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EirGrid’s partnership with SciFest proving to be a winning formula

Participation in SciFest helps students to develop an interest in and enthusiasm for STEM

EirGrid's Charlotte Nolan-Browne and Ciarán D'arcy with the winners of the EirGrid Climate and Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future Award, Freyja Cleary, (left), Kateryna Skorokhod and Clementine van Steenberge, all of Loreto Abbey Dalkey. Photograph: Orla Murray/Coalesce

Thu Jun 29 2023 - 05:00

EirGrid is leading the secure transition of the electricity grid to low carbon, renewable energy. The operator and developer of the electricity grid has been tasked with getting the grid ready so that 80 per cent of Ireland’s energy can come from renewable sources by 2030. For this to happen EirGrid is actively engaging in meaningful dialogue with communities and stakeholders across Ireland.

“Part of this engagement involves renewing and revitalising existing alliances and developing new ones,” says EirGrid chief strategy officer Martin Corrigan.

In 2021 EirGrid commenced its partnership with SciFest, whcih was set up to encourage an interest in, and love of, the STEM (science, technology, engineering, maths) subjects. It promotes STEM education by providing a forum for students to present and display their scientific investigations at local, regional and national level through a series of one-day STEM fairs for second-level students.

Now in its 18th year, SciFest has gone from one fair and 176 students to an expanded programme which sees over 100 fairs taking place across the island, and over 10,000 students participating annually.

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Participation in SciFest helps students to develop an interest in and enthusiasm for STEM. It allows them to learn while pursuing an aspect of the subject in which they have a particular interest. It also encourages the development of the skill sets that are required to address future global concerns of food, water and energy security.

Following a successful inaugural year of the partnership in 2022, which saw over 25 projects in schools across the country winning EirGrid Climate and Delivering a Cleaner Energy Future awards, the partnership has now been extended to the SciFest@College programme, and the SciFest National Final.

The SciFest@College programme sees SciFest fairs being hosted by third-level institutions across the country and affords students the opportunity to visit a college, view the facilities and get information on the various STEM courses available. Best Project Award winners and a number of runner-up award winners from each SciFest@College fair are invited to participate in a national SciFest STEM fair. The projects are evaluated by an expert panel of judges from academia, enterprise and government. Each of the exhibitors is presented with an Excellence in STEM award in recognition of their success at the regional fairs.

The partnership has proved very successful, with regional fairs taking place at 15 third-level colleges and St Mary’s College in Derry in April and May this year, in addition to second-level schools hosting their own fairs.

Corrigan explains that the EirGrid award is presented to the secondary school students who design a creative, innovative approach to utilising energy from clean resources. “Leading on sustainability and decarbonisation is central to our strategy,” he adds. “By extending this partnership with SciFest we wanted to continue to provide a space for second-level students to explore and develop their ideas for a cleaner energy future as we work to transition to low carbon, renewable energy.”

Minister for Education Norma Foley noted the programme’s work in empowering many young people to actively engage with important issues like climate change at the launch of this year’s SciFest programme.

Climate change is very much a focus of the EirGrid partnership, says Corrigan. “We are excited to once again partner with SciFest to include the regional fairs and national final. SciFest plays an important role in encouraging students to investigate the causes and impacts of climate change, and in providing them with the skills and motivation to seek solutions. Our extended partnership will encourage increasing numbers of students to address the challenges posed by climate change.

“Being locally and regionally based, open to all and free to enter, SciFest is uniquely diverse, inclusive and accessible. It makes it possible for every young person, whatever their background, circumstances or intellectual ability, to experience the excitement of participating in a STEM fair. This participation encourages independent learning and introduces students to the myriad of opportunities available to a person with a STEM qualification.”

A selection of winners throughout the year will go forward to compete at the prestigious SciFest National Final in November. Last year’s final was held in the Marino Conference Centre in Dublin where Liam Waldron, Luke O’Sullivan, and Rachel Griffin, sixth year students from Killarney Community College, Co Kerry, were named SciFest STEM Champions 2022 for their project, A Group Theoretic Approach to Pythagoras’ Theorem.

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