Schools are 'highly commended" at Scientist exhibition

Local schools enjoyed a successful outing at the Young Scientist exhibition in Dublin last week, with projects from Athlone"s Marist College and Moate Community School receiving 'highly commended" awards. A project conducted by students at Our Lady"s Bower in Athlone also received a display award at the prestigious event, which took place at the RDS from Tuesday to Saturday of last week. This year"s competition saw a record number of entries and, in total, ten projects from the Athlone area made it through to last week"s finals. At the Marist College, science teacher Cian O"Brien said that the 'highly commended" award which Sebastian Ryan, Conor Flynn and David Byrne received for their project 'What Materials Work Best in a Sandbag for Blocking Floodwaters" was 'a huge accomplishment.' The students had put in a major effort in working on the project since last September, and their work focused on evaluating the effectiveness of various substances in creating a barrier against floodwater. The students tested sand as a their 'default" substance and also examined matter such as clay and gravel, but they found that bentonite was the most effective floodwater barrier. 'Bentonite is a powdery substance which is commonly used for tunnel building projects in America,' explained Mr O"Brien. The substance swells when it comes into contact with water but is quite rare in Ireland. One University of Limerick lecturer who examined the Marist students" project in Dublin last week said that he had used bentonite while working on construction projects in the U.S., while another assessor said that he had heard of the substance but had never actually seen it before. In addition to this project, Marist students Sean Mooney, Mark Bass, and Tony Deehan, reached the finals with their 'iSolar" project, which investigated the possibility of making a solar panel charger for an iPod. The other finalists from the school were Allan Kilroy-Glynn, Cathal McGrane, and Martin Purcell, who asked 'Does Going Green Kill?" Their project examined whether modern insulation traps certain gases in people"s home, which would previously have been able to escape. Mr O"Brien said that the students greatly enjoyed the experience of participating in the Young Scientist exhibition. 'They had a great time. It was all about generating some enthusiasm for science and in that respect all of our goals were met,' he commented. Another school which was celebrating science success this week was Moate Community School. The project 'Can Our Washed Out Soil Be Saved?" which was completed by Shaunagh O"Flaherty and Aine Hanevy was 'highly commended" at the exhibition. This project aimed to develop a solution to tackle the effects of erratic weather on the structure and chemical properties of soils. Another project from the school which was on display at the finals was 'An investigation into the presence and the effects of chemicals from plastic water bottles leaching into the water they contain" by Dervla Murray, Cathy Fox, and Roisin Smyth. The Moate students attended the exhibition from Wednesday to Saturday last and their teacher, Irene O"Sullivan, said that they thoroughly enjoyed it. 'It was a great experience for them and it really opened up their eyes to the fact that science is all around them and is not just in the classroom,' Ms O"Sullivan told Westmeath Independent. She added that the students had started their projects last September and that last week"s experience, and the achievement of the 'highly commended" award, made them feel as if all their hard work had been worthwhile. Our Lady"s Bower also had two projects in the Young Scientist finals, one of which - 'To compare the amount of Vitamin C in organic and non-organic fruit and vegetables" - was awarded a display prize for the attractive presentation which the students had put together. The work of Kathy Spollen, Amy Duignan and Rachel Bleach, this project concluded that consuming organic is very important if you love kiwi fruit and are suffering a Vitamin C deficiency, but is not as important for other foods. Another project by Ellen O"Beirne, Maeve Brassil and Alison Duffy investigated the issue of body image, and sought to discover what the perfect body image is. Their results showed that size zero is not every young girl"s dream, as the media would sometimes have us believe. The Athlone area was also well-represented at the exhibition by projects from St Joseph"s College in Summerhill and Athlone Community College. From St Joseph"s, Leona Grenham, Emma Lennon, and Gillian Byrne asked 'Are Wii Fit?" in their study to determine whether exercising with the Wii Fit video game was as beneficial as conventional exercise. Their Summerhill colleagues, Maeve Leonard, Sibeal Crehan, and Keely McCormack, investigated our learning ability while we rest, with a project entitled 'Can We Learn While We Are Asleep?" Meanwhile, Athlone Community College students Conor Donohoe and Jonathan Kilduff compared the predicted Junior and Leaving Certificate results - based on first year psychometric tests - to actual results attained. Their project asked 'Do State Examinations Reflect Natural Ability?"