The Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities was proud to host their second annual SciFest@TCPID student exhibition and awards on Thursday May 31st 2018.
The event was held in the Science Gallery in Trinity College Dublin and was attended by a large number of TCPID Business Partners, staff from Trinity College Dublin, as well as the students’ families and guests.
SciFest@TCPID is an initiative that was developed in 2017 in association with Abbott Ireland and SciFest.
The SciFest programme aims to encourage a love of science, technology and maths through active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning and to provide a forum for students at local, regional and national level to present and display their scientific investigations.
The SciFest@TCPID exhibition in 2017 was the first time that the programme had specifically included an exhibition for students with intellectual disabilities.
Abbott Ireland provided a team of mentors to work with the TCPID students on their science projects over a six week period. The Abbott team worked with the TCPID students every week and a fantastic bond developed between the mentors and the students.
The five students who participated in the SciFest programme in 2018 learnt a huge amount from taking part and grew significantly in confidence over the six weeks. Most of them had never studied science subjects in school so it was a big challenge for them to try something new. The SciFest exhibition showed in a small way what is possible when people are given the opportunity to fulfil their true potential.
The students were all presented with awards for ‘Excellence in Science’ by SciFest and Abbott Ireland.