.reellifescience.com and https://youtu.be/JUV5TTLiXPg.