Two Sancta Maria College groups in Young Scientist exhibition

TWO groups of students from Sancta Maria College in Louisburgh will compete in the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin in January.

Science Week is taking place across Ireland this week, and Sancta Maria College is marking the week with a number of events in the school.

This year, two groups of its Transition Year students qualified for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition with projects concentrating on different aspects of science and technology.

Jack Fallon and John Prendergast have a project entitled ‘Cliseadh Miotal Trom: Cereal Contamination Under the Microscope’, while Jade Clifford, Sylvie Neuhaus and Saoirse Morrison’s project is entitled ‘SOS (Shut Out Strangers) – A workshop delivered to potential online targets by targets themselves’.

The objective of Jack and John’s project is to assess and compare the concentrations of heavy metals, including lead, cadmium, cobalt and zinc, in a variety of commonly consumed cereal brands in order to understand possible health risks associated with heavy metal exposure through cereal consumption.

The students are linking directly with Dr Philip White (Analytical Chemistry, ATU Galway) and have carried out analyses on their samples using the Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer at ATU Galway.

Jade, Silvie and Saoirse’s SOS is a three-part workshop that aims to identify and suggest appropriate actions in response to the various threatening situations teenagers that may face when they engage in online activity daily.

SOS will assist these young people through the medium of various methods which indicate how to take appropriate action against these dangers.

These students have linked in with An Garda Síochána to discuss the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 and the repercussions associated with breaking this law.

They have also linked with RTÉ reporter Ailbhe Conneely who has put them in contact with Orla Stewart who had experience of online threatening behaviour and grooming at age ten. Orla gave a harrowing interview with RTÉ detailing her experience and agreed to give an interview to the SOS team.

In addition to this, a realistic role play has been generated to highlight the subtle signs of online danger to look out for when communicating online. The SOS training will be given to younger members of the school community this week.

The projects have been coordinated by science teacher Caoimhe Lynn and TY coordinator Judi O’Malley, and both are looking forward to working with the groups ahead of the competition in January.

Commenting, Ms Lynn said: “The two projects explore two different areas of science, with one being behaviour and psychology while the other is chemistry and biology. They came up with their proposal three weeks ago and we recently got word they are through to the competition and they will start carrying out their experiments. It is a great achievement by the two groups and it is exciting times in the science department.”