STUDENTS of Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna scooped four awards at this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition.
Oisín Jackson won the second prize in the Junior Individual category of the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences. His project was entitled “An investigation into the differences in height of adjoining clints in limestone pavement in the Burren”. In this project he looked in detail at the difference in height of adjoining clints and seeing if prevailing wind may contribute to their formation. As well as getting this award he also got the Geological Survey Ireland special award.
Ciara McDonnell was awarded highly commended for her project entitled “House searching by hermit crabs” This project was in the Junior Individual Biological and Ecological Sciences category. In this project Ciara was looking to see if the choice of shell by hermit crabs is related to shell size and their size and shell availability.
Anna Mae O’Driscoll was awarded highly commended for her project entitled “Is visitor footfall affecting lichen growth on limestone pavement in the Burren?”. In the project Anna Mae assessed the amount of wear/degradation of lichens on limestone pavement surfaces in the Burren due visitor footfall. This project was also in the Junior Individual Biological and Ecological Sciences category.
The school also had two other projects in the Junior Individual Biological and Ecological sciences category. They were Fionn Rush with a project entitled “Does the availability of food affect the movement of periwinkles (Littorina littorea)”, and Ella Mooney with a project entitled “Does the level of nutrients in seawater affect the abundance of Ulva lactuca”
Teacher John Sims commented, “Five first year students took on the daunting task of carrying out a science project with all the restrictions of Covid-19. Their resilience has to be praised. They all completed their project on time and produced excellent reports. The projects were of such high standard that four awards were taken back to Lisdoonvarna.”