As President Michael D Higgins pointed out in his opening speech at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, we live in a society that faces unique challenges. Many people worry about the problems of our world, whether it be economically, environmentally or ethically.

I did too, until I attended the Young Scientist Exhibition at the RDS, where my fears were allayed by meeting the young people who are soon to be tasked with tackling global and domestic issues.

All of the 550 projects on display showed innovation, and the students Irish Country Living spoke with were extremely articulate in explaining their investigations. From health to communications and astronomy to ecology, all angles were covered.

Of course, the problems of the farming community were not left unanswered, with a huge number of projects dedicated to making the work of farmers safer, easier and more profitable.

Old and new

The year 2018 was John Sims’ 29th bringing secondary school students to the Young Scientist Exhibition. He teaches geography and agricultural science at Mary Immaculate College in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare.

John comments that the exhibition has evolved greatly, with the biggest changes relating to technology, in terms of both the types of projects and the methods of conducting them.

“In the early days when I attended, we were typing the projects on a typewriter, now they are all done on computer. The analysis is also different, I remember doing projects and they were in this pile and that pile on the floor. Now you put it all into Excel and out comes the answer,” outlines the teacher.

Efficient Forestry

One of John’s pupils, second-year Cealan O’Neill, conducted a project about efficiency in harvesting forestry. Evidently, being a young scientist runs in Cealan’s family, as his mother Eleanor exhibited in 1990, also under John’s guidance and with a project relating to forestry too.

Cealan noticed when his grandfather had forestry cut, that some of the tree stumps were taller than others, with a considerable difference between them: “You could get a lot more wood out of the same area of forestry if you could find out why some stumps are taller.”

“To make it more efficient, a standard of how far off the ground they have to come when cutting trees could be set. If you said 10cm off the ground, every tree I measured would have had a bit more cut off of it. There were none 10cm off the ground.

“I think this would be reasonable, I know there are reasons why stumps are not cut as low, but there is a lot more wood to be harvested. It would only take five or six extra trees to get a whole new log of timber.”

Farm Hand

This year’s Young Scientist was all about farm safety for Kayla McMahon and Fiona Kelly, third-year students from Desmond College in Newcastle West, Co Limerick.

“We know of all the accidents that can happen on a farm, so we wanted to help with this and do something to lower the number of accidents,” highlights Kayla.

“We designed gloves with built in components to help farmers while they are working,” explains Fiona. “It has got an electric fence detector, an LED torch built in, a blade for cutting cable ties and baling twine and a mini mobile phone, which is paired to your own mobile phone and can be used in emergencies. Another glove can be added underneath with gel packs, which are heated in the microwave and will keep your hands warm in the winter months.”

The teacher helping them out with their entry for the competition was Donal Enright, who won the Intel educator of excellence award on the day.

Soil compression

Exhibitors Holly Kenny and Laura Campion from St Mary’s Secondary School in Ballina, Co Mayo, were not wasting time watching the grass grow, they were measuring it as part of their investigation into the impact of compressed soil by farm machinery on plant and microorganism growth.

The girls aimed to find out how heavy farm machinery driving on soil affects plant growth, namely grass.

“We found out that compression of soil had a really big impact on the growth of plants,” says Holly.

There was much more grass growth on uncompressed samples compared with the ones that were compressed by tractors, combine harvesters and balers, but microorganism growth did improve four days after compression, the second-year students discovered. These young scientists advise farmers to use lower axle loads, lower tyre pressure and rely less on farm machinery, where possible.

“A lot of farmers tend to drive back the fields to have a look at cattle,” outlines Holly. “Whereas they are actually damaging their property by doing that. So try to walk instead of using the tractor.”

Clean country air

Country air is imagined as being fresh, crisp and, most importantly, clean. Students from Athlone Community College in Co Westmeath were taking nothing at face value. In their project, Juliette McGrane, Laoise O’Brien and Rebecca Campion investigated: is clean country air just a myth?

The transition-year students undertook a comprehensive investigation, which involved measuring the quantity and quality of lichens (a dual organism composed of fungi and algae) on trees at 10 locations across the country, spanning from Kerry to Monaghan.

“Our theory was that Ireland’s prevailing southwesterly winds could carry emissions across the country, which, therefore, could cause a deterioration in the quality of air,” informs Juliette. “In general the air quality in Ireland is good, but there is a deterioration between the southwest and the northeast.”

It was found that air in Ireland is not heavily polluted, but according to the girls, clean country air is a myth. Location in relation to prevailing winds was the main indicator of air pollution, rather than being in the countryside or not.

Colour sensors in milk

With the dairy boom in full swing, Jack James, Kelvin Osagie and Porosh Hossain of the North Monastery Secondary School in Cork are hoping to help farmers stop contaminated milk entering their bulk tanks.

“We made a colour sensor to detect contamination in milk,” explains Jack. “So if there is something like blood in the milk it will alert the farmer to turn off the milking machine, so the whole lot will not have to be dumped.”

The prototype, a Smart Milking Solution, uses a colour sensor to detect any colour change in the milk, such as blood. Any colour outside of white sounds an alarm, which will stop the farmer from entering the milk into the bulk tank. A Smart Milking Solution could save farmers a lot of money each year, the boys feel.

Forestry and farmland

The affect forestry has on adjacent farmland was the primary concern of Niamh Doorley from Scoil Mhuire in Strokestown, Co Roscommon. Soil samples were taken by the transition year student from farmland located beside forestry and analysed in a lab.

“The results came back and all the samples were low in P, K and lime, while also having a very high acidity rate,” outlines Niamh. “I took these results into consideration and looked at some factors that may have caused the low P, K and lime. For example, it was winter time during my project, so there was little growth. The trees were also blocking out the sun, so it couldn’t shine onto the adjacent land.”

According to the study, forestry does affect the quality of soil in adjacent farmland and Niamh says that her conclusions are now a whole load of questions that can be further investigated by other scientists. CL

See Careers pages 32-33 for more coverage of the BT Young Scientist exhibition.