This article is from page 6 of the 2014-01-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
YEARS spent studying the ocean off the North Clare coast paid off for Lisdoonvarna student Stephen O’Connell last week after he took first place in the Biological and Ecological Category of the BT Young Scientist Exhibition.
Stephen was one of six students from Mary Immaculate Secondary School to receive an award at this year’s Young Scientist. Indeed, nine of the 10 Clare projects at this year’s event came from Lisdoonvarna, with one project from Scoil Mhuire in Ennistymon also making the final.
Stephen, whose father fishes off the coast of Doolin and Liscannor, has entered the competition on two previous occasions, with each project exploring different aspects of fishing in the area.
Stephen profiled more than 1,200 crabs caught off the Clare coast and developed a method for separating low quality and high quality crab meat. His work could have a major impact on the quality of crab being produced by the Irish crab industry.
The school also had great performances from Rhianna McMahon and her brother Keelan who took second place in their category as well as winning the EMC Data Hero Award.
Second year students Tess Casasin Sheridan and Aoife Doherty received the Geological Survey of Ireland Award for their project while David Sims was Highly Commended for his project.
“This is Stephen’s third year in the exhibition and they all have been building in the same area. His father and his uncle are both fishermen so that is what Stephen knows best. It is a great advantage to have a project that the student has an interest in and has a lot of knowledge around,” said John Sims of Mary Immaculate Secondary School.
“Keelan and Rhianna did very well as well, coming second in their category and also winning the EMC Data Hero Award. This award is for data analysis and they had 20,000 lines of data in their project which was a great achievement.
“The standard was so high this year and I think everyone did really really well. It was above my wildest dreams that everyone did so well. It was a great achievement.”