The 2021 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition is kicking-off (virtually) today. Over 1,000 students from across the island of Ireland will take part in the first ever virtual event as it launches this morning.
Day one, Wednesday, January 6th:
SSPC are delighted to be a part of the 57th exhibition and the first ever to take place online. Day one, Wednesday, January 6th included the SSPC Chemical Demonstration Workshop in the BTYSE teacher’s zone. This workshop takes participants through some key chemistry demonstrations virtually, answer all your questions and provide an overview of health and safety considerations as well as additional ideas and resources for pupils to carry out their own safe demonstrations at home! Key aspects of the workshop include safety in chemical demonstrations, relevance to the curriculum and inquiry-based approaches to enthuse and engage students.
SSPC-iCRAG launched the National Crystal Growing Competition, the goal is for students to grow a single crystal using any of the materials listed in the competition pack. Come and meet Dr Simon Lawrence, Shan Huang, UCC and Elspeth Wallace, iCRAG who will introduce all teachers to the competition. Full details here.
There’s lots of prizes with 50 SSPC Lab Boxes up for grabs for teachers & schools highlighting how germs can spread and how exactly handwashing can mitigate the spread. Four winners of the educators excellence awards will get 5 lab boxes each for their school, and a further 30 teachers can win boxes through participation in the teacher zone.
SSPC convened a panel on Molecules to Medicines: Making vaccines during a global pandemic moderated by Dr Sarah Hayes with Prof. Luke O’Neill taking charge and insights offered by SSPC’s Prof. Abina Crean, UCC, Dr Sarah Hudson, Bernal, University of Limerick, Dr Anne Moore, UCC and Dr Piotr Kowalski, APC, UCC.
Day two, Thursday, January 7th:
On Thursday, January 7th SSPC host their Dissolution Medicines Workshop with Dr Sarah Hayes, Dr Oisin Kavanagh, UL and Assoc. Prof. Deirdre D’Arcy, Trinity College Dublin. Participants can explore some basic biological, physical and chemical principles to understand why how we formulate medicine is important.
Finally, in the exhibition hall, at 4pm, you can catch SSPC Co-Director Prof. Mike Zaworotko in conversation with former BTYS winner Émer Hickey on Why crystals will save the world and how Mike’s research is working to solve global environmental problems.
You can view the full schedule once registered through this link: https://portal.btyoungscientist.com/
