The PExpo, a sporting equivalent of the Young Scientist exhibition will take place online on 5th May.
The event is now in its seventh year and has moved online for one year from its regular home base at Dublin City University.
Developed in association with the Physical Education Association of Ireland, PExpo was first held in 2015 with the aim of developing and understanding of PE, sport, fitness and nutrition among secondary school students.
Since moving from its original home of Trinity Comprehensive Ballymun to nearby DCU in 2018, the number of projects submitted has steadily increased with around 150 projects from over a thousand students submitted in each of the past three years, with many schools submitting multiple entries.
Last year, a five-strong team from the Rosses Community School in Co Donegal took the overall senior award. for their study of “The effect of a daily walk on student’s overall wellbeing”.
Little did we imagine at the time just how prescient that would be.
Sport for Business has been involved with the event over the past number of years and we present an award each year to one project which we believe has the potential to be developed into a business.
The winners in this in 2019 were Éabha Mooney, Robyn Clarke Greene and Ishita Gupta from Luttrellstown Community College in West Dublin for their project looking at how video analysis and comparison can improve performance.
Using the simple camera technology that every teenage hand clings to via their phone, they showed how filming single technical elements of a players performance and comparing it to those of established players can reap real rewards.
Éabha Mooney is a Camogie player herself with school and St Peregrine’s GAA Club. They filmed the technique of her teammate in goals and pointed out elements of how she was setting up on puc outs before comparing it to shots of Cork All Ireland winning captain Áine Murray taken from RTÉ’s coverage of the Liberty Insurance All Ireland Camogie Final.
Simple changes meant that in an admittedly small sample she was able to go from 50% of puc outs won to 90% with greater control and greater accuracy being the key.
This year, instead of presenting their work in person, each entrant is asked to submit a 2 mins 30 secs video of their project to the PExpo organisers before 16 April 2021. Group and individual entries are welcome.
After a panel of expert judges watch this video on 5 May, entrants will answer questions on their project during a 15-minute video call. All projects will be given a specific time slot in advance. Projects are judged not only on content but also on presentation and the ability of the students to explain their subject and defend their conclusions.
Projects are invited from junior and senior students at secondary schools under seven main headings – ICT and Sports Photography, The Power of Sport, Well-Being, Mental and Social, Components of Fitness, Nutrition, Games Development, and Sports Psychology.
With physical education now a Leaving Cert subject, two extra categories were added last year – Leaving Cert PE and Senior Cycle PE.
Supporters of PExpo ’21 include Dublin City Council, South Dublin Sports Partnership, Trinity College Dublin, Healthy Ireland, University of Limerick, Independent Newspapers, Sport for Business and Chillax Teens as well as Trinity Comprehensive School, the Physical Education Association of Ireland and the Irish Primary PE Association.
Sport for Business Partners
