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This year we celebrate the 13th successful year of the internationally respected Galway Science and Technology Festival. Each year the Galway Education Centre is at the forefront in organising and administering all facets of this Festival.
Emphasis is on boosting the interest in Science and Technology education and career choice, in partnership with National Science Week. Carefully structured activities throughout Galway city and county stimulate interest and involvement among Primary and Post Primary students while many local industries (e.g. Medtronic, Boston Scientific and SAP) and other organisations support actively throughout the two week Festival.
Last year 146 Primary schools and 30 Post-Primary schools with a total of 13,000 children from County Galway took an active part in the Festival. These are just a few of the activities: carefully structured science shows in schools and libraries; school visits hosted in the National Aquarium of Ireland, the Galway Education Centre, Station House Theatre in Clifden, Leisureland and N.U.I.G. The showpiece Sunday Exhibition in Leisureland and Galway Bay Hotel brought together an entire cross-section of intriguing science displays and interactive items from both professionals and students. It included exhibits by 10 Primary schools and 4 Post Primary schools from around the county, which astonished and charmed over 16,500 visitors: young and not so young.
The Festival includes a wide range of regional and national competitions: The national finals of the First Lego League have taken place as a major event in the Festival for the last two years and on both occasions the winners have won through both the national competition and the UK and Ireland competition, going on to compete at full international level. last years winners, St Gerald's College, Castlebar, won one of the major prizes at the World Finals in Copenhagen. The National Paper Plane Competition, sponsored by Galway's own International airline, Aer Arann, is another fun evening for students at primary and secondary level.
The 2010 festival is planned for November 8th-21st . Full details of the Festival will be available from September 2010 on the Festival website, www.galwayscience.ie
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