Zoe McGirr on RTE
TWO young Derry girls have picked up a BT Young Scientist of the Year gong for inventing a kit which could help alleviate famine in developing countries.
Megan Duffy and Zoe McGirr from Oakgrove Integrated College won the Irish Aid and Gorta Self Help Africa award for its highly commended “seed harvesting kit for subsistence farmers in developing countries”.
The device is set to be used in Ethiopia…and comes from two young girls who have already won science awards.
Zoe says their project aims to build a kit that will help farmers in developing countries become more sustainable by giving them everything they need to re-use their seeds.
Megan adds that their kit is solar-powered and is being “sent to Africa by a charity to see how it can cope with the increased temperatures”.
Megan Duffy and Zoe McGirr with the education minister last year after winning another award
The girls were honoured at the RDS in Dublin last night after the week-long BT Young Scientist of the Year competition.
Oakgrove Integrated students were also highly commended for another project, “Investigating the flow properties of Granular Materials”.
One student from St Mary’s College in Derry picked a subject that is topical for this time of year.
With many people trying to give up cigarettes as a new year’s resolution, Justine Joy-Munoz is investigating the nicotine content of electronic cigarettes.
“I found that these e-liquids had more of a nicotine content in them than was stated on the packaging. One of them had 12 times the amount advertised,” she says.
“But the e-cigarettes were close enough to what the packaging said. So, they were more accurate than the e-liquids.”
Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said: “Every year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition captures the public’s imagination by demonstrating the creativity, ingenuity and potential of our young people.
“Over the past three days we have had some of Ireland’s brightest, hard-working and positive young people inspire us with their ideas. Everyone involved with the exhibition has been hugely impressed by the calibre of these entries.
He added: “This exhibition continues to be the showcase for our next generation of entrepreneurs, academics, scientists and technologists; minds that will tackle and solve some of the most challenging issues facing our planet.
“I would like to congratulate every single student who took part this week. Participating in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is a great
achievement.”
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