Aoife’s IVF project woos judges at Young Scientist 

 A timely project on the complex and sensitive subject of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) caught the eye of the judges at this year's BT Young Scientist Exhibition and earned a runner-up prize for its author, Tullamore College fifth year student, Aoife Redmond.

Aoife, who is the daughter of Catherine and Felix Redmond from the Rahan Road in Tullamore, and has two siblings, Clodagh and Fionán, was one of a number of Offaly students to win awards at the annual Science competition in Dublin's RDS. For her project she looked at different factors relating to who should qualify for government funding for IVF, when they could avail of it and under what circumstances should it be made available.

She carried out a number of sample surveys before surveying 425 people including students, parents and the general public from a stand which he set up in the Bridge Centre on a number of Saturdays. She then carried out a statistical analysis of her results and based on these results was able to make recommendations for the allocation of IVF funding.

 The 5th year student, who received her early education in Ballinamere national school,was awarded 2nd place in the Social and Behavioural Senior Individual section.

Aoife Redmond's project was one of two projects from Tullamore College to receive recognition from the BT Young Scientist judges, with TY students, Jack Saunders from Killeigh and Kian Baniassadi from Mucklagh being Highly Commended and also receiving a Display Award for their project titled “Is there a correlation between hand-eye coordination and peripheral vision in sports?” which was entered in the Intermediate Social and Behavioral Science Category.

Among the other projects submitted to the competition from Tullamore College was a novel project on the predictability of human decisions by 16-year old Jean Carson from Geashill which was entered in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences catagory.

Jean used the very popular game of “rock, paper, scissors” to illustrate her project and, as a result of her research, she found out that our random decisions may not actually be as random as we think! She was guided through her project by her science teacher, Jillian Browne.

 The final project from Tullamore College was completed by second year students Ellen Grennan and Amy Noonan, both from Tullamore, who investigated if another sense is heightened in order to compensate in people who are deprived of one of their senses. They tested this hypothesis on 350 people by blocking either their sight or their hearing, and their project was entered in the Junior Social and Behavioural Category.

 Tullamore College Principal, Edward McEvoy, told the Offaly Independent that the school is “extremely proud” of their students and their science teachers, Jillian Browne, Noreen Flynn, Elaine Howlin and Sarah Rossiter who inspired and guided them in their projects.

 Gallen Community School in Ferbane received a Highly Commended Award for student, Eoin Sheridan, for his project on back pain. Eoin, who lives in Ballinahown, on the Offaly/Westmeath border, called his project “Tackling back pain due to sitting posture using technology” which was entered in the Intermediate Individual section of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.

 Also receiving a Highly Commended award was a project in the Social and Behavioural Sciences Intermediate category from the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Tullamore called “How tinnitus effects learning in the classroom” which was undertaken by TY students, Alex Drea (whose parents are Carmel and Dermot from Durrow), Ruby Bennett, daughter of Maureen and Patrick from Tullamore, and ) and Lauren Kavanagh, who is also from Tullamore and whose parents are Lisa and Patrick.

The school was delighted to have a project reach the finals of the Young Scientist Exhibition and, under the supervision of their science teacher, Cathal Dunne, the three finalists decided to investigate if tinnitus effects a student's learning in the classroom by carrying out memorisation tests on their fellow TY students and also on students from Coláiste Choilm.

A high-pitched tinnitus noise was played throughout the memorisation tests, and when all the data had been collected, compared and analysed, the Sacred Heart students found that a high pitched or an alternating tinnitus sound significantly negatively effects a student’s ability to memorise.

One of the girls who undertook the project has tinnitus and, from their observations of the way in which the condition affects her every day in school, the trio came up with the idea for their project.