Two fifth year students from Mulroy College, Dylan McBride and Conor Bradley, participated in the National Sci-fest competition held in Marino Conference Centre last Friday.
Their project was making a comparative study to investigate if the breed of chicken affects the hatch rate of the eggs.
They spent many hours working hatching eggs over the summer to collate data for the project.
All the hard work paid off when they received a trophy of Excellence in STEM within the Life Science category.
Conor said he gained so much experience doing the project.
“This required a lot of independent work and I learnt that science never stops. We didn’t get a very good hatch rate the first time we did the sample of eggs. But on repeating it, the result was much better,” he said.
Dylan, who hopes to study science after his leaving certificate in Mulroy College, commented said, “I would encourage as many as possible to participate in competitions like this. Just seeing what other schools were working with was unbelievable. It has helped me to think to the future in zoology. It did take up a lot of time, but with the support of the school, teachers and our parents we are delighted that we got this far.”
On return to the school, their teacher, Aisling McAteer was delighted with the student’s success.
She highlighted that the school has been extremely successful in many science competitions including BT Young Scientist and ECO UNESCO over the past few years and this brings more encouragement to the students who are participating in this year’s BT Young Scientist Competition.
The school has a variety of activities arranged for Science Week, highlighting the importance of science to all areas of life.
