Young Scientist off to Africa

Thanks to significant input from Ireland a Young Scientist exhibition takes place next year in Tanzania, writes DICK AHLSTROM, Science Editor

EVEN AS MOST of us begin hunkering down to enjoy the holiday season, many students up and down the country will be in a panic. These will be the ones struggling to complete projects for entry to next month’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

There is always a last-minute rush to finalise data, finish displays and get the whole thing pulled together, but the students always enjoy the buzz and will have a great time when the exhibition begins.

Now this buzz and excitement is about to be replicated abroad. Like all good ideas the Young Scientist exhibition has been copied and a similar event will take place next October in Tanzania.

A number of groups and individuals with an interest in supporting Tanzania came together with the idea of attempting to transplant the event to that country, explains Dr Tony Scott who co-founded the exhibition with Fr Tom Burke in 1965.

Last January Dr Scott was asked to meet representatives from Tanzania, and the NUI Maynooth-based body Combat Diseases of Poverty Consortium. The meeting also included the Irish ambassador to the country and also people from the Pearson Foundation supported by the international educational and publishing house, Pearson.

“They said they would be interested in sponsoring a similar event and asked could they do it in Tanzania,” Dr Scott says.

Once cleared by the Young Scientist board a collaboration started with the event’s methods and structure – refined over its 48-year history – being modified to suit the educational system in Tanzania.

Funding for the effort came from Pearson’s but also from Irish Aid, the Government’s programme of assistance to developing countries based in the Department of Foreign Affairs. “We also have to acknowledge the support of the Irish ambassador in Tanzania, Lorcan Fullam,” Dr Scott says.

Maynooth’s consortium is an initiative funded by Irish Aid and the Higher Education Authority. It seeks to build educational and research capacities for combating diseases of poverty and it already had a presence in Tanzania.

The meeting of minds and resources resulted in Young Scientists Tanzania, formally launched last month in Dar es Salaam by the country’s minister of communication, science and technology Prof Makame Mbarawa and by minister of education and vocational training Dr Shukuru Jumanne Kawambwa.

Young Scientist Tanzania became part of the celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of its independence. If the event has the same kind of impact there that is has had here then good things will flow from the venture.

The Young Scientist exhibition is a showcase for the skills and creativity of students here and these skills are in turn taken on to an international level. Winners of the competition go to the European young scientist competition or to a major science fair in the US.

In both cases the young Irish students seem to excel, frequently winning top prizes. The European prize this year went to a student from Castleknock College, Dublin, Alexander Amini, 16, who beat competitors from 37 countries with a project that uses computer technology to analyse a person’s tennis swing.

Students in Tanzania will now be hoping for similar success, says Dr Scott. “They are hoping to get 100 participants and have started going around the country and various cities, going to the schools to promote the idea,” he says.

The projects that are selected will go forward to the exhibition to be held next year (2012) at the Aga Khan Diamond Jubilee Hall in Dar es Salaam in October.

“I think it is a testament to the success we have had in Ireland and it means they can make use of the experience we have had over the years,” Dr Scott says.

Science was an “important instrument” for improving Tanzanian society and the economy, the science minister Prof Mbarawa said at the launch of Young Scientists Tanzania. He described it as a “truly innovative and transformational approach to developing a science culture in our country”.

The event would harness the curiosity in the country’s secondary school students, said Dr Kawambwa, the country’s education minister. The government’s goal was to strengthen education in the sciences and Young Scientists Tanzania would help link science and technology to the fight against poverty, he said.