November 2015 NUI Galway To Celebrate All Things STEM At The 18th Galway Science and Technology Festival

More than 100 NUI Galway students, academics and researchers will participate in the annual Galway Science and Technology Festival from the 9-22 November, which also coincides with Science Week 2015.

The NUI Galway community will celebrate all things Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), and has put together an exciting programme of events to promote the awareness and engagement of STEM topics, many of them representing strategic research areas in the University. Scientists, engineers and clinicians from NUI Galway are offering both primary and post-primary school roadshows and on-campus events as part of the Festival.

Primary school events include the much sought after Cell Explorers workshop, Fantastic DNA, where children will prepare DNA from bananas, and Little Cells will provide an introduction to cells for the youngest students. New events this year include Exploring Under the Microscope, an introduction to microscopy for primary school students, and Inside the Brain will teach students about the brains chemical messengers by using play dough.

New show, Understanding the World Around Us: Brain Perception and Cell Communication will focus on perception, memory, and how brain cells communicate. The Energy in Our Food: Fuel for Life introduces students to the concept that food is a fuel for the body. The ever popular Kitchen Chemistry: The Amazing world of Chemical Wonders will allow students to become familiar with basic scientific concepts and learn how to reproduce many activities at home.

Secondary school workshops will include post-primary level adapted versions of some of the events already mentioned as well as Engineering for the Human Body from The Centre for Research in Medical Devices (CÚRAM), which explores how doctors, scientists and engineers are working together to design the next generation of 'smart' medical devices.

Visitors to the outdoor classroom at Terryland Forest Park will comprise of a series of hands-on nature activities, ranging from grassland ecology workshops, usage of digital sensor technologies, mammal detective trails, local habitats, conservation and biodiversity to wildflower plantings. Other on-campus events will include tours of the Geology, Marine Biology and Computer Museums.

On Sunday, 22 November, NUI Galway will welcome visitors to its campus for the final day Exhibition, which is the highlight of the Galway Science and Technology Festival. Up to 20,000 visitors are expected to participate in many scientific activities and attend free shows in venues throughout the University.

Visitors will be able to meet NUI Galway staff and students in the main Exhibition area of the Bailey Allen Hall. In particular, visitors will be able to view the GEEC (Galway Energy Efficient Car) and talk to the team of engineering students who brought it from the concept stage to successful competition in the Shell Eco-Marathon in Rotterdam this year. In addition, many interactive shows, presentations and workshops will be available to young and old of all ages and interests.

Hands on workshops will include the Human Brain exhibition offered by the NUI Galway Neuroscience Centre as well as the School of Medicine’s Hi-tech Hospital Ward. Scientists from the School of Chemistry will offer the Kitchen Chemistry interactive show. The Cell EXPLORERS outreach programme from the School of Natural Sciences will give visitors a chance to build a DNA double helix and prepare Fantastic DNA to take home.

In the brand new Little Cells workshop, the youngest children can play visual and tactile games to discover the human body and some of the cells that it is composed of. This year, Cell EXPLORERS is partnering with the Under the Microscope outreach programme from the discipline of Anatomy to present an interactive session introducing young children to microscopes and their use to discover the world around us.

The SNS Next Top Model Organism 2015 will give the public a chance to mmeet with scientists, discover the model organisms they study and choose this year's next top model! Researchers from CÚRAM will run the Engineering for the Human Body workshop to introduce different types of biomaterials, explore how they are made and how they can be used in the human body.

NUI Galway physicists will present the PhotonicSplash event which demonstrates the power of light, as part of the EU-wide GoPhoton! Project, which celebrates the importance of UNESCO International Year of Light 2015.

The Exhibition day will see the ReelLIFE Science video champions crowned, with the winning videos of this national competition on display during special screenings in the ReelLIFE SCIENCE Cinema. NUI Galway will also launch its participation in the international FameLab competition on the day.

Professor Dónal Leech, Dean of the College of Science at NUI Galway said: “NUI Galway research, on how to 'Design Your Future' across science, technology, engineering and mathematics, will be presented during the two week festival to students, teachers, parents and the public. Our research-led teaching, delivered by some of the world’s most influential scientific minds inspires students, staff and industry to deepen our knowledge-base, and generate new technologies. This festival is a key event to foster engagement with science and research, for NUI Galway and the nation. The NUI Galway campus is looking forward to hosting once again the final day Exhibition of the festival.”

The Festival Exhibition shows at NUI Galway will run from 10am-6pm on Sunday, 22 of November. Free tickets to the shows and workshops will be released on Saturday, 14 November at 11am on the Eventbrite website: www.galwayscience.eventbrite.ie, while 30% of the entry tickets will be available to book on the day.

No booking is required to access the main Exhibition area located in the Bailey Allen Hall at NUI Galway.

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