St Conleth's Newbridge crowned Bord na Mona climate brains of Kildare 

TY students from St Conleth’s Community College in Newbridge were crowned Climate Brains of Kildare, following last Thursday’s Bord na Mona inter-schools Climate Quiz Challenge. 

After six rounds of questions on everything climate, St Conleth’s defeated Newbridge College and Holy Family School in a closely fought battle. 

This multimedia climate qUIZ event was hosted by Newbridge College in conjunction with Bord na Mona and Cracking-Carbon, a midlands based organisation who promote climate awareness. 

St Conleth’s were represented by Kyla O’Sullivan, Jack Brannigan, Veronica Piwonska and Prudance Achonu.  

Students answered questions on the science and geography of climate change, including questions on the many famous people who have engaged in the climate debate; politicians, personalities and celebrities for example. 

"Our goal’" according to Cracking-Carbon founder Simon Ruddy, ‘is to move climate awareness beyond simply imparting facts and figures on climate change. Cracking-Carbon focuses instead on developing climate awareness initiatives and events that are more engaging, immersive and even fun; creating a more memorable experience that will stick-in-the-minds of students long after the event, thereby lending itself more to cultivating that sense of personal responsibility we will each need to adopt if we are to reverse or even slow down the devastating impacts of climate change. 

"We make the event fun by including lots of hilarious and even bizarre video clips of celebrities and personalities making some ‘unusual’ statements on climate change and then ask participants to name the celebrity, or some other related question. This keeps students laughing and engaged while they answer the serious climate questions."

St Conleth’s will now be placed on Cracking-Carbons national league table, which over the coming 18 months will identify Ireland’s smartest climate school.