‘Seeing what other schools produce is also a good experience along with the actual hands-on work and learning from their project’


Teacher’s Comment Online Evaluation


SciFest@College 2017


2017 has been another very successful year for the SciFest programme with a further 25% increase in student participation bringing the total to 10,000. Eighty-seven SciFest STEM fairs took place throughout Ireland: 70 SciFest@School fairs, 16 SciFest@College fairs and 1 SciFest@TCPID for students with intellectual disabilities. The eighty-eighth event of the year, the SciFest National Final, in association with Science Foundation Ireland, will take place in the Marino Conference Centre in Dublin on 10 November.


On the international stage the overall winner from the SciFest 2016 national final was awarded a second-place award at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2017 in Los Angeles; she received a cash prize and will have an asteroid named after her. This is our eighth major award in our six years participating in Intel ISEF. In the INESPO competition in the Netherlands the SciFest students were awarded a first-place gold medal and will participate in an educational programme in Amsterdam in September. In three years participating in the pro- gramme SciFest students have achieved two first places and a second.


As well as continuing to expand SciFest continues to explore new avenues for development. Early in 2017 SciFest joined Gaisce - The President's Award as a Challenge Partner, providing further opportunities and recognition for SciFest participants. This year also saw the first SciFest for students with intellectual dis- abilities in TCD (SciFest@TCPID).


The continued expansion of the programme is a clear indication that it is success- fully addressing a need in science education. The almost universally positive responses from teachers and students on evaluation questionnaires provide fur- ther evidence for the quality and value of the programme.


2


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6