A RECURRING and positive message at the 53rd BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in the RDS echoed through the words of the Northside students – science is vital for our future and student engagement in the subject is crucial.
“It’s important for students to get involved with the BT Young Scientist because the world depends on science and technological discovery. It’s students now that will be able to grow up and shape the future and it needs to start at a young age,” Omar Salem, from Sutton Park School, said.
With an eye for technology, Salem participated in the competition for the second year in a row. This year, he designed a system that protects turbo fans in aircraft from foreign object damage. Last year, he designed his own aircraft.
Also competing from Sutton Park School were duo Xiangyu Carbon Mallol and Meabh Scahill, who shared a similar opinion to Salem: “Science is really important and it’s connected to so many other things, culture and then business later on in life. I think it’s really important for people to get involved and really appreciate science.
“Last year we entered Scifest and we thought it would be a cool idea to enter BT to see if we could win anything,” Scahill said, prior to the judging.
Little did the duo know, their hope of winning came true as they were awarded 3rd place in the Junior category.
Another school that dominated the Northside presence at the competition was Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan, with a total of six entries.
Maria Louise Fufezan and Diana Bura, from the college, won the 2016 competition overall with their project, ‘An Investigation into the Effects of Enzymes used in Animal Feed Additives on the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis Elegan’.
“Obviously there’s been so much success in our school and there’s such a positive vibe around it. We heard how fun it is and what a great experience you can have with it,” Loreto student Cleo Gallen said.
“I think everyone’s talking about how there might be pressure on us to win but I think it’s less that and just that we’ve heard how much fun it’s going to be,” Gallen’s group-mate Enya Anderson said.
Loreto Balbriggan continued the success of last year with Chloe Tap and Dagmara Dobkowska scooping second place in the Senior groups, while Sophie Weldon, Laura Weldon and Emma Kleiser Byrne came first place in the Intermediate groups.
Kate O’Kelly, from Loreto Balbriggan, entered a project entitled ‘To investigate the effects of health and lifestyle games on the behaviour of students’.
While the above students highlighted the importance of getting involved in science competitions, Kate O’Kelly is a prime example why. Through her participation in the BT Young Scientist, O’Kelly made a self-discovery of her future path.
“I chose to do this project because it’s something that I was interested in, but after doing it I’ve realised that there’s a whole different field. There’s so many different elements to science.
“This in particular is a sports science project and something that I’ve discovered I’m actually very interested in. It’s something I would definitely like to consider in the future,” she said.
A total of 550 projects competed at the exhibition which was won overall by Shane Curran from Terenure College.
REPORT: Hayley Halpin
