Kilkenny College hosted SciFest@School, a one-day STEM fair for first year students, last week.
SciFest takes place at local, regional, national and international level and is designed to be as inclusive and accessible as possible. It was established in 2006 and supports 100 fairs a year with 10,000 students participating nationwide. This was Kilkenny College’s first time hosting the event, with 56 projects on display.
There was a judging team of 12 external volunteers which allowed each group up to four rounds of judging prior to selection of the winners.
The judging panel were very impressed with the standard of entries, the novel nature of some of the ideas such as how temperature effect the height of a rubber ball, and the manner in which the students communicated their research.
The variety of projects ranged from experiments with coke and Mentos, paper planes, Oobleck, and rugby boots to classic science experiments using density, forces and rate of reaction using vinegar and baking soda.
Following the competition, sixth class pupils from the Model School, many of whom are incoming first years in September, had the opportunity to view the projects in the afternoon.
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