Students from Coláiste Ghobnait on Inis Oírr have secured first prize in the post-primary category at the 2026 ReelLife Science Awards.
Their winning entry, a rap video titled “Céard é Diaibéiteas,” raps about the different types of diabetes through Irish, and earned the school a €1,000 first prize.
The awards were held at University of Galway as part of Science Week and the Galway Science and Technology Festival. The competition drew more than 200 entries, created by 1,000 students at schools across Ireland, covering topics ranging from head-lice and lucid dreaming to Formula 1 cars and fuelling the body.
The prize-winning video was put together by eight second and third year students. According to Galway Bay FM, the post-primary winners list credits science teacher Rebecca Ní Chríocháin with guiding the entry.
The video opens in a classroom, where one girl offers her friend some sweets as they share a desk. The friend declines, saying she is watching her blood sugar levels due to diabetes — prompting the question “Diaibéiteas – céard é sin?”
A funky rap beat then kicks in, with classmates clambering through the classroom windows in dark shades and clutching boomboxes to deliver an entertaining and educational lesson ás Gaeilge.
In the post-primary runners-up places, Transition Year students Yuqi Lu and Audrey Yang of Alexandra College Dublin took second with an animated video on how noise-cancelling headphones work, while Anna Wing Yin Hui, a third-year student at Nord Anglia International School in Dublin, finished third with a hand-drawn animated short on lucid dreaming.
In the primary school category, 26 third-class students from Abbey Primary School in Boyle, Co Roscommon won first prize for “Nitty Gritty Science,” about the lifecycle of headlice. The youth organisation prize went to third year student Arden Oakes of Grow Music in Dundalk, Co Louth, for “How Do We Make Sound?”, a video featuring props including a piano and a pet chicken.
All of the winning videos are available to view on YouTube.
