There was great success for a number of Laois schools at the new LOETB STEAM showcase event in Portlaoise College recently, when the work of the students across a number of areas was recognised.
The STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Maths) showcase brought together the nine LOETB secondary schools in Laois and Offaly to show off some of the work they created as part of this new programme, and in some cases, bring home substantial prizes – sponsored by Laois and Offaly County Councils.
The LOETB STEAM Programme, a new partnership project between LOETB, and Laois and Offaly County Councils, saw the nine LOETB schools provided with €10,000 of equipment, training and support each, in the areas of coding and robotics (LEGO League and Vex Robotics), as well as podcasting and design (through Minecraft.)
These four strands of the programme, targeted specifically at Junior Cycle students, were accompanied by four matching competitions, three of which were settled at the showcase event in Portlaoise College.
All the team’s entries were shown on the big screen by MC Seanie Morris, before the overall winners and runners-up in each area were announced.
Highlights included the ‘i-walk’ podcasting competition where students created podcast tours of their localities, while the Minecraft competition saw students recreating their communities in an accessible and sustainable way.
Clonaslee College won the prize for the Best Studio Brand, for their ‘Live from The Principal’s Office’ Studio.
Dunamase College took top honours in the overall Podcast competition for their brilliant ‘Dunamase Diaries’ podcast, with Portlaoise College and Tullamore College as worthy runners-up.
Meanwhile, Portlaoise College’s extraordinary reimagining of their town won the Minecraft strand of the programme, with CNC KIlcormac and Dunamase College close behind as runners-up.
In each case the overall winning school won €1000 of STEAM equipment for their school and €500 of vouchers for the team themselves, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Laois and Offaly County Councils.
The Minecraft winners (Portlaoise College) also won a trip for their whole STEAM Club to Microsoft Dream Space in Dublin, thanks to the partnership with Microsoft in the Minecraft strand of the programme.
Banagher College were the overall winners in the Vex Robotics Competition, with St. Fergal’s Rathdowney winning the Design Prize and Dunamase College scooping the Teamwork Prize.
Tullamore College had previously emerged victorious in the First LEGO League robotics and coding strand of the competition, which took place in the LOETB FET Hub in February.
A number of representatives of the partners behind this new innovative project spoke at the event.
Director of Schools for LOETB, Linda Tynan, spoke about the amazing work presented by the students and described how so many aspects of the project were informed by the core values of LOETB: Care, Community, Equality, Respect and Excellence in Education.
LOETB Chief Executive, Joe Cunningham, praised all involved in the project, commenting particularly on the success of the partnership between the three organisations and the huge benefits that resulted for the young people involved.
Offaly County Council Chief Executive, Ann-Marie Delaney, commended all involved and referenced the ability of projects of this kind to be transformative for the communities involved in the long term.
Director of Services at Laois County Council, Angela McEvoy, spoke of how pleased Laois County Council were to be involved in a project of this kind, one that was making such an impact with the young people of our region.
Check out some great pictures below:
