Infrared, Connemara ponies, fish oils, and feeding eggshells to hens are among the topics that have fascinated Westmeath studnts over the past number of months as they prepared their projects for the 2013 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, which kicks off in the RDS, Dublin next week.
Westmeath is once again well represented at this year’s exhibition, with 12 projects from the county’s secondary schools on display during the exhibition, which runs from January 10-12. These include six from Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone, three from Moate Community School, and three from Marist College, Athlone.
The range of projects from students of Our Lady’s Bower include: ‘Is breast still best? - An investigation into the presence of harmful substances in the breast milk of Irish mothers’ by Máirín Ryan; ‘What has happened to our tomatoes?’ by Orla Mooney, Gemma Cooney, and Lauren Kennedy; ‘An investigation into the concentrations of fish oils in different supplements and their mercury levels’ by Maedbh Hurst, Doireann Langan, and Kayleigh McCoy; ‘Apples and oranges: why we choose’ by Emma Lydon and Hannah Casey; ‘An investigation to establish if feeding eggshells to hens improves the quality and thickness of their eggshells’ by Fiona Clear, Caitríona Clear, and Fionnuala Moody; and ‘Investigation into the rate of decomposition of laboratory chemicals’ by Gertie O’Rourke.
The entries from Marist College are ‘Integrating solar panels into manhole covers to prevent freezing stopcocks’ by Shane Galvin, Ben Fallon, and Adrian Garvey; ‘Infra-Reddy, Steady, Go!’ by Liam Leahy, Sean Kilgarriff, and Patrick Dooner; and ‘Imported calf coat versus domestic calf coat and how it affects the young calf’s weight gain’ by Mark Kearney and Alan Daly.
The Moate Community School projects are ‘From household waste to home heating’ by Thomas Maguire; ‘The effect of sonic vibrations on the metabolism of yeast cells growing in liquid culture’ by Laura Nugent, Laura Kealy, and Alannah Reynolds; and ‘Raising awareness of the importance of the co-efficient of inbreeding in the Connemara pony’ by Amber Hennessy.
This year’s exhibition features 550 projects from across the country, all competing for the coveted title of BT Young Scientist & Technologist of the Year 2013. The exhibition is open to the public in the RDS from Thursday to Saturday January 10-12.
For further details visit www.btyoungscientist.ie
