More than 7200 students participated in SciFest 2015

SciFest

www.scifest.ie

2

What is SciFest?SciFest is a series of one day science fairs for

second-level students which take place in:

Schools (SciFest@School)

16 Regional venues - 14 Institutes of Technology, DCU and St Mary’s College Derry

(SciFest@College)

Dublin (National final)

is

3060 projects were exhibited at SciFest 2015 www.scifest.ie

3

Winners at the SciFest national final represent Ireland at the:

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in America in

May.

Christopher Carragher, Our Lady’s School, Castleblaney, Co. Monaghan, overall

winner of SciFest 2014, competed at Intel ISEF 2015 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Christopher was awarded second place in the Computational Biology and

Bioinformatics Category and also had an asteroid named after him

SciFest International

International Environment and Sustainability Project Olympiad (INESPO)

in Amsterdam in May.

Ellen Fitzgerald, Aoife Dolan and Niamh Nyhan, Sacred Heart S.S.,

Clonakilty, Co. Cork won the INESPO Award at SciFest 2014 and

represented Ireland at INESPO 2015 in Amsterdam

Ellen, Aoife and Niamh won a first place gold medal award

Berlin Long Night of Science in June

This award was won in 2014 by Rachel and Shannon Ní Dhonnachadha,

St Vincent’s Secondary School, Dundalk who travelled to Berlin in

June 2015

Could this be you in 2016?

4

SciFest is an exciting way for you to:

Investigate a topic that really interests you

Research and solve a real world problem

Showcase your science, maths or technology project

Talk to experts from academia and industry about

your discoveries

Improve your problem solving, computer, presentation, and research skills

Work with others and make new friends

Compete for more than €20,000 in prizes

See real scientists in action

Visit a college’s laboratories and view the facilities

Learn about the courses available in the college

Enhance your CV

Why enter SciFest?

SciFest is your topic, your project, your achievement. www.scifest.ie

5

Who can enter SciFest?

Age Categories• Junior: 1st Year and 2nd Year• Intermediate: 3rd Year and 4th Year• Senior: 5th Year and 6th Year•

Project Type• Individual or Group - (Max. 3 students per group – all group members must be in

attendance at the exhibition)

Project Categories• Physical Sciences• Life Sciences• Technology

SciFest is open to all second-level students. There is no entry fee.

Don’t be left behind. Get involved today. www.scifest.ie

6

6 easy steps to a successful project

State Problem• Look around, ask questions, identify a problem, state

a hypothesis

Research

• Gather as much information about the topic aspossible

Investigate

• Design and carry out experiments to test the hypothesis; collect data

Analyse• Analyse the data, discuss the findings

Conclude

• Come up with a possible solution to the original problem

• Present findings at SciFest Present

www.scifest.ieEntry to SciFest is free. It’s hard work but worth it.

7

A completed project must contain

2.SUMMARY (included in Report Book)

This is a short description of what your project is about. 

It should be no more than two typed pages in length.

1.PROJECT REPORT BOOK

• Title Page • Introduction • Background Research• Experimental Methods• Results• Conclusions and Recommendations• Acknowledgements• Appendices• References

3. VISUAL DISPLAY

See the SciFest website for lots of useful information - www.scifest.ie

www.scifest.ieDon’t be left behind. Get involved today.

8

Dates to Reminders

Closing date for receipt of entries to SciFest@College 2016 is Friday 11 March

Dates of SciFest@College events are posted on the website as they become available – see SciFest@College/Dates & Contacts

Boston Scientific are sponsoring an award at each of the 15 regional SciFest@College 2016 venues ‘The Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award’

SciFest@College 2016 regional science fairs will take place in each of the 14 Institutes of Technology, St Mary’s College, Derry and also in DCU in Dublin (New regional venue for 2016)

Check out the SciFest website www.scifest.ie today

Watch the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkSVgbl8K6o

Top awards at SciFest 2016 include an all-expenses-paid trip to the USA.