Two Offaly schools take part in BT Young Scientist Exhibition

A total of seven projects from two Offaly schools are participating in this year's BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in Dublin.

Tullamore College said that they were “very fortunate to have four groups representing the school” in the competition for the second year running.

The students representing the school are Isobel McAuliffe and Eva Flynn (5th Year) with their project, entered in the Health and Wellbeing Category.

It is entitled 'Investigating possible methods of improving mental health among those who are hearing impaired by making sport more inclusive using their device 'Wrist Assist.

Fifth Year student Daniel Scally is participating in the Biological & Ecological category, Individual project, with his project 'Investigating the toxicity levels of different flavours of e-liquid'.

Another 5th Year student, Fatima Karimi, has entered ap project in the Biological & Ecological Category entitled 'Investigating the growth of mycelium from button mushrooms as a replacement for plastic packaging' while third years Tess Flynn and Clodagh Hynes are also in the Biological and Ecological Category with their project, 'Investigating the breakdown rates of different alcohols and the formation of the cancer causing intermediate ethanal'.

St Brendan's Community School, Birr have three projects representing the school in the science competition.

The 'EcoEd Games' project in the Technology category is led by Aaron Murray, Darragh Hoyne and Lochlainn Daly. They decided to make a website to help educate people about climate change and how to prevent it.

The group used gaming engine unity and the coding language C# to create the games. The website consists of three games; the first is a game to teach people about correct waste disposal, the second is a game to teach people about environmentally friendly shopping, and the third is a quiz to help people learn more about the causes and effects of global warming.

‘The Woodwide Web' by Éabha McDowall and Ava O’Toole in the Biological & Ecological category hopes to answer the question, ‘Do plants talk to each other?’ as well as all the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ that come with that. The project focused on plant communication which uses a fungal system called the ‘Mychorrizal Network’ to work. Killaun Bog is the location Éabha and Ava used for their field research. They tested the level of carbon present in the peat from Killaun bog using the experimental method carbon sequestration. They then analysed the data to confirm it complied with their research.

Lucy Crowley & Leah Smyth’s project in the Biological & Ecological category is entitled 'Paw Preference.' They aimed to investigate if pet dogs have a right/left paw preference or are ambidextrous and if this preference is linked with their personality. The students have researched similarities within dogs and humans' anatomy and found a dog's paw is their equivalent to a hand.

They created a series of four tests which was carried out on a sample of thirty dogs.

The exhibition takes place in the RDS in Dublin from Wednesday, January 10 until Saturday, January 13.

Insert: St Brendan’s Community School, Birr students Darragh Hoyne, Ava O’Toole, Éabha McDowall, Lochlainn Daly. Missing from photo: Aaron Murray