Pupils' ideas on show as TUS hosts Arcadia Creative Climate Awards
Pupils from St Oliver Plunkett Boys NS in Moate and Athlone Community College were announced as the overall winners of this year's Arcadia Creative Climate Awards, which were held at the TUS Athlone campus on Tuesday, May 9.
The annual competition asks local primary school pupils to come up with ideas to help the environment, while secondary school students are challenged to think about how Athlone might look in 2050 and how we should prepare for the environmental changes ahead.
Seven primary and three secondary schools submitted entries to the competition this year, and students, teachers and parents from the participating schools gathered for last week's event where the projects went on display for the judges.
The Arcadia Creative Climate Awards are run in conjunction with Cllr Frankie Keena's 'Junior Mayor' initiative, which has the central aim of 'giving young people a voice'.
The overall award at secondary school level went to Athlone Community College for the second year running. The school's team consisted of Nikka Campbell (Junior Mayor), Fionnan Mulvey (Student Council President), Ryan Dolan, Sean Brennan, Molly Mulvihill Wilkins, Sam Brooks and Gabriel Keane. They were mentored by teacher David Hughes.
For their project - 'ACC Against Climate Change' - the students created a website, exhibited a display, and were interviewed by the judges.
The team focused on issues ranging from what Athlone will look like into 2050 to transport, tourism and flooding, as well as looking into more global issues such as Black Solider Fly larvae being used for a protein source for humans.
At primary school level, the overall winners, St Oliver Plunkett Boys NS, Moate, created a project entitled 'Guardians For a Greener Earth'. The winning team consisted of Michael Declan O'Donnell, John Mitchell, Conor Dwyer and Joshua Yorke.
The boys demonstrated great knowledge and awareness of recycling and really helped highlight this issue both in school and also at home and in the local community. They presented their project excellently, and their interaction with judges was highly commended.
The boys' teacher, Enda Keena, said: "We would like to sincerely thank Fiachra McLoughlin and all at the Arcadia group, and Cllr Frankie Keena, for organising this competition.
"Their interaction with the schools throughout the year really helped add to the anticipation and prestige of the competition. This culminated with a wonderful day out in TUS where each school demonstrated and presented their projects."
TUS President, Professor Vincent Cunnane, said the university was committed to empowering the next generation of students to become leaders in addressing climate change, biodiversity and sustainability challenges.
The founder of the Junior Mayor initiative, Cllr Keena, thanked each of the schools who participated in the Arcadia Climate Awards event this year.
"It was fantastic to see the level of confidence and depth of knowledge of the students on the subject matter as they explained their respective projects to the judges and members of the public," he said.
"These climate awards would not have taken place only for the marvellous sponsorship received from Fiachra McLoughlin of Arcadia Retail Park. The financial and hands-on support from Fiachra is just fantastic, and he was ably assisted by Katie Gleeson and Morgan Fagg," said Cllr Keena.
In addition to the overall prizes at primary and secondary level, a number of other awards were handed out on the day.
The participating primary schools were: St Mary's NS, St Oliver Plunkett Boys NS, Coosan NS, Milltown NS, Ardnagrath NS, Scoil na gCeithre Máistrí, and Clonbonny NS.
The secondary schools which took part this year were Athlone Community College, Moate Community School, and a first-ever international entry from St Joseph's school in Athlone's twin town of Chateaubriant, France.