Robots, research and fun are the ingredients for the Lego league. Just add teams of enthusiastic students, writes Lorna Siggins, Western Correspondent
Lights, pom-pom cheerleaders, a disc jockey and the beat of Queen . . . not quite what one would expect at a tense test of technological skill. Why, even the science teachers were boogie-ing as they watched pupils compete in Ireland's first Lego league in Galway earlier this month.
The First Lego League (FLL) is an international programme for children aged between nine and 16 years that combines a practical interactive robotics programme and research presentation with the atmosphere of a sports stadium. It comprises two parts - a robot game and a project - and the robot contest involves designing, building, programming and testing Lego automatons which must perform a series of missions.
Ireland has never participated before, but there's always a first time - and no better venue than Galway, when it was marking its 10th annual science and technology festival this year. Transition Year secondary school students from counties Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Louth and Carlow entered the inaugural event, and four teams from three schools made it to the semi-finals in the Galway Education Centre (GEC).
The four - two from Scoil Ui Mhuiri from Dunleer, Co Louth, one from St Gerald's College, Castlebar, Co Mayo, and one from St Paul's in Oughterard, Co Galway - also had to carry out energy audits of their schools as part of the project, which took a sustainable energy theme. Disc jockey Paul Sleem, alias "The Voice", was master of ceremonies for the robotics play-off between St Paul's and Scoil Ui Mhuiri.
THE OUGHTERARD GROUP won out, but the overall Irish placing was secured by St Gerald's College, Castlebar, represented by Danny Mannion, James McHale, Shane Kavanagh, Jamie Chambers, Dara McTigue, Michael Clune and Charlie Smith. The Mayo students will now travel to Britain for the British-Irish finals, which will determine representation in Atlanta.
Teachers involved, such as Declan Askin of St Gerald's and Tony Reidy from St Paul's, note that the applied control technology skills involved in the Lego league complement the new Leaving Certificate technology curriculum. But then one could say the same about almost every element of Galway's science and technology festival, a decade after its initiation.
It might be the science of aerodynamics reflected in Paul McRory's "Move It" presentation, or the themes of surface tension and density embraced in Steve Allman's bubble show. It could be the work of Newton and Galileo, explored through the spectacular acrobatics of James Soper's "Circus Forces", or the physics of broomsticks and balloons demonstrated in Sue McGrath's "Science2Life".
Either way, as with artists and performers during the last two weeks of July, Galway is compulsory stop-off for Irish and international science educators during the middle two weeks of November. The programme starts with the Marine Institute, third-level institutions and agencies in Salthill's Atlantaquaria, during national science week. It then continues for another six days, culminating in a one-day jamboree, attended by between 16,000 and 20,000 youngsters and their parents.
Bernard Kirk of GEC, who was secretary of the first event back in 1997, says that it arose out of a "chat in the back of a car" with junior science minister and Fianna Fáil Galway East TD Noel Treacy. "He wanted to see something for Galway, which was similar to the flagship science festivals run in Edinburgh and Cheltenham.
"So he pulled together key people from NUI Galway, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, agencies and businesses - and Galway County and City Enterprise Board pledged £5,000 in seed capital. I remember our first programme was all of four pages, and we had mixed attendance at our lectures. But that first family day in Leisureland pulled in 10,000 people - we couldn't believe it," Kirk remembers.
"WE HAD CHOSEN the week after the national event, hoping we might get some of the travelling science educators to stay on in Ireland and come over to us. We were fortunate in having direct access to schools," Kirk says, as the GEC is involved in teacher training. Boston Scientific and Ulster Bank were early sponsors; the lead support is now provided by Medtronic, the Galway-based medical technology company, with the Discover Science and Engineering programme, managed by Forfás.
Among the early participants were the Armagh planetarium's stardome and the Scottish MadLab electronics workshop. Both are an integral part of a broader programme, co-ordinated by Simon Lenihan, which ranges from mathematics roadshows to dolphin tracking to rocket propulsion. The Rude Mechanicals team of art teachers from the English border who nurture the engineering genius within are marking their retirement in Galway this year.
"We are the largest and longest-running event of this type now in Ireland, with up to 70 per cent of schools in Galway city and county involved," Richie Byrne, current secretary says. "Fortunately, we have a brilliant voluntary committee, and we have sponsors who are prepared to take the long view, and start with investing in eight-year-olds."