STUDENTS from Northern Ireland walked off with a clutch of awards at the 53rd BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in Dublin, which is designed to raise schools’ engagement in the critical subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.
More than 1,100 students from 375 schools across the island of Ireland competed for dozens of awards, with Loreto College in Coleraine winning the ‘MATRIX Best Northern Ireland School’ gong as well as ‘BT Northern Ireland Best Project.’
Its winning project ‘Phone Book Physics’ was entered in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category at intermediate level. The college were also highly commended within this category.
A second project entered by the school entitled ‘Bead Fountains’ in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category was awarded first place at senior individual level for Emmett Brolly.
Other awards were presented to projects from the following northern schools:
• Alexander Baine from Ballyclare High School in Antrim picked up second place for his project ‘Augmented Reality Sudoku Solver’ in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category at intermediate level.
• Sean Connolly, a teacher at St Killian’s College in Antrim, received the ‘Analog Educator of Excellence’ award.
• St Mary’s College Derry - highly commended for their project ‘SCOBY SCOBY Do’ in the junior individual section of the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category and ‘Investigating the effect of reheating pasta on the rate of digestion of its starch by amylase’ in the intermediate group section of the CPM category.
• Ballymena Academy - highly commended for ‘Branch Strike Detector’ which was entered into the technology category.
• St Patrick’s High School Armagh - highly commended for ‘An investigation into how foam reduces spillages in liquids’ in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category at junior level.
• St Catherine’s College Armagh - highly commended for ‘Irish dancing is a sport, not just a hobby’ in the biological and ecological category at junior level and for ‘Eiseapláinéid a Fhiosrú’ in chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category at intermediate level.
• St Killian’s College - highly commended for‘Distance Diagnostics’ in the technology category at junior level.
• South Eastern Regional College (Bangor campus) - highly commended for ‘Investigating the link between habitat and the antibacterial effect of honey’ in the biological and ecological category at senior level.
