Get your school on the map with Global Experiment Day: Tuesday 10th November 2015

mmullaghyista
Mary Mullaghy 19 November 2015

Thousands of students all over the world are expected to take part in the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) 2015 global experiment. This year the theme is “Water: a global experiment with hydrogels.”

Students taking part are invited to explore the effects that hydrogels (a man-made product) have on the water cycle before sharing their results with other classes across the globe. Not only are all the activities engaging, they also support learning and curriculum. So why not get involved?

There are three distinct experiments, all of which have been designed so they can be carried out without specialist equipment and on a small budget:

• Experiment 1: How much water can a hydrogel hold?

• Experiment 2: How quickly can hydrogels absorb water? Does this ever change?

• Experiment 3: An open investigation into how water can be retrieved from a hydrogel

These experiments support students in exploring the question: are we wasting water by using hydrogels?

All the data collected from the above experiments should be uploaded onto the global experiment website. Once uploaded, all the collated data will be examined and analysed. This creates an opportunity to discuss the importance of repeating experiments. Students can also receive a certificate of achievement for taking part.

Be part of something huge: check out their website for full details on how to join this global experiment.

Categories: News

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Winners of BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

The winner of the 48th annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 were Leaving Cert students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly, from Synge Street CBS, Dublin 8 have taken home the top prize for their project entitled, “Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem” in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, senior section.

Eric & Mark were presented with a cheque for €5,000, tickets to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 24th European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Bratislava in September and a Waterford crystal trophy.
Almost 1,200 students from 30 counties covering 550 projects from 221 schools nationwide competed for the coveted title ‘Winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012.’
Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said, “The passion and enthusiasm we have seen from the students taking part this week has been outstanding. This year’s exhibition was bigger and better than ever before and the reaction from the students, teachers and visitors to the RDS this week has been amazing. We live in a continually changing world and what we have seen from the students this week is that they have the foresight and innovation to come up with real problem solving ideas that can help Ireland to grow and develop into the future. Huge congratulations to Eric & Mark and all the winners. I look forward to watching their progress in the coming years,” he added.
Professor Pat Guiry, Head Judge, Chemical, Physical & Mathematical category said, “The project develops a novel mathematical approach which has a diverse range of applications from satellite placement to predicting network congestion in telecommunications. In the opinion of the judging panel, an exceptional level of mathematical proficiency was demonstrated. Starting from Euler’s investigation in 1760 on the motion of planets, they simulated this complicated “many-body” problem using advanced computation and evaluated the accuracy of the solutions. Of particular note, they included an in-built accuracy estimation in their solution.”
mmullaghyista
Mary Mullaghy 10 February 2013

Winners of BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

The winner of the 48th annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 were Leaving Cert students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly, from Synge Street CBS, Dublin 8 have taken home the top prize for their project entitled, “Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem” in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, senior section.

Eric & Mark were presented with a cheque for €5,000, tickets to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 24th European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Bratislava in September and a Waterford crystal trophy.
Almost 1,200 students from 30 counties covering 550 projects from 221 schools nationwide competed for the coveted title ‘Winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012.’
Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said, “The passion and enthusiasm we have seen from the students taking part this week has been outstanding. This year’s exhibition was bigger and better than ever before and the reaction from the students, teachers and visitors to the RDS this week has been amazing. We live in a continually changing world and what we have seen from the students this week is that they have the foresight and innovation to come up with real problem solving ideas that can help Ireland to grow and develop into the future. Huge congratulations to Eric & Mark and all the winners. I look forward to watching their progress in the coming years,” he added.
Professor Pat Guiry, Head Judge, Chemical, Physical & Mathematical category said, “The project develops a novel mathematical approach which has a diverse range of applications from satellite placement to predicting network congestion in telecommunications. In the opinion of the judging panel, an exceptional level of mathematical proficiency was demonstrated. Starting from Euler’s investigation in 1760 on the motion of planets, they simulated this complicated “many-body” problem using advanced computation and evaluated the accuracy of the solutions. Of particular note, they included an in-built accuracy estimation in their solution.”
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Mary Mullaghy 25 November 2020

SciFest student has an asteroid named after him after and came second in the world at ISEF 2015

Christopher Carragher from Our Lady’s Secondary School in Castleblaney has got an asteroid named after him. The Monaghan student had an asteroid named after him after he came second in the World award in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category at ISEF 2015 which was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this week. Chistopher got to Pennsylvania after winning the SciFest 2014 national final last November. His project was about aiding people with memory loss. Memory Buddy!

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Memory Buddy uses Google Calender to alert the person about appointments and medication via flashing lights, sound and also via the TV. It also includes a remotely controlled medicine drawer to give the appropriate medicine at a specific time – there’s even a feedback facility to notify a carer when medicine has or has not been taken. An organiser for care rotas and appointments also comes with Memory Buddy.

Christopher said the whole experience has been “amazing”. “I met students from all over the world, and heard speeches from famous scientists like Nobel laureates Sir Harold W Kroto and Martin Chalfie. It’s been great to see all the projects that other students from around the world have been working on and it has been brilliant to spend a week together sharing our ideas”.

Sheila Porter of CEO of SciFest said that Christopher Carragher’s project “demonstrates that great science is characterised not by rote-learning and memorisation but by creativity and investigation”.

Christopher was representing Ireland at ISEF and come second in the World in his category is an impressive achievement for him is and a testament to the very high quality of science education in Ireland. "To continue producing the highest calibre of science students in Ireland, we need to celebrate their achievements more, to promote inquiry based learning and encourage students to take their learning beyond the classroom." via thejournal.ie

mmullaghyista
Mary Mullaghy 2 June 2015

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