Sci-Fest

SciFest is a national festival of science organised regionally in collaboration with the Institutes of Technology and is open to all second level students. The competition is jointly funded by Intel and Discover Science and Engineering as project partners.

Discover Science and Engineering sponsor special Discover Sensors awards at all SciFest exhibitions. These are for students who show innovative uses of sensor technology in their projects. There are also awards for the teachers of these students.

Spotlight into Winning Projects Page Spotlight into Highly Commended Page

The inaugural SciFest was held in the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin in 2006 and was launched nationwide in September 2007. Nine of the Institutes of Technology hosted SciFest fairs in 2008 and in 2009 all fourteen institutes hosted a SciFest fair, reflecting the commitment of the Institutes of Technology to the support and promotion of science education. Also in 2009 the first SciFest exhibition in Northern Ireland was held in the Millennium Forum in Derry. In total 1,980 students from 162 schools exhibited 836 projects nationwide in SciFest 2009. This represented an increase of almost 25 per cent in the number of students participating compared with the previous year. Athlone hosted the largest staging of the competition in the country, with 170 projects from 24 schools in counties Westmeath, Galway, Roscommon, Longford, Offaly, Cavan and Mayo participating..

Speaking at the launch of SciFest in Athlone IT this year, Sheila Porter, National Coordinator of the competition said: "SciFest is a fun and exciting way to encourage an interest in science at school level, providing not only an occasion to celebrate achievement and a job well done, but also an opportunity to encourage active and collaborative learning. This helps stimulate students' interest in science and enables then to apply scientific concepts to real-life scenarios."

She added "SciFest continues to go from strength to strength with a record number of entries this year. The rapid increase in participation in the competition is a clear indication of the interest and enthusiasm among students and teachers in the investigative approach to teaching and learning science"

Mr. Peter Brabazon, Programme Director, Discover Science and Engineering, also spoke "It is exciting to see the creativity and enthusiasm for science among Irish second-level students at SciFest 2010. The competition epitomises the skills we seek to instill in students across the country in terms of collaborative learning and critical thinking. It is also an effective model linking education and industry, with the participation of the Institutes of Technology and the support of Intel and other sponsors."

Further information about the event is available online at www.scifest.ie