Clonakilty Community College Winners of Munster Regional Final Debating Science issues 2012
Clonakilty Community College Winners of the 2012 Munster Regional Final of Debating Science Issues, Clonakilty Community College are the winners of the 2012 Munster Regional Final of Debating Science Issues, a schools science debating competition, which took place in University College Cork, recently.
Debaters were challenged by judges, fellow students, teachers and audience members to argue the motion: “This house proposes that the potential benefits of using embryonic stem cells to develop new medical treatments mean we have a moral obligation to support this type of research”. On the day, the Clonakilty team, Conor Ryan (team Captain) and Philip Pilot, fought off competition from a brave Colaiste Mhuire, Buttevant, team Bethany Cushin (team Captain) and Seanin O’Riordan.
Debating Science Issues is a national Science Debating Competition co-ordinated by research and discovery centres on the island of Ireland and is funded by the Wellcome Trust. The competition encourages young people to engage in debate on the cultural, societal and ethical implications of advances in biomedical science. Debates in the Munster region are being co-ordinated by the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC) and Cork Institute of Technology. Munster schools taking part in the competition initially received 3hour workshops for a group of 10-12 students to facilitate a discussion forum on the ethical issues raised by either Genetically Modified Food (delivered by the APC) or Health & Self-testing (delivered by CIT). Schools teams then debate a motion related to the initial workshop in the regional heats. From there, the debating motions are circulated so that students debate on an array of controversial topical issues including stem cell research, genetically modified food, health and self testing, nanotechnology, vaccination, and animal testing.
The winning team from Clonakilty Community College will travel to the national finals at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin on 19th April 2012.
