“EXPLORING SCIENCE” IN CORK

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On Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th April 150 talented young primary and secondary school students descended on UniversityCollege Cork for the Junior Achievement Scientific Event of the year. The event, entitled "Exploring Science" was organised byJunior Achievement Ireland who worked in partnership with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Pharmachemical Ireland and Centocor to

develop and deliver these innovative programmes of hands-on Science Workshops. Over the course of the event allparticipating students worked hard to complete a series of mind boggling scientific challenges.

During the planning phase of "Exploring Science" an exciting two-day event with a hectic schedule packedwith hands-on workshops full of activities was promised. This objective was certainly achieved!

6th class and 1st year students from six Cork schools had the opportunity to carry out anumber of experiments from a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including

Astronomy, Chemistry, Forensics and Food Science.

The key objective of the event was to provide the young students with an appreciation and greaterunderstanding of the ever-evolving world of Science and to guide students through the huge

array of job opportunities and career options available to them in the world of Science. The workshops weredesigned to be action oriented and the participants were encouraged to experience first hand the realityand incredible diversity of science.

Much of the success of "Exploring Science" must be attributed to the hard work and infectious enthusiasm of tireless businessvolunteers from sponsoring companies. Speaking at the closing ceremony, Lynda Daly Junior Achievement said, "The eventsurpassed all our expectations. It was an enormous success, and from our perspective it was very rewarding to see how wellthe students responded to each of the workshops and activities. We were very fortunate to be able to host the event in suchfantastic surroundings on campus here at UCC – I think this enhanced the experience for all involved”

On completion of the workshops the students were presented with Certificates of Achievement to mark their participation in theday’s events and left the venue with a real thirst for Science! Well done to all involved!

NEWSLINKis sponsored by Hewlett-Packard

Could Junior Achievement programme have such

IMPACT?

“EXPLORING SCIENCE” IN CORK

Rahaf with her class in Scoil Caitriona and their business volunteer

Dermot O’Sullivan, Bank of Ireland.

When my daughter Rahaf brought me a sheet of paper to inform methat Dermot will be arriving to her school, Scoil Caitriona on Baggot Street,Dublin, I thought she, along with her classmates will have fun activities and greattime. A few days later she told me the story of the donut man, how he makesdonuts, sells them to customers and earns his money. She said that she had madedonuts with Dermot in school, and she knows how to make them and how toearn money, but that is some thing that she wouldn't want to do for life. WhenI heard these words coming from a 7 year old, I was seriously surprised.

One day she came home all excited to tell me that she knows what she wants hercareer to be. She wants to start up her own flower shop. She added that she onlyneeds some money to start the business, and she is confident she will make lotsof money since all children will come to her shop to buy flowers. She has allthese plans and ideas pouring out of her head, and she is full of enthusiasm andenergy, I have never seen her like that before. I would never have thought that spending a few hours with a volunteer from Junior Achievement would build such entre preneurial spirit in my child. I personally would like to thank Dermotand those managing the Junior Achievement programmes.

By Isam Khalaf (a parent).

MMiiddlleettoonn CCBBSS WWiinn RRDDSS SSttuuddeenntt IInnnnoovvaattiioonn AAwwaarrddss 22000055!!!!!!MMiiddlleettoonn CCBBSS WWiinn RRDDSS SSttuuddeenntt IInnnnoovvaattiioonn AAwwaarrddss 22000055!!!!!!

Over 3,000 students took part

in the Junior Achievement

Company Programme around

Ireland this year, which enabled them

to enter the RDS Student Innovation Awards

Competition in February 2005. Competition was tough with 70

entries from Dublin, Kildare, Cork, Tipperary, Galway, Sligo,

Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan and Louth. All entering companies

needed to compete at Regional level first with the winners of

each region going forward to the National Final held in the RDS.

The Regional finalists were St.

Dominics Cabra Dublin, Maynooth

Post Primary School, Midleton CBS

Cork, Ursuline College Sligo and Royal

School Cavan. It was CBS Midleton©s ®Open

Forum Production© that scooped the winning prize. The company

®Open Forum Production© produced and sold music CDs of bands in

the local area. The boys will now go forward to the European

Finals, in Oslo, Norway in July 2005. Best of luck

CBS Midleton!

2nd year students Jobstown Community School, Tallaght were honoured by Sile de Valera, Junior Minister of Education and Science, for completing the Economics of Staying in School programme. AndrewSkelton of Vodafone Dublin taught the Economics of Staying in School programme which introduces students tothe benefits of education through a series of activities. One of the activities was a class on budgeting, which studentsthen presented to Minister de Valera at the event in Vodafone.

GE Dublin and Limerick

GESAS volunteer MaireadTierney from Limerick with St. Mary’s NS. girls

Basher Husseinfrom GE Dublinwith Warrenmountsenior infants

Clondalkin Students Issue Motor Tax!

Motor Tax volunteer, Sheena Carroll brought the enthusiastic

4th class from Scoil Aine on a tour of theMotor Tax Office.

Jobstown Students Show

Sile de Valera how toBudget!

GALWAY RECOGNITION EVENTMinister O’Cuiv gets a lesson in Entrepreneurship from Local Students!

Junior Achievement Ireland hosted itsannual Recognition Event in theRadisson SAS on January 24th, celebrating another hugely successfulyear in Galway. Guest of honour,Éamon Ó Cuív, T.D., Minister forCommunity, Rural and GaeltachtAffairs was delighted to preside overthe celebrations. Children fromBrierhill National School and studentsfrom Presentation Secondary Schoolimpressed the Minister with their presentations of the enterprise programmes they had been taughtover the past few months.

Junior Achievement began operatingin Galway in 2002 with just oneschool and this year has more than 20schools and 5,000 students are onboard with 200 business volunteersteaching programmes. Ray Fogarty,Area Manager in the West, said "Thisis a phenomenal year for JuniorAchievement in Galway. We havegrown by over 50% reaching 5,000students. Tonight’s event is to recognise and congratulate all theBusiness Volunteers, School Principalsand Teachers who took part and madethis possible."

Speaking about Junior Achievement theMinister commented, "It's a fantasticaddition to Galway and the country

as a whole. Well done to JuniorAchievement, the companies and the

schools involved".

This project has been funded by the Peace II Programme through the EU,

and part financed by the Irish Government under the National Development Plan 2000-2002.

DONEGAL STUDENTS GO DONEGAL STUDENTS GO GLOBAL...GLOBAL...

Chocolates, candy, crisps and chips are some of the products that Transition Year students from Loreto Community School Milford,Co. Donegal have been discussing with their counterparts in Canada.

The Transition Year Students from the North West of Ireland are participating in the Junior Achievement GLOBE Programme.This dynamic programme teaches the value of International Trade.GLOBE replicates international business by forming a student-run Joint Venture Company, between two schools located in different countries.Together they work together to export and import products.

The students from Donegal have joined forces with final year students from John Cabot Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga,Canada. In April the Irish students and Canadian students met for thefirst time by communicating via Video Conferencing at St. Conal’s Hospital in Letterkenny.

Students from Loreto CommunitySchool in Milford, Co. Donegal.

GMAC Volunteers in MullingarGo Back to SchoolThe 2004/2005 school year saw the commencement of Junior Achievementprogrammes in Mullingar.Thanks to 15 GMAC volunteers, 400 young people participatedin Mullingar

Joanne Hamilton PacifiCare International pictured with 1st year studentsLetterkenny Vocational School.

Maria Ryan PacifiCare International with 3rd ClassLurgybrack National School, and their teacher NicolaDuffy. PacifiCare Business Volunteers, based inLetterkenny, have been very busy over the last fewmonths delivering Junior Achievement programmes inMilford and Convoy as well as Letterkenny.

Junior Junior AchievementAchievementCrossing the BorderCrossing the Border..

The Primary Programme Project works with Young Enterprise Northern Irelandto teach Junior Achievement Programmes in primary schools in the BorderCounties. It aims to promote community relations between young people whilstfostering and developing an entrepreneurial culture and attitude through education and training. The project not only aspires to

promote links between schools and local businesses, but also between schools inNorthern Ireland and schools in the Republic of Ireland. This is done through

bringing schools from both North and South of the Border together for joint events.

This year, several such events have already taken place…..In February, students from Scoil na gCailini (Castleblaney) and St Oliver Plunketts

(Forkhill) travelled to Tyrone Crystal. Both classes recently completed the ‘Our Nation’ programme in whichstudents learn about business plans and production methods. This was a great opportunity for the group to seeat first hand the assembly line production method in operation.

March was a busy month for the Primary Programme with severalCross-Border Events taking place. St Patrick’s NS in Lifford met withtheir link school Ebrington Primary School in Derry, whilst Grange PS(Kilkeel) teamed up with Dun Dealgan NS, The Redeemer Boys(Dundalk) played host to St Patrick’s Primary School (Crossmaglen).

April saw a large successful event take place between St Aengus NS(Bridgend) and their link school Holy Family (Derry). The studentsworked together in mixed groups on the Newspaper class from the ‘Our City’ programme and produced colourful newspapers titled‘School News’. Afterwards, all students enjoyed a game of Ten PinBowling where phone numbers were swapped and friendships made.

Schools in Monaghan, Donegal, Derry, Dundalk, Kilkeel, Ballybay,Sligo and Clones are also benefiting from this Cross-Border PrimaryProgramme.

Also......Sixth class Redeemer Boys and Primary 7 St Patrick’s were treated to a day of science! The Armagh Planetarium put on a greatdisplay for the students with their inflatable dome…full of the starsand planets of our universe! The students then got to work togetherin solving a ‘crime’ in the school by using ink samples and paperchromatography. At the end of it all, the students had an extremelyenjoyable and educational day whilst making new friends.

This project is supported by the EU Programme for Peace & Reconciliation administered by Co-operation Ireland.co-operationireland

the peace-building charity

Junior Achievement Ireland.8 Longford Place, Monkstown, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Tel 01 236 6644, Fax 01 280 3758

CONTACT: Sinead Casey, Education Officer.