Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Two schools stand out in the exhibition which has been running for 50 years. It started in Albuquerque in New Mexico where two lecturers from UCD saw a high school science fair and brought the idea back here. Synge Street, a famous school in Dublin’s inner city is in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, DEIS, space and has a cohort of students from new immigrant groups or families in that area. As Dublin suburbanised many people whose parents went to Synge Street now go to schools such as Drimnagh Castle. The sole factor behind that and the current Olympic star, Kinsale Community School, is the leadership of the science teacher.

This work is outside the curriculum but it does mobilise enormous energy. Two years ago I met a teacher in the Cork region who had for the first time brought a team from her school to the exhibition. There were 2,000 entrants and 500 teams got into the showcase in the RDS. The teacher was a graduate of Kinsale Community School. She became a science teacher and carried the same culture into her new school.