Exhibits: Three students from Balbriggan Community College in Co Dublin have uncovered the ills that plague Ireland's international rugby squad. It is all down to a matter of equilibrium among the forwards, the students suggest.
Anthony Coates (13) and Anthony Murphy (14), both keen rugby enthusiasts and players, decided to analyse why the Irish squad was the heavy favourite to beat France last March in the Six Nations championship, but failed to deliver. They presented their findings at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition under way at the RDS, Dublin.
The French, it seems, had a perfectly balanced forward pack, with balance both left and right but also from the front row through the second and third row players. Ireland's scrum was 32 kg heavier but was beaten by the French in 77 per cent of scrums, the students found.
"We found the French had a perfect equilibrium," Anthony Murphy said. "The Irish scrum was all over the place," Anthony Coates added.
They ran tests in the classroom using student volunteers, mixing players in various positions and gauging how this altered the scrum. "In the front row, weight is more important and in the second row, height is more important," Murphy said.
They developed a graphical method to display lines of force in the scrum. "We came up with a mathematical model using triangles," Coates said. Irish rugby selectors, please take note.
St Mary's College in Rathmines, Dublin, is a rugby school, but three first-year students there skipped the football and instead put together an environmental project focused on Pollardstown Fen.
Rowan Moorkens O'Reilly (12), Philip Dix (12) and Cillian Barden (13) went in search of isopoda, better known as wood lice, as a measure of environmental quality.
"We went to Pollardstown because it is protected under European law and is considered one of the best protected environments," Rowan said.
They took samples from 29 different sites on the Co Kildare fen which provides water for the Grand Canal. They found specimens by simply scooping up handfuls of leaves and plant waste on the ground, says Cillian, and when this was cleared away they counted and preserved the wood lice they had found.
"We found loads in some areas and only one or two in others," Philip said.
They then used microscopes and a wood lice guide to identify the species they had recovered.
They only located six different species, Rowan said. "All the species we found were common varieties. We found only six of the 17 that should have been there."
They had hoped to search areas close to the fen, but found one had been turned into a dump. Rowan was unsure whether environmental degradation had caused the low species spread.
Sugar, not wood lice, was on the menu in a project prepared by Anna Mealy and Alice Miller, two 13-year-old first years from Loreto secondary school, Wexford. They knew that hearing gradually declined in older people and they wanted to know if the same held true for taste-bud response to sugar, explains Alice.
"We tested 54 people. We had age categories but then did two age groups, 13 to 17 and over 50," she said. They found test subjects in their own and the nearby boys' school and parents and friends for the older category.
Anna explained how they created a selection of sugar and water mixtures, with ratios ranging from one to two, all the way down to one to 128. Each subject received 21 taste tests and were asked yes or no whether they could taste sugar in each of the samples, she said. Small drinks of water were given to clear the palate between tests.
"The older people could taste sugar better than younger people," Alice said. "The girls could taste sugar better than the boys," Anna added.
Even the most dilute solutions tasted of sugar to some of the subjects, Anna found. "Some of the older people could taste it."
Their subject survey included details about height, weight and how often they snacked on crisps and sugary foods.
They found no correlation between body mass index and the ability to taste sugar, but younger people were far more likely to eat sugary treats.
Alice suggested that the low sugar intake of older people made them more sensitive to sugar.
