Budding scientists impress at Ireland’s biggest science fair
175 minutes for chemistry
Our Dublin-based education coordinator John O’Donoghue reports on our member activities at this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
Enthusiastic Royal Society of Chemistry members were once again involved with the annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition competition, now in its 53rd year, which ran from 12 to 14 January at the RDS arena in Dublin.
This year the competition hosted 550 projects from 229 secondary schools from the Republic and Northern Ireland, alongside over 100 primary science projects displayed at the RDS primary science fair.
The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) was started in 1965 by two physics researchers from University College Dublin, Rev. Dr. Tom Burke and Dr. Tony Scott, who had previously come across the concept of ‘Science Fairs’ while conducting research in New Mexico, US. The pair decided that this type of hands-on science was something that students in Ireland could benefit from. Since those early days in Dublin’s Mansion House, the competition and exhibition has grown to become one of the largest and most successful events of its type in Europe; 375 schools entered 2,190 projects, consisting of 4,591 students in this year’s competition, with only 550 getting the opportunity to impress the judges at the finals in the RDS. Every year over 50,000 students, teachers and the general public descend on the event to ask questions, learn about STEM subjects and have fun with science.
The Royal Society of Chemistry has been actively involved with the BTYSTE for decades, once hosting a special prize for the best chemistry project, as well as a stand for chemistry demonstrations in the main exhibition hall. For the last few years, we have teamed up with BioPharmaChem Ireland to host chemistry experiments, demonstrations and provide information about the educational activities of the Royal Society of Chemistry. This year, I gathered 36 Irish Royal Society of Chemistry members to explain how light interacts with matter, using our Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS) kit and our 2016 Global Experiment on UV beads. Our members volunteered between two and three hours of their time at the stand to demonstrate the experiments and chat with students of all ages, as well as teachers and parents.
This year we shared the stand with Eli Lilly, Cook Medical, University College Dublin ChemSoc and Depuy. At our section of the stand over 1,200 people engaged in our experiments over the course of the three days. We also handed out 2,000 Royal Society of Chemistry pens, 500 periodic tables, 2,000 career booklets, 1,500 fliers about SIAS, and signed up dozens of teachers to the Royal Society of Chemistry Learn Chemistry partnership.
We want to send a massive thank you to our hugely enthusiastic Irish members who gave up their time and travelled from the four corners of Ireland to be with us in the RDS. A massive well done to all of you.
175 minutes for chemistry
As the oldest chemical society in the world, we celebrated our 175th anniversary in 2016. We wanted to mark this milestone by recognising the important contributions our community makes to the chemical sciences. We asked our members and supporters to dedicate 175 minutes to chemistry in 2016 and share their stories with us. We featured these stories throughout the year on our website, in print in RSC News, and on social media using #time4chem.
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