This article is from page 16 of the 2008-06-24 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
CLARE academics across a range of ages proved this week that they have brains to burn, scooping not one but several awards.
North Clare students Darren O’Gorman and Laura Sims jointly won the main individual prize at the Northern Ireland Young Scientist
of the Year Competition. The pair, who are both Leaving Certificate students in Mary Immaculate Sec- ondary School in Lisdoonvarna, won the coveted Individual Award for 17 to 19 years with separate research projects.
Indeed there was more success for Darren who was also awarded the Queen’s University Award for Bio-
logical Sciences. The Kilfenora man was also one of just five projects nominated for the BA Crest, which entitles him to take part in the UK Young Scientists and Engineering Fair which takes place in London in March 2009.
His project was entitled “An Inves- tigation on the Effects of Temporary Limestone Lakes or Turloughs on
Leaf Morphology of Ranunculus Reopens”. Earlier this year he repre- sented the school at the Irish Young Scientist of the Year using the same project
Sinead McNamara, Amie Barrett, Catriona Callinan and David Crowe, all from Mary Immaculate, also took part in the competition.
Meanwhile Marie Clancy from Clare, a student of DIT Cathal Brugha Street, today won a National Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) award for her project which examined the prevalence of listeria monocytogenes in the dairy farm en- vironment in west Clare.
Marie’s assignment explored the oc- currence of listeria monocytogenes in the dairy farm environment on three different farms located in County Clare during the summer of 2007.
Environmental samples were tested to see if listeria monocytogenes was positive at different locations on the farms. Following on from the study, recommendations were made to the farmers who took part.
The achievements don’t stop there however as two Clare primary schools were honoured in the Awards of Science Excellence. St Tolas Na- tional School in Shannon and Par- teen National School were presented with the awards last week.