Science Ireland Celebrates Ten Year Anniversary

Science Ireland, originally established as the True Physics Project in 2001, celebrates its tenth anniversary this year.  The project was established to promote the physics curriculum, and in so-doing, assist schools in their bid to retain students of the subject.  Celebrations will commence on the 27th of May with two free primary school science shows in the GMIT, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.  Students will have the opportunity to explore the wonders of science – from musical instruments to amazing rockets!

Established by an ‘Ant and Dec’ of a different variety (Donegal man Anthony Caldwell and Declan Holmes of Newport, County Mayo)  Science Ireland originally created physics shows and online courses as a means of increasing Leaving Certificate interest in the subject.  Changing tack in 2007, the organisation began tailoring their services towards primary school students, and they were pleasantly surprised by the outcome “we discovered that the shows were extremely popular and this resulted in a new direction for us.  We rebranded as Science Ireland as this was a more appropriate name for our new audience” says Declan.

This new direction worked well for Science Ireland, who’ve performed shows to 40,000 students in over 500 schools around the country.  Offering five different types of show (physics, weather, rocket, electricity, magnetism and nanotechnology), Science Ireland have been delighted to note a marked increase in physics study in schools which they have regularly attended.  

In addition to the shows, Science Ireland also developed a five day in-service course on the subject of “Activities in the Science Curriculum”, for teacher training at primary level.  In 2009, the course was redeveloped as an online course with over 120 experiments.

While the primary school focus of Science Ireland is extremely successful, their initial aim has not been forgotten,  says Anthony “we’d set out to develop an online course in physics – and I’m pleased to say that several modules of both Junior and Leaving Certificate have been developed and are available on www.physics.ie”.  Anthony is currently conducting research at Queens University Belfast using the modules to examine student attitudes to physics online.

 Regulars on Irish TV, Anthony and Declan have been featured most recently on the ‘Sattitude’ programme [rocket launching] and on ‘ICE’ [creating lightning].  In 2005, they won the ‘Innovation in Business Award’ at the Mayo Business Awards for their innovative approach to science education.

If you would like more information on Science Ireland, their upcoming anniversary events or other upcoming workshops and shows, please visit www.scienceireland.ie