Digital dynamos on display at eircom Junior Spiders

The 2014 eircom Junior Spider Award winners were announced at a ceremony at Google HQ in Dublin today.

Hosted by RTE’s Aidan Power the awards recognise and reward primary and post primary students for the innovative ways they use the internet, especially around website development, school blogs and design.

At primary level The Mega Spiders have three categories Best Project, Best School Blog and Best School Website.

For post primary students the awards are split across two categories, the Giga Spiders rewards students from 1^st to 3^rd year and the Tera Spiders are open to students from 4^th to 6^th year. The Giga and Tera Spiders reward students under the categories: Best Concept, Best Project, Best Web Design and the Suiomh Is Fearr award rewards students for the best site using the Irish language. The Tera Spiders also has the Best App award and the three categories have an overall grand prix winner.

This year’s winners are:

Mega Spider Awards (Primary Schools)

• Best Project: These Boots Are Made For Walking, St Ibars N.S. Clohamon, Wexford

• Best School Blog: St. Peter’s Bray Blog, St. Peter’s Primary, Bray

• Best School Website: Gortskehy N.S., Gortskehy N.S. Mayo

• Grand Prix Winner: St. Peter’s Bray Blog, St. Peter’s Primary, Bray

Giga Spider Awards (Post Primary 1^st – 3^rd year)

• Best Concept: Farm Recorder, St. Colmans College, Mayo
• Best Project: Odyssey Racing F1, Donabate Community College, Dublin
• Best Web Design: Green Kilmihil, St.Michaels Community College, Clare
• Suimoh is Fearr: Tus Gaeilge, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, Limerick
• Grand Prix Winner: Tus Gaeilge, Gaelcholáiste Luimnigh, Limerick

Tera Spider Awards (Post Primary 4^th – 6^th year)

• Best Concept: Radio TY, St Wolstan’s Community School, Celbridge
•  Best Project: The New Story, Coláiste Chiaráin, Limerick
• Best Web Design: Autolaunch Racing, Presentation College, Carlow
•  Suimoh is Fearr: Gaeilge Gaga, St Michael’s Community College, Clare
•  Best App: DavaghNav, Cookstown High School, Tyrone
• Best Digital Game: Spacechaser, Midleton College, Cork
• Grand Prix Winner: Spacechaser, Midleton College, Cork

Lisa Comerford, consumer marketing director, eircom and chairperson of the eircom Junior Spider Awards judging panel said: “What a fantastic bunch of winners we have! Congratulations to each and every school. We had a tremendous response to the awards this year resulting in a 45% increase in entries. Competition was genuinely stiff so it’s an incredible achievement to win an award.

“Again this year we had such a great mix of projects from class blogs to websites on exam tips, music and even F1 racing featured. For the first time we included an award for Best Digital Game – the winners were Midleton College, Cork for their entry Spacechaser. The judges were really impressed with the overall design and functionality of various aspects of the game – in particular the strong use of sound and specific gaming elements such as the teleport function, counter intuitive ship design and they felt it was particularly innovative thinking to equip the enemy ships with an endurance bar. Overall this year the creativity, skill and sheer ingenuity demonstrated by the students has been truly mind blowing.”

For more information on the 2014 eircom Junior Spider Awards and further details on the winning entries log onto www.juniorspiders.ie.