Awards for fine young scientists
IT was another successful visit to BT Young Scientist Exhibition for Wicklow students last week and some walked away with awards and Highly Commended certificates.
The finalists from throughout the county attended the three-day event in the RDS where they showcased their experiments and research projects to thousands of attendees.
Third year students and cousins Alex Brady and Jack Brady returned to Coláiste Chraobh Abhann with the ABP Food Group Farm Safety Award for their project entitled ‘ The use of a mechanism on the gates of a livestock trailer to decrease farm injuries’.
Jack and Alex went through three rounds of intensive interviewing by the judges, where they were required to explain the creative planning stage of their design, the technical mechanism of how it works, as well as how they see their design being implemented. There was also great interest shown in their exhibit by the media, with the two boys appearing on TV3’s Ireland AM and RTE’s Ear to the Ground. They wish to extend thanks to their teacher Ms Corrigan and all the science department for their support and guidance they showed to the students who submitted projects this year.
At Dominican College Wicklow, Rachel Werner and Catherine Moyseyeva came away with second place in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Junior Group category. Their investigation into ‘ the physics of the trebuchet catapult’ impressed the judges and secured the award for the Wicklow town school.
‘The girls were delighted to meet President Higgins and his wife. The girls got to talk to him about their projects. President Higgins was very impressed with their very interesting and informative overviews of their work,’ said principal Lorraine Mynes. ‘Well done girls on getting accepted to the exhibition with your projects. A huge thank you goes to Mr O’Brien for all his hard work and dedication working with all the students throughout the term.’
East Glendalough School student Donovan Webb achieved the Analog Best Technology Project in the senior category for his project centred on the River Nanny for which he carried out analysis and monitoring of river ecosystems – balancing drinking water use with natural environment in a changing climate’.
Avondale Community College pupils Nathan Delamere and Luke Doyle took third place in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Junior Group for their project ‘A comparison of predicted weather versus actual weather. Is there as much of a difference as people think?’ while Augustin Plaza Reino of Scoil Chonglais took third place in the Technology Senior Individual category for his project about ‘Music through neural networks’.
Projects from three County Wicklow schools were deemed Highly Commended – St Mary’s College, Arklow, Coláiste Bhríde, Carnew and East Glendalough School. It was the second success for Donovan Webb from East Glendalough who was also commended for his River Nanny project.
Isabella Ni Chonaill and Laura Gallagher from Coláiste Bhríde were Highly Commended for their project titled ‘ The Fault in our Stars’ which investigated how accurately zodiac signs predict a persons behaviour and personality type using the Myers Briggs Typing Indicator personality test.
‘ Their project and impressive presentation skills impressed their many judges to receive a certificate of Highly Commended to recognise the high quality of their work. Both pupils enjoyed their experience and hope to return to the competition as competitors in the future,’ said principal Linda Dunne.
Anna Keating and Alaidh Kavanagh from St Mary’s College in Arklow were Highly Commended in the Intermediate section for their Biological and Ecological project which came up with a way of sanitising a gum-shield pitch-side.