Over 95,000 people take part in Science Week Ireland 2007
Over 95,000 people are estimated to have taken part in Science Week Ireland 2007. Edelman Dublin worked with Discover Science and Engineering, the organisers of Science Week, to help promote the nationwide initiative and here’s some of the fruits of our labour.
Science Week Ireland 2007 was officially launched by Mary Hanafin TD, Minister for Education, in City Hall. The theme for this year’s Science Week was ‘Surrounded By Science’ and the aim was to illustrate how science plays an important role in our everyday lives. The stars of the launch event were The Physical Jerks, a UK B-Boy crew, who illustrated the science behind breakdancing with the aid of Dr. Dominic Zerulla. a physics professor from UCD. The event led to national coverage in all the broadsheets and on RTE News and set the standard for the week to come.
The Physical Jerks illustrate the science behind breakdancing
RTE at the launch of Science Week Ireland 2007
Science Week Ireland 2007 consisted of 400 events which took place across the country thanks to the efforts of regional partners and volunteers eager to promote science. The programme of events set out to illustrate that behind the everyday objects in our lives is a great inventor, scientist or engineer. Together with Discover Science and Engineering and WITS, we helped organise the Science Week Lecture Series.
The Lecture Series featured Craig Johnston, inventor of the Adidas Predator; Joe Edwards Jr, a former NASA astronaut; a panel discussion on the Science behind the Cosmetics Industry; and Dr Sheila Willis, Director of the Forensics Science Laboratory. The lectures, which were free to the public, were a tremendous success with all of them being booked out prior to Science Week and garnering a lot of media interest. For those who were unable to attend, all of the lectures are available to view online.
Craig Johnston illustrates the physics behind the Soccer ball
Leo Enright interviews Joe Edwards Jr
In addition to our standard media relations and event management efforts, we also helped the Science Week organisers engage with Irish bloggers to talk about specific topics during the week. A blog competition was held and here are the winning entries for each of the topics:
• What was your favourite invention from your childhood? - Kevin Breathnach
• What invention would you most like to see in the future - Brian from atrier.com
• What is the next gadget you plan to buy? - Pedro Monscooch
• What was the best invention of 2007? - Poetbloggs
• What invention helps you most with your working life - Johnny Keyes
Technorati Tags: Edelman, PR, Public Relations, Science Week
December 11th, 2007 at 2:38 am
I have slight issue with things like science week, and the message they send out to children. Don’t get me wrong, the talks and activities etc tend to be very informative and fascinating, however they always paint a very romantic view of a career in science.
All we ever teach our kids up until late into secondary school is that science is FUN, think of all the explosions we can make, and funny chemicals we can mix together… the truth of pursuing science into college is completely different.
I just think its wrong to promote science as something its not, you will attract people who have signed up to work on the latest adidas boot etc, whereas this is not exactly the common science job
December 14th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
On the other hand, the objective of Science Week is to illustrate to the public the role that science plays behind our everyday lives rather than try to develop a generation of soccer boot developers.
Students thinking of studying science of third level often struggle to see what careers are open to them after university. Study law and you become a laywer. Study medicine and you become a doctor. Study science and you become…a scientist? What exactly does a scientist do though? The likes of Craig Johnston, etc can illustrate the application of science.