St. Mary’s Arklow News – Feb 2019

Young Scientist Success

Huge congratulations to all of our students who exhibited at this years BT YOUNG SCIENTIST EXHIBITION 2019. All 5 projects which qualified for the exhibition were wonderful ambassadors for our school but special praise is warranted for our prize winners who brought home an array of national awards. Well done to Aimee Bodell, Leah Weldon and Marguerite O’Donovan who won the RSA Award and came second overall in the Intermediate Group Category (Technology) with their project ‘Want a safe car? Wheel get right on that’. Congratulations also to Liadain O’Sullivan who won the Housing Agency Award for her project ‘How to build happiness’ and to Ella Devereux who was highly commended for her project entitled ‘Children with Autism cannot wait’

Well done also to Roisin, Maeve and Elizabeth on their excellent projects on ‘The Flynn Effect’ and ‘Is there Roundup in our Honey’ Huge thanks also to Ms. English for her commitment and encouragement of all the girls in their endeavours and to Joanne Devereux for her continuous assistance and support.

Some of the students impressed the judges so much they have been asked to be Mentors for next years competition and Aimee, Marguerite and Leah were invited to the prestigious BT Bootcamp, an honour extended to only a small number of students. Ella Devereux has been contacted by a number of TDs to ask for her assistance and the use of her data and statistics to further their work in the area of children and autism.

 

Junk Kouture

Congratulations to our Junk Kouture teams who have progressed to the Eastern Regional Finals to be held in the Helix on March 4th -‘Queen of Roses’ by Emer O’Toole, Nian MacCormaic, and Erin O’Toole. ‘ The Last Straw’ by Katie Kenny, Chloe Mordant and Patricia Canencia Diaz. ‘Mermaid Attack’ by Lauren Russell, Sarah Clarke and Becky Kealy. All teams put a huge amount of effort into their creations, all made from recycled materials which would otherwise be classed as ‘junk’ but the lucky teams above will have the opportunity to present their dresses on the catwalk at the high energy Regional Final next month. Best of luck girls!

 

Dave’s Jungle

On Wednesday February 13th all of our TY students attended a workshop about zoology and habitat and got to see some weird and wonderful wildlife up close when Dave Griffin of ‘Dave’s Jungle’ brought a selection of reptiles and arachnids to St. Mary’s. The students got to encounter some unusual animals and saw them being fed and learnt about their senses and their lifestyles. It was a very enjoyable and worthwhile experience, especially for those students who overcame their fears by getting close to and holding snakes, a tarantula and even a scorpion.