Young minds, bright futures

Aside from their grades, what sets an ‘A’ student apart from the rest? Is it their innate ability, their drive, their background, their financial circumstances?

Cian Lynch, a transition year student at Killorglin Community College, Co Kerry, wanted to discover if it was an ‘A’ student’s daily routine. So he investigated: can your daily routine affect your exam results? A project which was on display at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition last week.

“I’ve just done my junior cert and it can be very stressful. There can be a lot of pressure put on you,” explains Cian. “It could cause you to want to drop a few things, like sports, which can affect your mental state. I wanted to see the most effective way you can balance school life and personal life.”

To conduct this investigation, the 15-year-old, in conjunction with the Social Sciences Department at IT Tralee, designed a survey with questions relating to the student’s grades and daily routine. This survey was taken by secondary school students across the whole of Co Kerry. There were 100 responses to the survey, which were used to get the similarities and differences between the various grade brackets.

“The students who spend more time on sports during their school week came out with better results. Students who kept themselves busy, rather than say sitting around watching TV, also did better. ‘A’ students spent more time playing sports, they got more sleep and they would do homework for at least two hours a night. They keep themselves busy, on average they only have an hour of free time per day,” he explained.

Student Stress

Another education-related project at the Young Scientist was undertaken by Orla Ní Dhubhaigh, Rósie Ní Fhearraigh and Áine Ní Bhaoill, students of Pobalscoil Ghaoth Dobhair, Co Dhún na nGnall. The girls aimed to find the main causes of stress for students transitioning from primary school to secondary school and conducted their investigation as Gaeilge. They are now in second year, but last year when starting secondary school they felt a lot of stress. As a result of this, they decided to discover how first year students in general felt about the transition, and also how their parents felt. This was done through surveys and interviews.

“We put a survey together for the incoming first-years. A few days later their parents came into the school and we surveyed them too. We also interviewed the transition team and the principal,” highlights Áine. “We found out that the first-years were most stressed about their tests.”

Interestingly, the first-years’ parents had completely different worries to their children. They were most worried about their children being bullied. Contrastingly, students were primarily concerned with being tired and with their overall academic performance.

“We came up with some tips for first-years and we also made a booklet to give to them. Some of our tips include being more organised, getting up earlier and how not to stress too much.” CL

Spice up your silage

Stephanie Robinson and Jonathan Elder are the first students to ever represent their school at the BT Young Scientist. They attend the South Eastern Regional College in Lisburn, Co Antrim, and are sure to prick the ears of farmers across the country with their findings on how oregano can control the growth of mould on silage and haylage.

“Herbs and spices you would find in your kitchen have certain properties that fight off the growth of fungus,” highlights Jonathan. “In this case penicillium roqueforti, which grows on the inside of silage bales. Obviously, mouldy silage can’t be fed to farm animals because it can cause many problems, such as miscarriages, digestive problems and skin diseases.”

Stephanie took silage from the bales on her family’s farm. One of the samples was treated with oregano and the other wasn’t. They were both then plated and cultured in a lab. The sample treated with oregano had little to no growth of fungus, while the other sample was covered in mould.

“Oregano is very safe for animals, it can actually help with digestion,” informs Stephanie . “Our cows eat seven bales a week, those bales are expensive to make. Half or maybe more would be infected with fungus and have to be thrown away. If you decrease the amount that is contaminated, you wouldn’t have to waste money buying more.”