Meath schools set to shine at BT Young Scientist Exhibition

Five projects from three Meath secondary schools are on display at the BT Young Scientists Exhibition taking place in the RDS this week.

It is the first time since the 2020 that the exhibition returns to the RDS after being held virtually for the past two years. A total of 550 projects will be displayed from 212 schools all around the country.

St Joseph's Mercy secondary school will be represented by two groups at the exhibition, which are both in the Ecological and Biological category.

Second year students Grace Gibbs, Manal Fantazi and Joud Abusinn will showcase their project entitled ‘Does an apple a day still, keep the doctor away?’ They came up with the idea for the project after realising that some fruit and vegetables of the same varieties tasted better than others.

"From research, we found that fruit and vegetables can be up to 38 per cent less nutritious than their counterparts grown in the 1950s. The reason for this change 'stems’' from our ever-growing world population and the need to produce higher yielding crops to support them. But the use of modern day commercial farming methods also effects the crops negatively, with crops becoming less and less nutritious. The aim of our project was to prove that fruit grown using organic methods will have higher nutritional value compared to fruit that was grown using large scale commercial farming methods," explained the girls.

"We did this with the help of the science department in school and especially our science teacher Miss Bronagh Farrell. We are very excited to compete in the competition in the RDS as it is the first competition in person since 2020. We would like to thank everyone for their support and we hope represent our school to the best of our ability."

The second project from Mercy Navan from Transition Year students Mya Doocey and Mia Galligan is entitled ‘P.E.riod’ and investigated the effect of a woman's period or menstrual cycle on PE performance.

"By carrying out a number of physical tests on female students over the course of their menstrual cycle (28 days) we have found out that your performance is affected throughout the entire 28 day cycle. Our main findings were that carrying out exercise during your period is of overall benefit in relation to easing pain and improving your mood. Furthermore activities such as running were best during days 1-5 whereas resistance training was lowest at this same time. Please visit our stand at the competition to learn more about our investigation," said Mya Doocey and Mia Galligan.

Two projects from Boyne Community School in Trim will also be showcased at the exhibition, both in the Technology category.

‘To Dye or Not to Dye’ is the name of the project submitted by Transition Year students Amber Ratciffe and Sophie Rispin. Their project investigated the effect of bleach on the strength of hair and if damaged hair can be repaired with conditioner.

Also in Transition Year, students Aaron Kearney, Katie Devine and Tara Redmond, will exhibit their project entitled 'Any-Time Rain'.

They designed and built an eco-friendly self watering plant pot using the 3D printer in the school. The idea behind the design is to reduce water consumption.

Teachers Maria Byrne and Aoife Fox said: "We are all very proud of these students and commend the hard work they have put into their projects. Students have been working on them since September and are a credit to the school."

Eureka students Muireann Monaghan, Sophie Rogan and Dayna McGoohan have entered a project called 'Puff Nation' in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category.

"We have spent the last many months working closely with each other and our wider community, aiming to observe the usage of e-cigarettes among our peer group and whether or not the uptake of e-cigarettes has been influenced by the product and marketing," explained the Transition Year students.

"We chose this idea as it is a very topical subject at the moment, and we wanted to learn more about it. Since 2019, e-cigarettes have further developed into individual use products, which are sold under innocent sounding names such as 'Puff Bars' and 'Elf Bars' in a variety of sweetened flavours. They have become both disposable, and reusable, making them more appealing to young people. These bars are sold at a lower price point than the 2019 e-cigarettes.

"Our project focuses on three main questions. Have vape users in our peer group been regular tobacco smokers prior to using e-cigarettes; Has the uptake of e-cigarettes been influenced by the product and marketing developments? Does the Healthy Ireland 2019 Report match our recent survey?"