Northside students celebrate competition success

Dublin People 02 Feb 2020

Students from O’Connell’s Secondary School, Drumcondra, pictured with their teachers and staff from SSE Airtricity and Dublin Zoo.

To celebrate the new arrival of a giraffe, and also Science Week 2019, Dublin Zoo called on schools to challenge themselves by participating in an innovative competition.

Sponsored by SSE Airtricity, ‘The Giraffe Habitat Challenge’ tasked budding young designers to try their hand at creating a new giraffe habitat.

To enter, teachers signed up their students to a one-day programme at Dublin Zoo where they learned from a team of experts including zookeepers, engineers and sustainability experts before settling on their challenge to design a new giraffe habitat.

‘The Giraffe Habitat Challenge’, which took place in November, was specifically designed for 3rd–6th class primary students and 1st to 4th (Transition) year secondary students.

The winners, one primary school entry and one secondary school entry, received an incredible €2,000 off their school’s annual electricity bill.

The runners-up secured a trip to W5 in Belfast for their entire class, with thanks to SSE Airtricity, Ireland’s largest provider of 100 percent green energy and sustainability partner to Dublin Zoo.

It was a very tough competition to judge, as all entries were a very high standard across both primary and secondary level.

O’Connell’s Secondary School in Drumcondra won the second level competition after showing a great understanding of all of the elements required for the project which included Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) behind the giraffe habitat design. Animal needs and sustainability also played important factors that were carefully considered and executed.

For more, visit https://www.dublinzoo.ie/news/giraffe-habitat-challenge-winners/

Upcoming Events:

•SSE Airtricity and Dublin Zoo have two ‘Protect our Planet Weekends’ coming up this year. The ‘Protect Our Planet Weekends’ are a fun-filled, family-friendly interactive learning experience for all ages and teaches simple ways to live a greener lifestyle.

June – Saturday 20 and Sunday 21.

August – Saturday 15 and Sunday 16.