This article is from page 31 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
STUDENTS from St Caimin’s com- munity school Tullavaraga will again be competing with the brightest and best at the 2008 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
3,514 students are represented in the 1,416 projects from 31 of the 32 counties across the island, showing that the interest in the BT Young Sci- entist and Technology Exhibition 1s erowing even stronger.
The aim of the organisers is to at- tract young people to science by making it fun, exciting and acces- sible, not just for the participating
and visiting students, but also for the general public as well.
500 of the projects submitted will qualify to compete in the finals in the RDS, Dublin next January.
The overall winner will be named the BIT Young Scientist(s) of the Year and receive a Waterford Crys- tal trophy together with a cheque for €5,000.
Each category is represented and has entries in junior, intermediate and senior levels.
Speaking at the announcement, Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin TD said, “Every year the BT Young Scientist and Technol-
ogy Exhibition attracts thousands of inquiring minds to submit projects outlining their research and experi- ments. This January, once again, we will see competitors from second level schools throughout the coun- try, as Well as a small number of pri- mary schools participate in this pre- mier science event. This exhibition has served as a Starting point from which many successful careers in science, technology and engineering have been launched. I want to wish all our young scientists the best of luck in the coming months with their projects.”
In total 1,416 projects have entered
next year’s competition with 500 projects expected to take part in the final. This represents an 11 per cent increase on last year’s entries.
The BT Young Scientist and Tech- nology Exhibition will be held in the RDS from January 9 to 12, 2008 and open to the public on January 10, 11 and 12.
Chris Clark, Chief Executive Offic- er, BT Ireland added, ““The key aim of the exhibition is to stimulate, nur- ture and reward those students and schools who have shown a passion for science and technology – subjects that are critical to Ireland’s future as a successful knowledge economy.”