Ireland was well represented among the top awards at the world's biggest pre-university science fair last week.
Conor Higgins, Elizabeth Crawford and Angela Wilson from Hazelwood College in Belfast picked up second place in the environmental-science category at the Intel International Science Fair in Detroit, Michigan, with each of the three students winning $1,500. Clare O'Connell and James McKenna from Loreto College in Co Derry won third place in the geophysics category, with each of the two students winning $1,000. Peter Taylor and Shane Browne from St Kilian's Community School in Bray, Co Wicklow, this year's group-project winners at the Esat Young Science and Technology Exhibition, won fourth place in the mathematics category and an award from the Society of Technical Communication. Their total prize money was $750 each.
The 1,200 students who participated in the science fair from more than 40 countries around the world set up their projects early last week and judging by 800 judges took place throughout the week. Six Nobel laureates in chemistry, physics and medicine also participated in the week's events, providing a panel discussion with the students.
The ISEF competition featured prizes and scholarships worth a total of $2 million, including a $40,000 scholarship for the three top finalists and cash awards for the best projects in each category. Some 900 awards were presented.
The Belfast project won Northern Ireland's Young Innovators Competition. for their project on genetically modified food and began as part of the student's A-level biology involving the manufacture of an assay test which can detect the presence of GM material in food. The Derry project won the British Youth Science Fair and involved the development of a computer programme to detect earthquakes. The project from Bray involved a detailed study of Pascal's Triangle, making a three-dimensional model of the 17th- century mathematician's triangle using tennis balls. The project also involved establishing odd and even numbers of both Pascal's triangle and the three-dimensional model.
