Monday, 23 January 2012 14:36

Three secondary schools in Balbriggan have come up trumps in this year's Young Scientist Awards. Ardgillan College, Balbriggan Community College and Loreto Balbriggan all submitted various top quality projects to the competition. Frank McLoughlin and Ruaidhri Kennedy, two first year students from Ardgillan Community College, participated in BT Young Scientist with their project - 'To investigate the effectiveness of homemade detergents to manufactured detergents and hence reduce our carbon footprint'. They discovered from their project that homemade detergents containing lemon juice and vinegar were better and more effective at cleaning oil and limescale than three of the leading commercially manufactured cleaning products on the Irish market. At the final on Friday 13th January last, the boys were highly commended for their project. Projects from Balbriggan Community College also took part in this year's competition. Seven students were involved and they entered a range of different projects, which they hoped would catch the eye of the judging panel. First years, Pauline Sobierjska, Dammy Olaniyi and Pelumi Daramola's project was entitled, 'How you grip a pen dictates your grip on life.' The project took an exciting look at how handwriting, and the grip you have on a pen, can dictate certain characteristics. The students worked with over 100 students and analysed their handwriting and documented the results. Second years, Deola Shomoye and Hazel McAleer's project, 'Does Gender affect colour preference?, saw them collate and analyse data relating to the colour preferences of students in the school. Loreto Balbriggan was well represented on the day with two of the entries scooping highly coveted prizes in their respective categories. Fifth years, Deirdre Harford and Colleen Kelly won the group runner-up prize in the senior section of Biological and Ecological Sciences category. The project was entitled ‘A Search for Genes Associated with Drought Resistance in the Potato.’ Both agreed it had “been a pleasure to work on the project.” Also under the glare of the media spotlight were speedgun-wielding Transition Year students Lily-Mai Hand, Aideen McNally and Niamh Kavanagh. The girls expressed the “utter shock and complete surprise” they felt when it was unveiled that they came intermediate group runner-up in the Biological and Ecological Sciences category for their project ‘Does augmented feedback result in motor learning.’ Well done to all participants who made their schools extremely proud on the day.