Two 5th Year Ramsgrange Community School students, Katie Franklin and Colleen Waters, recently participated in the 2025 SciFest competition.
SciFest aims to spark a passion for science, technology, engineering, and maths by engaging students in hands-on, collaborative, inquiry-driven learning. It offers a platform for second-level students at local and regional levels to showcase and communicate their scientific projects.
Taking part in SciFest supports students in building interest and excitement around STEM. It enables them to explore areas of the subject that genuinely inspire them, while deepening their understanding through active investigation. Participation also helps students develop the essential skills needed to address future global challenges—such as ensuring food, water, and energy security, driving sustainable economic growth, and improving healthcare and infrastructure.
This year’s competition had over 16,000 students compete with the RCS group submitting their project, Cries til its chronic: An investigation into the potential gender bias in the diagnosis of chronic pain in Ireland.
Under the guidance of their science teacher, Ms. Alanna Roche, the girls began their research in TY and competed at the BT Young Scientist Competition in the RDS last January 2025, where they won a display award for their research. They were strongly encouraged and eager to continue their research and following on from this, in April 2025, they competed in SETU Carlow at the regional SciFest competition where they won best project award. This achievement secured them a place in the SciFest National Final in Marino Conference Centre in Dublin in November 2025. Competing in this stage of the competition were 51 students spanning across 35 different projects.
As part of the competition, the girls competed in the SciFest STEM Outreach Video award which was an opportunity for the SciFest National Finalists to communicate their findings via a two-minute video as well as a chance for the competitors to show off their communication skills within their scientific research.
The girls created their video and shared it online where they received votes from the public. At the final they endured three rounds of judging from nine judges across a variety of different scientific areas. It was a tightly contested contest with the girls holding tight at the top end of the leaderboard throughout the duration of the voting process and securing top position when the voting closed and deservedly winning the award.
The SciFest competition concludes the journey for this project for the girls who over the past year achieved great notoriety and learnings as well as raising important awareness on the topic of chronic pain. The extensive awards won by the girls over the course of their journey were also reflective of their extremely diligent and dedicated hard work.