The Athena Award
Studying the Ancient World is about much more than just a interest - it is about learning lessons. Ancient Greece and Rome - with all the successes and failures - have always been an inspiration for revolution and change in our society.
The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals are the current plan for developing better societies and a better future. We encourage students to find inspiration from the Ancient Civilizations and learn those lessons by connecting them to one or more of the SDGs. Below are the winners and finalists for this competition.
The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals are the current plan for developing better societies and a better future. We encourage students to find inspiration from the Ancient Civilizations and learn those lessons by connecting them to one or more of the SDGs. Below are the winners and finalists for this competition.
Our Winner!
Our winner for this years Athena Award, and the Trophy, is Éabha Daffy from Sligo for her 'Neptune Project'. Éabha combined her love of mythology and art to create a Recycling Box - depicting Neptune Protecting the life of the Sea - to remind people to recycle and keep their communities clean. She also did some clean-up walks along her local coastline in Strandhill, Sligo. She showed creativity, inspiration from the lessons of the Ancient World, and that she is an active citizen bettering our communities.
Our Silver Medalists
We had two Silver Medalists for this category. The first group of Silver Medalists are Kate O' Conner, Alisha May Maher, Anne Pidgeon, and Fionnán Murray from Tullamore for their project 'Education wasn't built in a day'. This wonderful project explored the history of education itself - connecting the history of Roman education to SDG 4 Quality Education.
Our second Silver Medalists are Orla Brennan and Lauren O' Donoghue for their project 'The Greek Gods and the SDGS'. They made a very clever presentation connecting a range of Greek Gods to Sustainable Development. Exploring the practical role each of these gods played in the lives of the Ancient Greeks. Such as how the god Hephaestus played a role in infrastructure (Goal 9) or Apollo played a role in good health (Goal 3).
Our Bronze Medalists
We had three Bronze Medalists. Our first is a fascinating project by Riona McAuliffe from Tullamore called 'Wildfires: Then and Now'. This fascinating project explores the dangers fires posed in the Ancient Rome as a city and how the Native Americans used fire to control agriculture - looking at the positives and negatives in the ancient world. She connects this to the SDG 13 Climate Action and reminds us of the dangers fires pose for us today.
Our second Bronze Medalist is Soairse Aherne Gray for her project 'Ancient Pottery' Saoirse having recreated some Ancient Greek pottery using sustainable means connecting her pottery making to Goal 13 - Climate Action. Her project highlights the importance of pottery to the Ancient Greeks but also the importance of Sustainable productivity for a healthy environment.
Our third Bronze Medalist is Ross McPartlin for his project 'Clean water, Food, and Gender Equality' in Ancient Greece. This looks at a range of issues that faced the Ancient Greeks considering how clean was their water? how did they treat gender issues? how sustainable was their food?
