Local Secondary School Students Take Part in Stripe Young Scientist Exhibition

Coláiste Muire, Crosshaven

Anna Horgan, Abel Joseph, along with Holly Forde and Saoirse O’Connor Buckley, were mentored by their teachers Ms Miniussi & Ms Lehane.

Second year student Anna Horgan presented “An investigation into Students’ Awareness of their Mental State using Voice-Based Emotion Detection”. Anna compared voice-detected emotion with self-assessments from students from all year groups at Colaiste Muire.  The aim of Anna’s project was to assess emotional awareness amongst students and explore how voice-based tools can help early detection of distress, a very worthwhile project in today’s society.

Transition Year student Abel Joseph presented “An investigation into Dothistroma Needle Blight Disease in Co. Cork”. In his project, Abel compared the vitamin C content in pine needles as an indication of the level of infestation of Needle Blight disease in the trees sampled from a range of samples throughout Cork County.

Fifth year students Holly and Saoirse continued their project on vapes from last year’s competition. Their project titled “If you care, breathe air: a continued investigation into the chemicals found in vapes” found toxic and carcinogenic chemicals present in vape aerosols and liquids following gas chromatography mass spectrophotometry analysis at the Chemistry Department at University College Cork. 

Holly and  Saoirse received 2nd place in the Senior Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences Group category for their work on identifying and analysis of the chemicals in vapes. 

Gaelcholáiste Charraig Uí Leighin

Transition Year students Éabha NicSomhairle and Isabel Ní Dhonnabháin investigated the use of skincare products by teenagers. In their study results, they found social media is directing advertising to teenagers particularly to those aged 14. Additionally, they found that if not used correctly some teenagers experienced adverse effects of skin care products.

Second Year student Mia Ní Challanáin questioned how more women could be encouraged into engineering. In her findings, she found that female guest speakers give greater clarity and encouragement to female students as to what exactly is involved in a career in engineering combined with school STEM clubs encourages girls to consider it as a career. 

St Peter's Community School

TY student Aaron Gernon participated in the Intermediate Biological and Ecological Sciences Category at this year's Stripe Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition with his project 'Disinfection or Danger? The effect of excessive levels of chlorine in tap water and its implications for human health '.

In response to local concerns about strong chlorine taste and smell in tap water this study investigated the spatial and temporal variation in chlorine concentrations across twenty-four sampling sites in Cork City and County as well as assessing the biological effects of elevated chlorine using freshwater organisms.  

Kinsale Community School 

At this year’s exhibition, Miah O’Callaghan and Peter O’Leary were awarded second place in the Biological & Ecological Sciences Intermediate Group category.

 In the Social & Behavioural Sciences  Junior Group category, Ella Holly and Grace Holland secured second place, while Cushla O’Reilly, Caoimhe Ní Charragáin and Elise O’Sullivan were awarded third place.

In the Technology Senior Individual category, Afric Deasy received two awards, placing third in her category and also winning the Oracle Academy Award for her project examining the use of artificial intelligence to evaluate bias in news media.

Kinsale Community School was also represented at the exhibition by Cathal Murray, Rebecca Whelan, and Emily Bertoletti, Annabel Long and Nora Lynch, whose projects were selected for exhibition and presented over the course of the three-day event.

The results continue Kinsale Community School’s long-established record at the Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, with students from the school having achieved over 100 national awards since first participating.

The school is immensely proud of all students involved and sincerely acknowledges the collective support of parents, teachers, mentors and the wider school community, whose encouragement and commitment played a key role in enabling student participation and success at national level.