This article is from page 15 of the 2006-01-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
The students decided to undertake this project after observing the use of stimulant drinks and herbal remedies to aid study, and wanted to investigate the actual effects on short-term memory. Twelve volunteers took part in a series of memory tests, including visual, olfactory, aural and tactile tests, that were carried out over a number of days. Then the participants were assigned one of three stimulants, drinks or herbal remedies to be taken over a three-week period. The group are using a method known as blind testing, which means they will be unaware of what each volunteer is taking. After the three-week period elapses, another similar series of tests will be carried out. NEXT Tuesday, the RDS in Dublin will play host to the opening of the largest Young Scientist Exhibition ever in the history of the competition. The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2006 received some 1,150 entrants this year, the highest amount ever received in its 42 years.
More than 60 County Clare second-level students and their teachers will be in Dublin for the final showdown and hopes are high that one of the 23 projects from Clare schools will make an impact on this year’s event.
The projects range from tracking radiation from mobile phones to examine how different fertilisers effect the soil, and comparing the quality of Clare’s drinking water.
One project even uses cubes of potato to test the effectiveness of moisturiser on human skin.
After registration next Tuesday, the exhibition will be officially opened at 2pm on Wednesday. After the opening, it’s straight into the business of the competition and the first round of judging on Wednesday afternoon.
Thursday brings with it the second round of judging and the primary school tours before the public gets its first chance to look through the projects when the door are opened to the public at 1.30pm.
Lucky or unlucky, this Friday the 13th will be judgement day for the young students at the competition. Final judging takes place in the morning before the award ceremony begins in the BT Arena at 5.30pm.
Win or lose, the show must go on and Saturday offers the public its last chance to look at all the projects before the curtain comes down on the 42nd Young Scientist Competition at 5.30pm. Their project is based on the claim made by drink companies that diet drinks are a healthier alternative to soft drink brands. They wanted to investigate to see if this claim was true. Almost all EU drinks and many other products contain the sweetener E951, more commonly known as aspartame. Unfortunately, when brought to body temperature, this chemical breaks down into other complex chemicals, including methanol which is very toxic and is considered an accumulative poison — which is to say when taken in small amounts over time it is very damaging. They are very interested to see the final results and experiments, which were completed without the aid of science classes, and are eagerly looking forward to travelling to the RDS. In their project, Claire, Michelle and Megan tackled an issue which is close to the heart of every Irish woman, and more and more Irish men — the perception, effectiveness and cost of beauty products. The three Leaving Cert students not only tested the effectiveness of a variety of moisturising products but also conducted a survey to discover the attitudes that people have towards beauty and beauty treatment. To discover which moisturising product worked best, they weighed a group of cubed potatoes, applied different types of moisturiser and then weighed the pieces several more times to discover the loss of moisture over time. This test and survey results produced surprising results.