Students from Knockanean National School in Ennis took a runners-up award at the recent Intel Mini Scientist Grand Final.
Students from across Ireland took part in the Grand Final, an event which was the culmination of a nationwide competition which has been running since September 2019.
The Intel Mini Scientist, which is now in its 13th year, gives primary school students from 4th, 5th and 6th class, the chance to explore science through project based learning and exhibitions.
The first phase of the program involves students participating at local level exhibitions where Intel judges visit the participating schools, choosing two winning projects in each.
The second phase saw each of these winning projects take part in the Mini Scientist Regional Finals which were hosted throughout December in Leixlip, Shannon and Cork.
The 2019 / 2020 initiative was another exciting year for the Mini Scientist competition with 7,200 students from 105 schools in 18 counties across Ireland taking part in the Grand Final event. This year there were almost 2,400 projects exhibited as part of the Mini Scientist competition and the Grand Final brought together the top 24 projects from across the country.
At the Grand Final, which was held in the Aula Maxima at Maynooth University, the participants exhibited their projects for a panel of judges, which was made up from Intel employees along with variety of invited guests from across the world of science and engineering, who each had the difficult task of choosing the winning projects from the very creative variety. Each of the projects included visual displays, projects books and practical experiments based on a scientific area aligned with the national primary science curriculum.
The Grand Final was filled with innovative and imaginative projects, put together through months of hard work and the judges, after a very difficult task of deliberation, selected their winning projects;
Participating Clare schools at the Grand Final;
Bee Ware – Knockanean National School, Knockanean, Ennis
The Disposable Truth – St. Finnachta’s NS Sixmilebridge
How can seaweed help the body? – Carrigaholt National School, Carrigaholt
Solar Panelists – Liscannor N.S, Liscannor
Air Change – Clarecastle National School, Clarecastle
