Wexford’s Young Scientists receive Ministerial merits
STUDENTS FROM across the county attended a ceremony in Johnstown Castle on Friday afternoon to receive certificates from the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Andrew Doyle.
The event was held to celebrate the achievements of local schools in this year’s BT Young Scientists Exhibition.
Two national schools – Murrintown NS and Ghaelscoil Charman also attended the event to view the projects.
The exhibition was an opportunity for the students from the schools to present their projects to the Department and to engage on the issues highlighted in their projects. The projects ranged from farm safety initiatives to environmental projects to help protect water quality in Ireland. It concluded with an awards ceremony during which the Minister presented each of the students and their school with an award to mark their participation in the Young Scientist competition this year.
The Minister also presented each school with a tree, the native species Mountain Ash, from the Coillte nursery to be planted in their school grounds to mark the occasion.
Certificates were presented to students from FCJ Bunclody, Meánscoil Gharman, St Peter’s College, and Loreto Secondary School, as well as a class group from Piercestown NS.
Pierce Ryan from FCJ Bunclody received a certificate for his project ‘Madralert – a methane gas alarm for dogs’. Amy Richards from Loreto Secondary School was Wexford’s second solo competitor with her project ‘Use of Essential Oils for the Control of Bacteria’.
Con O Meachair, Robbie Mac Giolla De, and Connor De Ruit, under the guidance of teacher Elaine Nic Reamoinn also received certificates for their projects, which focused on
gender quotas in the Dáil and the effectiveness of probiotics as a cleaning product and natural biological decomposer in water treatment.
Adam Mullins, Jack Hayden and Daniel McCarthy from St Peter’s College were also commended, along with their teacher Eimear Hennelly. Their project looked at the effects of waterborne contaminants due to climate change and subsequent pollution of plant physiology.
Speaking at the event, the Minister said: ‘My Department was delighted to be engaging with these students from local schools and to provide them with an opportunity to showcase their projects. I have no doubt that each of these students has a bright future ahead of them and will make a very valuable contribution to the Irish agrifood sector in years to come.’