Moate students highly commended at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition!

Three groups from Moate Community School presented their projects at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in Dublin’s RDS from the 9^th to the 12^th of January. During this time they explained their experimental findings to politicians, the public and fellow students from Moate Community School.

In their project titled ‘Fence Defence’, Stephen Kelly and Christopher Kerrigan designed a device which could be attached to agricultural electric fences that would detect a failure in the fence and alert the farmer immediately via text message. The students compared the suitability and cost-effectiveness of two different designs as part of their study.

In their project ‘Sphagnum Re-growth: A Solution to a Blazing Concern’, Emma Kelly and Brian Conlon developed a pellet to promote the re-growth of Sphagnum moss on peatlands following wild-fires. The pellets contained natural ingredients such as apple cider vinegar and decomposed pine needles which could counteract the changes to peat soil properties following wildfire allowing Sphagnum to regenerate.

Oisin Murphy, Ruiari Casey and Jay Looney’s project ‘Purification to Save a Nation’ focused on improving the efficiency of a typical solar still for water purification in remote areas of Zambia. The boys studied the effect of a wide variety of factors on the distillate output of the still and used Atomic Absorption Spectrometry to determine if the still effectively removed heavy metals from polluted water supplies.

All three MCS groups were awarded ‘Highly Commended’ by the judges for their detailed studies. The students worked diligently on their investigations.  They gained valuable communication and presentation skills as well as experience in scientific investigation. The students represented Moate Community School with great confidence and pride at the exhibition.