2010 press releases
Posted 27 April 2010
Project which Measured Magnetic Field of Nintendo DS Wins SciFest 2010 at AIT
A project which measured the magnetic field generated by a Nintendo DS and compared the findings to international safety standards has won the SciFest competition at Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT).
Frank O’Meara-Haslam, Darragh McConaghy and Graham Regan, fifth year students at St Mary’s Secondary School, Edenderry, Co Offaly won the Intel Best Project Award at SciFest with their research entitled ‘Man, machinery and fields’.
The students used a sensor to test the magnetic fields generated around a number of devices, including the Nintendo DS, as well as various laptops. They then correlated their findings with EU and World Health Organisation (WHO) safety regulations.
According to the judges, what impressed most was the quality of the scientific work the students displayed. The novel applied nature of their sensor, as well as their sense of teamwork showed a real aptitude in tackling a scientific question, which is the bedrock of scientific research, the judges said.
The Edenderry students also won the Discover Sensors Award and received first place in the Senior Category. St Mary’s teacher, Mary Farrell, said that the students “really enjoyed the research project. It brought this area of physics to life for them.”
Other prizes awarded included the Abbott Runner-Up Best Project Award, won by Christina Galvin, Deirdre Kilroy and Grainne Downey from St Joseph’s Secondary School, Summerhill for their project ‘An investigation into recolonisation of our local bogs’. The BT Best Communicator Award went to Mary Nevin, Coláiste Naomh Cormac, Kilcormac for ‘Do animals have a sixth sense?’
Dr Don Faller, Head of the Department of Life and Physical Science at AIT, congratulated all of the participants and their teachers. “There has been a real buzz about science here today, the students are genuinely excited about their research and discoveries,” he said. “We are delighted at AIT to support SciFest and to make our resources available to schools throughout the region to host the event. Science offers the prospect of exciting, rewarding careers; our graduates over four decades are testament to that. Hopefully SciFest will energise a new generation of scientists to follow in their steps.”
Sheila Porter, national coordinator of the competition said: “SciFest is a fun and exciting way to encourage an interest in science at school level, providing not only an occasion to celebrate achievement and a job well done, but also an opportunity to encourage active and collaborative learning. This helps stimulate students’ interest in science and enables then to apply scientific concepts to real-life scenarios.
“SciFest continues to go from strength to strength with a record number of entries this year. The rapid increase in participation in the competition is a clear indication of the interest and enthusiasm among students and teachers in the investigative approach to teaching and learning science. I would like to thank all of our partners including Intel, Discover Science and Engineering, BT, Dairymaster, Abbott Ireland and all the institutes of technology; without their support, none of this would be possible,” Ms Porter added.
Peter Brabazon, Programme Director, Discover Science and Engineering, said: “It is exciting to see the creativity and enthusiasm for science among Irish second-level students at SciFest 2010. The competition epitomises the skills we seek to instil in students across the country in terms of collaborative learning and critical thinking. It is also an effective model linking education and industry, with the participation of AIT and the support of Intel and other sponsors.”
SciFest is a national festival of science organised regionally in collaboration with the institutes of technology and is open to all second level students. Athlone hosted the largest staging of the competition in the country, with 170 projects from 24 schools in counties Westmeath, Galway, Roscommon, Longford, Offaly, Cavan and Mayo participating. The competition is jointly funded by Intel and Discover Science and Engineering as project partners.
The inaugural SciFest was held in the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, Dublin in 2006 and was launched nationwide in September 2007. Nine of the institutes of technology hosted SciFest fairs in 2008 and in 2009 all fourteen institutes hosted a SciFest fair, reflecting the commitment of the institutes of technology to the support and promotion of science education. Also in 2009 the first SciFest exhibition in Northern Ireland was held in the Millennium Forum in Derry. In total 1,980 students from 162 schools exhibited 836 projects nationwide in SciFest 2009. This represented an increase of almost 25 per cent in the number of students participating compared with the previous year.
Further information about the event is available online at www.scifest.ie and www.ait.ie/scifest.
