This article is from page 15 of the 2006-01-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
MONTHS of study and preparation paid off for Clare’s students this week at the annual Young Scientist Exhibition in Dublin.
This year there was a record entry of 1,100 projects, with Clare schools entering 23 projects. In total there were 14 Clare winners out of the 500 entrants that made it through to the final round of judging.
The day was extra special for two North Clare students who were awarded top prize in their respective categories. Mark Sims, a student in Mary Immaculate Secondary School in Lisdoonvarna, and Declan O’Loughlin, from CBS Ennistymon, were both awarded individual first place at senior and junior level respectively at Friday’s judging ceremony.
Mark’s project ‘Voting patterns – a tale of two counties’, scooped the top prize in the senior section of the Social and Behaviour Sciences Category. The prize represents something of a milestone for Mark. It is the sixth time that one of his projects has taken an award at the competition.
Students from Mary Immaculate Secondary came away from the competition with a total of eight awards and their exploits were the subject of RTÉ’s Nationwide programme on Monday night.
In the technology category Declan O’Loughlin’s entry on improving efficiency in a domestic oil central heating system won first place in the junior section.
The judges were impressed with Declan’s project, which found that by adding a simple modification to the average domestic heating
system he could continue to circulate the wa ter that would normally be left to cool after the burner had been switched off.
In the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category, St John Bosco Community College students, Stephen Finucane and Liam Kenny’s project on the flow patterns of liquids came second in the junior level. Meanwhile, Jennifer Coote, Ashling Crowe and Marie Culligan from Kilrush Community College finished third in the same category and were also recognised in the Special Category.
The Cry Babies project undertaken by Ciara Deloughrey and Louise Morrissey also from Kilrush finished second in the Social and Behaviour category. In the intermediate section of the same category Cora Commane and Patricia Cusack from Mary Immaculate Secondary School also finished second.
The Display winners from Clare were Evelyn Linnane and Tess McGovern from Mary Immaculate Secondary School and Claire Meade, Michelle O’Brien and Megan Fitzgerald Bradley from St Anne’s Community College.
Special recommendation was reserved for Shona Ni Mheachair, Nicole Ni Chearmada and Cillian O’Buiteach from Ennis Community College for their research on diet drinks. Also commended were Laura Sims, Darren O’Gorman, Kevin Walsh, Christy Storer, Aishling Clancy, Noreen Lynch, Shona Fitzpatrick, Lorraine Stringer, and India Molloy, all representing Mary Immaculate Secondary School, Lisdoonvarna.
The work of Christopher Walshe, Eoghan Ryan and David Lynch from St Caimins Community School on feminising hormones was also recognised.