MyScience.ie

Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) is Sponsorship available to promote mathematics, second level science, careers in science and engineering and Science Week festivals. DSE is offering support to those working to promote the physical sciences and mathematics in Ireland and has put out a call for sponsorship proposals which fall under the following strategic themes:
• Mathematics
• Second level science
• Science and engineering careers promotion
• Science Week Festivals

Proposals should be aligned to these themes. The submission deadline is 3 April 2009.

If you are planning or developing a significant project, of value greater than €10,000, to promote one or more of the strategic themes above but need assistance with funding it, then DSE may be able to help by providing part-funding of up to 50% of the total cost.

To apply, complete the application form available on science.ie (at the bottom of the page) and send it electronically to DSE by the deadline below.

Key information to be supplied includes:
• An outline of the project
• The audience that you are targeting
• Demonstrated alignment to at least one of the strategic themes
• Your proposal for measuring the success and impact of the project

Projects that can be replicated cost-effectively or will become self-sustaining over a short period of time are encouraged.

Successful projects should commence in 2009 and preferably be fully completed within 12 months and not later than the end of September 2010.

DSE is an integrated campaign hosted at Forfás, working on behalf of the Office of Science and Technology in association with the Department of Education and Science, Engineers Ireland and IBEC, along with many other groups involved in science and mathematics promotion nationwide.

The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sectors are fundamental to Ireland’s economic success and offer progressive, challenging and rewarding career options. The Discover Science & Engineering (DSE) programme is building awareness amongst young people of the value of the physical sciences and mathematics in Ireland while also fostering a culture of scientific and technological innovation.

The Greenwave project is a mass science experiment for Irish national schools which involves tracking the movement of spring across Ireland.  Students’ record sighting dates of six species that are indicators of spring onto the Greenwave website and the results are mapped onto the website to see whether spring moves from north to south or inland from coast to centre.  Last year 2,500 sightings were submitted from schools across the country.

Students of Saint Agnes Primary School Dublin pictured at the launch of the Greenwave experiment.

Every year a green wave, which is caused by the opening of buds on trees and hedges, can be seen moving across Europe from outer space in springtime. It begins in the south of Europe in February and it moves up across Europe as temperatures rise.  The phenomenon travels at approximately the same speed as humans walk – four miles per hour – hence the description of a green wave.  According to this, spring would take three weeks to walk across Ireland from Mizen Head to Malin head.

School children will be asked to register on the Greenwave website and record their findings online. In addition to the species examined in 2008 – ash, horse chestnut and hawthorn trees, the primrose, the swallow and frogspawn – participants are now being asked to also record the rainfall throughout the months of February to May. 

The information gathered will help to examine whether climate change is causing flowers to bloom earlier and how Irish wildlife is affected as a result. The data will be plotted on the Greenwave website where visitors will be able to view the findings and track nature’s progress over time. Schoolchildren who take part in the experiment can also win some great prizes by submitting photos of their sightings on www.greenwave.ie.  The best pictures are judged by Discover Science & Engineering, Eanna Ni Lahmna and Gerald Fleming. Each winning school will receive a digital camera and printer.
 
Schools wishing to take part in this year’s Greenwave experiment can register online at www.greenwave.ie. The project also caters for Gaelscoileanna, with materials available in Irish on the website.  All schools taking part in the Greenwave project will earn credit towards the Discover Primary Science Awards of Science Excellence.

Conor Kelly, Cian Cassidy, and Megan Kelly, pictured at the launch of the Junior Inventor 2009 Competition. The Junior Inventor competition is aimed at Primary School students and is being launched by the Irish patents Office to mark World Intellectual Property Day, which falls on 26th April every year. This year the theme for World Intellectual Property Day is the promotion of green innovation as the key to a secure future. (Photo credit – Leon Farrell, Photocall Ireland) 

Students can enter any idea or invention concerned with improving the environment; an idea for a new ‘green’ environmentally friendly product, an improvement for an existing product, a new “green” procedure, ideas for new environmentally friendly ways of creating or saving energy or any idea that uses green technology, solves an environmental problem or makes life better and more eco friendly.  This can simply be an idea that can be described and drawn or illustrated. 
 
The Competition is divided into three categories with one overall winner who will be presented with the Junior Inventor 2009 award.  The categories are:-
 
(1) Junior Infants to Senior Infants 
 
(2) First Class to Third Class.
 
(3) Fourth Class to Sixth Class.
 
Prizes will be awarded in each category and the 1st place winners in each category will also receive a prize of an e-microscope for their schools.
 
The closing date for entries is Wednesday 8th April at 5.30pm and the address to send entries is: Junior Inventor 2009, Patents Office, Hebron Road, Kilkenny. The winners will be announced at a presentation ceremony in the Patents Office, as part of their Open Day celebrating World Intellectual Property Day.
 
The Patents Office would like to acknowledge the help and support of Discover Science & Engineering in developing and launching the Junior Inventor Competition.
 
All Primary Schools will receive notification of the competition and details are also available on the Patents Office website at www.patentsoffice.ie Further information on World Intellectual Property Day can be accessed at www.wipo.int

The organisers of SciFest have put out the last call for second level students to submit their entry forms for this year’s competition ahead of the deadline of 13 March, with over 2,000 students expected to enter this year.  SciFest is a one day festival of science which is held in Institutes of Technology all over the country as a regional equivalent of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, with local second level students demonstrating their projects and participating in a competition.  1612 students exhibited over 680 projects in nine Institutes of Technology – Athlone, Carlow, Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Sligo, Tallaght, Tipperary and Waterford – in SciFest 2008. 
 
Due to the success of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, SciFest has been created to cater for the excess demand and provides an additional forum for students who wish to exhibit their work and experience the excitement of sharing their findings with other like-minded students. SciFest has the additional advantage that it is locally based which makes it more accessible to students and allows them to view the facilities and courses available in their local Institute of Technology.  This year Dundalk, Tralee, Blanchardstown and Galway/Mayo Institutes of Technology will also be hosting SciFest in response to local demand.  Students should visit the website, www.scifest.ie for venue information, as subject to the number of entries additional locations may be added.
 
Sheila Porter, SciFest National Coordinator, said, “The aim of SciFest is to encourage a love of science and technology by offering students a chance to show off their projects to their peers and local community, whilst competing for national awards.  SciFest is also tied to the Junior Certificate as students projects can be used in the practical work element of the new science curriculum.  Hands on activities in science are the key to developing students’ interest in the subject as they take learning out of the textbooks and link science and technology back to their everyday lives.”
 
“The competition also creates a valuable link with Institutes of Technology and industry, thereby offering participating students the chance to experience what studying science, engineering or ICT courses is like and to see what employment opportunities are available.  Students of all abilities and backgrounds are able to experience the magic of science and technology thus lowering the barriers and bringing the talents of diverse populations into the knowledge economy pipeline,” Porter concluded.
An online dimension has been added to this year’s competition, following a successful pilot last year of Project Blogger.   Students can create their own science blogs to keep a record of their SciFest entry and share their experiences in science with classmates from their own school and from other schools around Ireland.   The blog makes it easy for students to store their SciFest project images, ideas, graphs, video files etc. as part of their online science diary. They can then use the blog as part of their exhibition at the SciFest event.

SciFest is jointly funded by Intel and Discover Science and Engineering. It is supported by a number of other partners and the Institutes of Technology. The project thus creates a valuable link between the second and third level education sectors and between education and industry.
 
Please visit www.scifest.ie for further information and for entry forms ahead of the deadline of 13 March.  Projects are not due for submission until the end of April.

We recorded a couple of interviews and lecturers of events we were involved with last year. Here’s a couple we have recently uploaded:

• Lord Robert Winston – Public Engagement in Science – Does it matter?
• Xan Simonson at the Atlantic Conference on Promoting Science Education (Videos on right hand side)
• Chris Armstrong at the Atlantic Conference on Promoting Science Education (Videos on right hand side)

After tallying our figures, this year’s Science Week turned out to be a record breaker with more events and participants than ever. Over 100,000 people attended approximately 500 events across the country during Science Week Ireland 2008. Science Week, which is now in its twelfth year, was the biggest and best yet with over 500 events taking place across the country. 
 
Some of the main highlights included the annual Science & Technology Fair at the Institute of Technology, Sligo which kicked off Science Week on Sunday 9th November with approximately 3,000 in attendance.  The Science Week lecture series which can be viewed online.
 
Discovery 2008, Cork’s Interactive Science Exhibition, took place in City Hall on 16th to 20th November. Some of the main event highlights included the unveiling of Cork’s own portable planetarium, recently acquired by Blackrock Castle Observatory. In addition there was a live video link to the Antarctic on Sunday 16th November to students participating on Pat Falvey’s Beyond Endurance challenge.
 
The Galway Science & Technology Festival took place from 10th – 23rd November.  Among the main highlights were the First Lego National Championships on Saturday 22nd November and the festival exhibition on Sunday 23rd November in the Galway Bay Hotel and Leisureland.
 
It should be noted though that none of this would be possible without the enthusiasm and support Science Week receives from the organisers and volunteers across the county.

The videos from the Science Week Lecture Series are now available to view on the Science Week website. Earlier this month we brought together a group of lecturers to discuss a series of topics in a bid to make science more accessible to the general public. Speakers included sustainability expert, Professor Aubrey Manning; special effects guru, Gerry Johnston; robotics innovator, Dr Cynthia Breazeal; Stephen Attenborough from Virgin Galactic; and IT whizkid, Patrick Collison. Have a look and let us know what you think.

Dr. Jimmy Devins T.D, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, was at hand with students from Mary Help of Christians Girls National School in the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin yesterday to launch Science Week with students from Mary Help of Christians Primary School, Navan Road, Dublin. Over 90,000 people are expected to attend events across the country during Science Week Ireland 2008, which starts on Sunday 9th November and runs until Sunday November 16th.
 
The annual Science & Technology Fair at the Institute of Technology, Sligo will officially kick off Science Week on Sunday 9th November.   User friendly labs and displays will be open to people of all ages and interests whether it is biological, chemical, mechanical or electronic. 
 
As part of Science Week Ireland 2008, Discover Science & Engineering has organised a series of free lectures open to the public in the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin.  The Science Week Lecture Series, which is already booked out, will include Stephen Attenborough from Virgin Galactic, the world’s first space tourism agency; Patrick Collison, one of the Limerick teenagers who built ‘Auctomatic’, an Internet company which was subsequently sold for millions of dollars; Gerry Johnston, Irish special effects guru who worked on films such as Saving Private Ryan and Braveheart; Professor Aubrey Manning, a prominent zoologist; and Dr Cynthia Breazeal, a robotics expert from MIT.
 
Discovery 2008, Cork’s Interactive Science Exhibition, runs in City Hall again this year from 16th to 20th November. Young and old will enjoy experimenting with slime, creating electronic circuits and even playing hands-free basketball at the Family Day on Sunday 16th November from 3.00pm and school groups will visit for the following three days. The highlight for 2008 will be the unveiling of Cork’s own portable planetarium, recently acquired by Blackrock Castle Observatory. Visitors to Discovery will be the first to experience this high-tech illustrated journey to the stars.
 
The Galway Science & Technology Festival, now in its eleventh year will run from 10th – 23rd November.  Among the main highlights are the First Lego National Championships on Saturday 22nd November and the festival exhibition on Sunday 23rd November in the Galway Bay Hotel and Leisureland.
 
The aim of Science Week Ireland is to promote the relevance of science, engineering and technology in our everyday lives and to demonstrate the importance of these disciplines to the future development of Irish society and economy. ‘Science – Shaping Our World’ is the theme of this year’s Science Week and will illustrate that emerging technologies and the latest movements in science and engineering may influence mankind’s impact on the planet.
 
For a complete calendar of what is happening around the country for Science Week Ireland 2008 please visit www.scienceweek.ie

We’re launching Science Week today down at the Science Gallery in Trinity College. Science Week doesn’t start until Sunday, but keep an eye out for us in the papers tomorrow. We’ll post an update with photos from the launch later today.