(From left) Conor Elliot, Shane Kelly, Sorcha Whyte, Alice O'Donnell and John Ugwu from St Enda's College, Galway, directing a nature hunt in NUI Galway. Photo by Iain Shaw
A team of staff and students from NUI Galway have devised a science communication video competition to encourage primary and secondary school students to engage with science in a fun way and develop their analytical, creative and communication skills while they’re at it.
ReelLife Science officially launched on Monday with €1,000 worth of prizes on offer. The competition winners will also be invited to attend the Galway Science and Technology Festival at NUI Galway in November, where they’ll get to see their video on display for the general public.
The winning videos will also be showcased on the competition website, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Connecting scientists with students
The idea for ReelLife Science comes from Dr Enda O’Connell, who won the inaugural I’m a Scientist, Get Me Out of Here Ireland competition in November last year. This website connects students with real-life working scientists and lets them ask questions about their research. Students then vote for their favourite scientists until only one winner remains.
Through his win, O’Connell secured funding for a science communication project that turned into ReelLife Science. Additional funding then came from the NUI Galway Students’ Union Explore Innovation Initiative and the College of Science.
Students are invited to create short videos of one to three minutes in length, which will be judged by a panel of internationally recognised scientists – including Prof Rhodri Ceredig from REMEDI in NUI Galway and Prof Andrea Brand of the Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK.
The competition is open to all primary and secondary schools in Co Galway and 28 that participated in the I’m a Scientist competition last year. The closing date for submissions is Friday, 25 October.
