2009 Features
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Can you rap science?
This is the question being posed to Irish second-level students in a new competition as part of Science Week 2009!
Science Raps Challenge is a new competition for Science Week Ireland 2009 and is aimed at encouraging young people to express their thoughts about science and technology through rap music.
Students are invited to compose and video a Rap on this year's Science Week theme: "Celebrating Creativity and Innovation" showing how creativity and innovation contribute to science and technology. There are some fantastic prizes to be won and to enter, students simply video their own Science Rap, upload on YouTube and send the link with a completed application form available on http://microbemagic.ucc.ie where competition rules are also found.
The closing date for receipt of entries is Friday, November 6th, 2009. The competition is open to junior and senior cycle secondary school students. Prizes will be awarded for under 16 and over 16 categories.
The competition is organised by the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), University College Cork and Teagasc Moorepark, Cork who were inspired by the Large Hadron Rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM which has had more than 5 million hits on YouTube!
Young science rapper, Jon Chase was commissioned by the APC to compose a rap to challenge Irish students. Jon is a young researcher in Science Communication at the University of Glamorgan, Wales and holds undergraduate degrees in aerospace engineering, science and science fiction.
The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (http://apc.ucc.ie) is a research centre focussing on gastrointestinal health and is a partnership between UCC, Teagasc Moorepark Food Research Centre and industry. The APC is one of ten centres of excellence in Ireland funded by the Science Foundation Ireland and dedicated to advancing Ireland’s smart economy through cutting-edge research and development.
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Science Snaps Winners!
The winners of Science Snaps, the national science photography competition, were announced on Monday 9th November. Science Snaps, run by Tyndall National Institute, UCC, is open to secondary school students nationwide.
The theme for the photo entries was the Science Week 2009 theme, Celebrating Creativity and Innovation. The theme challenged students to think about how innovations in science have shaped our world and to illustrate the creativity of science in our everyday lives. ‘The judges had a hard time choosing the winning photos due to the high standard entries’ says Aoife O’Donoghue, Tyndall’s Outreach Officer. ‘We had over 200 entries and the students came up with some very interesting and creative shots which they believe celebrate creativity and innovation’.
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UL Discovery Sunday Science Family Day
The National Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching and Learning (NCE-MSTL) is running Discovery Sunday Science Family Day Events next Sunday Nov. 8th at the University of Limerick. As part of the UL Festival of Science, Engineering and Technology these events include interactive hands on Science and Maths Activities for all the family. Use Chemistry to make your own bouncing ball, use Physics to build your own hovercraft, or ‘operation’ game, with Biology see how flowers feed, grow your own grass head, and using Maths get down and try out for the maths millionaire or try the Monty Hall Problem?
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Galway Science and Technology Festival 2009
The 12th Galway Science and Technology Festival will take place from 9th-22nd November 2009. The festival is planned by a committee comprised of the region’s leading players in the world of education and industry, who combine to help create an active interest in science and engineering, and all shows and events in the festival are free to schools and to children!
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Discovery 2009
The Discovery event, run in association with Science Week Ireland, aims to encourage young people to take science, technology, engineering and higher level maths to Leaving Cert and beyond, thus ensuring the high-skills pool for industry into the future.
Now in its 5th year, Discovery2009 will run in Cork’s City Hall from the 14-18th November.
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Mayo Science and Technology Festival 2009
The Mayo Science and Technology Festival takes place during Science Week 2009 and is organised by John Magee. The inaugural Mayo Science and Technology Festival in 2007 proved to be an outstanding success.
It is organised with the backing of The Mayo County Development Board, and runs from November 9th to 15th.
