O’Dowd congratulates winners at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

Date published: 10 January 2016

St Patrick’s High School, Keady, County Armagh won the award for ‘Best Northern Ireland School’ as well as ‘BT Northern Ireland Best Project’. Their project, entitled ‘Power Down to Power Up’, was entered in the Social & Behavioural Sciences category at junior level and the group also received 2nd Place in the Social & Behavioural Junior Group for their entry. A second project entered by the school entitled ‘An investigation into how foam reduces spillages in liquids’ in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category at junior level was also highly commended.

St Catherine’s College in Armagh received the ‘BT-Best Project in Irish’ Award for their project ‘Eiseapláinéid a Fhiosrú’. They were also highly commended for the same project in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category at intermediate level. A second project from St Catherine’s College was also highly commended - ‘Irish dancing is a sport, not just a hobby’ in the Biological and Ecological category at junior level.

Other awards were presented to the following local schools:

• St Killian’s College in Antrim picked up 3rd Place in the ‘Technology Junior Group’ for their project ‘Speed Alert Shamer’ and they were also highly commended for their project ‘Distance Diagnostics’ in the Technology category at junior level.
• Rathmore Grammar School, Belfast were highly commended for their project ‘Dry Your Eyes’ which was entered into the Biological & Ecological category at intermediate level.
• Ballymena Academy were highly commended for their project ‘Apollo 10D’ which was entered into the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category at intermediate level.
• South Eastern Regional College-Bangor Campus were highly commended for their project ‘Investigating the antibacterial effects of honey’ in the Biological & Ecological category at senior level.
• St Mary’s College Derry were highly commended for two projects in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category for their projects ‘Investigating the effect of reheating pasta on the rate of digestion of its starch by amylase’ at intermediate level and ‘Investigating the effect of various dietary supplements on the activity of lipase in digesting fat’ at junior level.

Congratulating all the prize winners, including the BT Young Scientist and Technologists of the Year, Maria Louise Fufezan and Diana Bura from Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan, the Minister said:

“I have been very impressed with the standard of entries and also by the enthusiasm and depth of knowledge shown by all students who have taken part in the Exhibition. You should be proud of what you’ve achieved.

“I congratulate the students from St Patrick's High School Keady who won the award for the best northern project and best northern school.

“I also offer congratulations to all of the schools who won awards including St Catherine’s College, Armagh for the best project in Irish.”

The Minister added:

“It is important to recognise not only the hard work of the pupils, but also the support and dedication shown by school staff in assisting students to bring their projects to the exhibition. Such support is a crucial element in the development of young people and I commend teachers, classroom assistants and other school staff in all the local schools that made it to the finals event in Dublin.

“Finally, my thanks go to BT for sponsoring and hosting the event once again. There is no doubt that the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition helps nurture a passion for STEM subjects in young people. In many cases they continue their studies and go on to choose a career path in STEM, an area with many opportunities and which is crucial to future economic prosperity.”