Galway Science & Technology Festival Opens and Explores the Power of Science
The 17th Galway Science and Technology Festival, part of National Science Week, opened on Monday 10th November and will run for two weeks culminating in the hugely popular Festival Exhibition on Sunday 23rd November at NUI Galway.
Funded by main sponsor Medtronic, the Festival aims to increase the uptake and popularity of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects among young people, and will bring over 180 free shows to 35,000 primary and secondary school students over the next two weeks. The Festival will explore and celebrate the ‘Power of Science’ in schools, colleges, research institutes, companies and community centres across Galway City and County.
Children at Primary schools will be immersed in all things science with a fantastic line up of free shows including Origami Workshops learning about Origami structures for use in nano-technology and medical diagnostics, a Lego Education Workshop will introduce robotics to young children, Bug Doctor brings tarantulas and snakes into the classroom, the Science of Sound shows students how to make sound and test how it travels, Wibbly Wobbly Web, Fantastic DNA invloves extracting the DNA from a bananaand Little Cells introduces students to the concept of cells that form our body.
Secondary school shows will feature live experiments in Scientific Sue’s Chemistry Show, True Physics shows students how to launch rockets and and learn about flight pressure, Dr Ken’s Circus reveals the scientific principles used by circus performers using gravity in their stunts, travel on a hovercraft in The Magic of Science with Terence Finnergan and Bend it like Beckham in James Soper’s Science Shows.
NUI Galway will throw open its doors to schools providing educational tours to the Geology, Zoology and Marine Biology and Computer Musuems, the NCBES Roadshow looks at the exciting future of Biomedicine in Ireland, a visit to the School of Maths are running workshops in schools on how to genetically breed a superpet, the 3rd annual THREESIS Competition where researchers battle it out to get to the point in 3-minutes and visits to the Sea Science exhibition presented by NUI Galway's Ryan Institute at Galway City Museum. The Network of Excellence for Functional Biomaterials will also hold workshops with children performing “surgery” to fix heart shaped biscuits with decorations representing biomaterials. The workshops will take place in AC201 on the Arts and Science concourse at 11am, 12pm, 1.30pm and 3pm.
There is something science and technology for everyone at GMIT including Careers in Science – Live Online in the Classroom, Creating Software Apps and Online Market Opportunities, The Ocean and Us introduces students to the Awesome Atlantic in the Marine Resarch Laboratories, Build Your Own Satellite by GMIT’s Civic Engineering, Sustainable Energy goes to schools as part of the Green Schools initiative engaging engineering with the community, and workshops on Hydraulics/Structures/Surveying in the Engineering Labs.
The Marine Institute in Renville, Oranmore is hosting an open day on Thursday 20th November and inviting secondary school students from Galway City and County to visit their facility. On the day there will be exhibits on display, a tour of the site and the opportunity to speak to Engineers regarding careers in marine engineering.
Festival Chairman, Tom Hyland commented, “We are looking forward to a wonderful two week celebration of the Power of Science and invite everyone to join us on our final day Exhibition on Sunday 23rd November at NUI Galway. During the two weeks students the length and breadth of the county will be participating in demonstrations, shows and workshops all geared towards inspiring the students to develop an interest in the STEM subjects.” He added “I would like to thank our main sponsor Medtronic who for the last 13 years has been a sterling sponsor of this event, and also greatly appreciate the support of our partners SFI Discover, Boston Scientific, Cisco, Galway Enterprise Board, NUI Galway, GMIT, Avaya, Hewlett Packard, Fidelity Investments, Creganna, Merit Medical, IDA Ireland, Galway County Council, The Marine Institute, Údarás na Gaeltachta and Enterprise Ireland who all help bring excitement and fun to science and technology for children and families across the city and county.”
The Final Day Exhibition will take place at NUI Galway Campus on Sunday 23rd November and will host over 80 interactive stands and over 25 shows and workshops representing areas in research, education, industry and the environment. For students and families interested in seeing more of the shows and workshops that will be visiting schools, they will have an opportunity to see them on Sunday 23rd at the Festival Exhibition. The shows are free and advance booking is advised due to demand. Up to 70% of the Exhibition shows will be available to book at www.galwayscience.eventbrite.ie on Friday 14th November and the remainder will be available on the Exhibition day.
Programme details available at www.galwayscience.ie and the Festival Exhibition will open from 10am to 6pm on Sunday 23rd November. Bookings can be made at www.galwayscience.eventbrite.com on Friday 14th November. Visit www.scienceweek.ie for details of events nationwide or alternatively organise your own event – check out the ‘Get Involved’ guide www.scienceweek.ie/resources/get-involved/ Connect on Twitter @galwaysciencefe and on www.facebook.com/galwayscience and use the hashtag #SciWk2014 and #GalSci2014 to join the conversation.
ENDS