Longford student among award winners at 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

A Longford student was among the award winners as the county was represented by five projects and two schools at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) at the RDS in Dublin. 

Ronan Lyons from Lanesboro Community College picked up a Highly Commended award from the judges in recognition of his project entitled 'Learning environments that LAST: An enquiry into student opinion on Light, Air quality, Space and Temperature in classrooms'.  

Ronan's project, one of four from Lanesboro CC, was entered in the Social & Behavioural Sciences category. 

Sport and Covid-19 figured prominently in the other three projects.

Conor Lyons in 'Running up that hill' investigated the impact of school location, size and socio-economic status on school performance at national Cross Country events from 2012 to 2022.

Long-time Longford Town FC fan, Bryan Mullooly, explored the affect of social media on gate receipts in the League of Ireland. 

While Amy O’Donohue's project was very topical as she investigated 'Covid-19 Conspiracies and the Internet'.

Caption: Ronan Lyons, Conor Lyons, Bryan Mullooly and Amy O’Donohue who represented Lanesboro Community College at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE)

Lanesboro CC are certainly no strangers to BTYSTE success in recent years.

In 2021, when the exhibition was streamed online owing to Covid-19, Orla Lyons was the first prize winner of the Biological and Ecological Senior Individual Category with her project ‘Rising from the Ashes: A survey of plants in my local bogs which have been identified as having medicinal properties’. 

In 2019, Conor Lyons was awarded second prize in the Junior Individual Social and Behavioural Sciences category for his project 'The cost of playing for the club: A statistical analysis of time and money spent by GAA Senior Club players'.

Two other Lanesboro students won awards in '19 - At senior level in the Biological and Ecological category, Leah Farrell received a 'Highly Commended' award for designing an online tool for calculating CO2 emissions and for applying this model to analysing the carbon footprint of our diets. At intermediate level, Orla Lyons’ study on the benefits of a short maths programme to help students improve their numeracy was awarded the ‘Highly Commended’ accolade and singled out as a ‘policy changing study’.

And in 2018, Brian Lyons from Lanesboro CC received a Highly Commended Award for his project, 'A cure for poor health literacy? An investigation into the readability of public health resources'.

Caption: Aaron Diffley, Harrison Cheyne and Orla May Gilligan from Ardscoil Phádraig, Granard pictured with Irish rugby legend Jamie Heaslip at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE)

Ardscoil Phádraig, Granard were also represented at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) by the three person team of Aaron Diffley, Harrison Cheyne and Orla May Gilligan and their mentor Mr Domican.

Their project, 'As we age technology levels decrease' in  the Social and Behavioural Sciences category, saw them present the results of their investigation into the links between a persons age profile and their digital literacy levels. 

This year's Ardscoil Phádraig standard bearers became the sixth entry from the school to qualify for the BTYSTE in the last three years. 

The group welcomed judges, public figures, fellow students and members of the general public to their stand, including Irish rugby legend Jamie Heaslip, Tanáiste Micheál Martin and MEP Maria Walsh.