The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
STUDENTS from Clare took home six prizes from the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2022.
Anna Mae O’Driscoll from Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna and the team of James Blackwell and Oisin Coughlan from Ennistymon CBS both registered double successes.
Oisin Jackson from Mary Immaculate and the team of Anna Browne, Emma Cantillon and Gemma Hannon from Colaiste Muire Ennis were also awarded prizes.
Anna Mae won two awards for her project entitled “Does the Limestone in the Burren Keep it as Warm as People Say?”.
In this project, she was investigating if the heat holding ability of the Burren limestone is as good as people think it is.
For her research she was third in in the Junior Individual Chemical, Physical and Mathematical sciences category.
She also won the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) award. This is the second year in a row that this award has come to Lisdoonvarna.
Oisín was awarded a highly commended for his project entitled “An investigation into the effect of wind on tree shape”.
In this project he investigated the effect wind exposure has on the trunk and crown of four different species of tree found in the Burren.
Meanwhile the Ennistymon duo took third place in the technology junior category for building an app packed with information about nation states. The boys also won a display award for this project.
Finally, the Ennis team were highly commended for their project in the social and behavioural category. Anna, Emma and Gemma’s project was entitled Investigating the Relationship Between Risk and Happiness.
The overall winners were Aditya Joshi, aged 15, and Aditya Kumar, aged 16, 3rd year students from Synge Street, Dublin, for a project entitled “A New Method of Solving the Bernoulli Quadrisection Problem”.
The students presented their project in the Intermediate section in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category.
Speaking to students at the awards ceremony, Minister for Education Norma Foley TD said, ‘It is both encouraging and heartening to witness the level of creativity and innovation of this year’s entrants as demonstrated through their meticulously researched and ingenious projects.
“Each one of you is a credit to yourself, your family, your school and you should be proud of your accomplishments.
“The calibre of entries is a testament to the tenacity and talent of the students behind them, and it is this constant high standard that makes BT Young Scientist one of the longest running, and most successful STEM events in Europe.”
“I especially wish to acknowledge your teachers and mentors who also give so generously of their time and expertise to support you on your journey. Thank you all too to your parents and families for their unwavering support.”
Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said, “Congratulations to students across the island of Ireland and to all of our winners who took part in the exhibition and thank you for brightening up a cold January, particularly with Covid-19 continuing to cast a very long shadow.
“The students at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition did a remarkable job and have shown huge diversity of thought in actively seeking out solutions to some of the biggest challenges that humanity faces.
“I want to thank the teachers, parents, guardians, and everyone who has supported the students that entered. I would also like to thank our esteemed judges, our sponsors and partners and of course, our own fantastic BT team of organisers, who, collectively, make this exhibition possible every year.”
