Outstanding Tipperary students top the pile in Waterford

Tipperary students won top awards at the recent SciFest in Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) Arena.

The local one day science fair, aimed at encouraging a love of science in secondary school students, saw more than 400 students from Waterford, Wicklow, Wexford, Tipperary and Kilkenny participate.

With 171 projects on display for the day, two Tipperary schools were recognised for their outstanding projects.

Presentation Secondary School in Clonmel’s Hannah McCabe and Tara Malone won the Medical Devices Award,  which was sponsored by Boston Scientific, for their work titled ‘Using a makey makey and scratch to help people with restricted mobility’.

Presentation’s Caoimhe Woods also won the Junior Project Award,  sponsored by the Irish Science Teachers Association, for her project ‘DIABETeen’.

Caoimhe Woods with the Junior Project Award.

Scoil Mhuire in Carrick-on-Suir’s Karen Murray was awarded the Maths in Science Award, sponsored by SciFest, for her project ‘Gender inequality in GAA’.

Karen Murray with the Maths in Science Award.

SciFest at WIT Arena was coordinated by Calmast, WIT’s STEM Outreach Centre.

Students showcased their projects and  were subsequently judged and ranked by local STEM companies and WIT lecturers from the Schools of Engineering, Science and Health Sciences.

SciFest is an all-inclusive, all-island science initiative which fosters active, collaborative and inquiry-based learning among second-level students.

SciFest is funded primarily by Science Foundation Ireland, Boston Scientific, Intel and Abbott.

Local prizes were sponsored by TEVA, Eirgen, GSK, Bausch and Lomb, MSD, and WIT.