Rachel Griffin, Luke O’Sullivan & Liam Waldron from Killarney Community College win SciFest@MTU (Kerry Campus).
They will now represent MTU – Kerry Campus at The SciFest National Final in November with their project entitled “Self-Similarity and Fractal Geometry: Roots of the Pythagorean Theorem”
The Runner-Up on the day from Presentation Secondary School Listowel was Cara Leahy with her project “Are renewable plastics as effective as non-renewable plastics?”
SciFest is an all-island STEM initiative which fosters active, collaborative and inquiry-based learning among second-level students. The programme operates throughout the school year and, being locally and regionally based and free-to-enter, is highly inclusive and accessible. Winners from each regional STEM fair go on to compete at a National Final in November. Winners from the national final compete at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in America and in the Hong Kong Global Youth Science and Technology Bowl (GYSTB), attend the Long Night of Science in Berlin and participate in the Broadcom MASTERS International Programme in America. The SciFest programme is funded primarily by Intel Ireland and Boston Scientific.
Speaking at the opening of the event, Professor Maggie Cusack, President MTU, acknowledged the huge amount of effort by all involved evident from the quality of projects submitted and thanked the teachers for mentoring the projects.
Commenting on the SciFest@MTU (Kerry Campus) Sheila Porter, SciFest Founder and CEO said:
“As we mark the 17th year of SciFest, more than 80,000 students have participated in the programme to date, and we are sure that 2022 will be another stellar year for projects in science, technology, engineering and maths. SciFest gives students an excellent opportunity to develop their interest in STEM and in inquiry-based approaches to learning, while developing their creative and problem-solving skills and learning to work in a team.”
