Best wishes to the Meath school students taking part in the 57th BT Young Scientist Expo

Insects as food, sustainable period products for the third world, fingerprint patterns and BMI testing are among the ten Meath projects who will feature in the 2020 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition which opens tomorrow in the RDS.
Projects from Dunshaughlin Community College, St Joseph’s, Mercy, Navan, St Ciaran's Community School, Kells, Franciscan College, Gormanston and Eureka, Kells will compete at the 57th year of the renowned educational event.

The results will be announced from 5.30 to 7.30pm on Friday and the exhibition continues into Saturday. 
The ten Meath projects are among 550 finalist projects. In total, over 1,800 projects were submitted by students in schools all across the island of Ireland. 

Six of the projects are from St Joseph’s Convent of Mercy in Navan with one group of girls hoping to create an ethical period product to be made available to women in third world countries which would also combat waste from these products. This project has been undertaken by  Sophie McElligott and Salome Maher Bordalo and is entered in the Technological section.

Another Mercy project asks if BMI testing is a thing of the past. Students, Naomi Travers, Abbie Moyles and Aoibhin Lally asked if BMI testing was the most accurate way to indicate weight or should a combination approach be taken using other methods combined.
'Can you hear me now' is a project by Lauren Clarke on the social side of people with and without hearing disabilities and the difference between the two. 
Emily Navagh Burke's project ‘To Infinity and Beyond- A Study of the Mathematics of Fractals and their Occurence in Daily Life' uses geometry and algebra to investigate how maths describes patterns in everyday life by examining fractal forms.

Another of the Mercy projects entitled ‘Smart Stick’ is entered in the Technological category. This project aims to improve the white cane used by blind people and the students, AnneMarie Asiruvatham and Mariessa McManus did this by placing sensors on it to detect any obstacles.,
‘Back to the Future’ is a Mercy Project entered in the Biological and Ecological Sciences category. It is a comparison of a multi-species sward to a basic mono-species perennial ryegrass sward focusing on nitrogen levels, nutrients the soil receives, grazing conditions and resilience, carried out by Aoife Heaney and Heather-Mai Kane.

The Mercy teachers who mentored these entries are Bronagh Farrell, Elaine Rothwell and Fiona Leavy.
Dunshaughlin Community College's entry is on eating ‘Bugs to Save the World’, which is an investigation into the feasibility of converting our protein intake from animal based protein such as cows, to insects. The team consists of Sean O'Hara, Emma Deegan and Kaja Zielinska and their teacher is Ms Fiona McKeevar.

The Franciscan College's entry is entitled ‘Relating Personality Factors like School Subject Preferences to Fingerprint Patterns.’  Makua Ifediora's project aims to relate personality factors such as school subject preference, to the nine fingerprint subtypes and the Big Five personalities in a sample group. His teacher is Pauline Murphy. 

Eureka School in Kells has entered a project entitled ‘Food Eco Rating.’ The project aims to devise and display a "Food Eco Rating" on store shelf edge labels for fresh fruit and vegetables, to assist shoppers in making environmentally-aware decisions. The students are  Aine Rooney, Katie Sheridan and Grainne Nevin and their teacher is Caroline Shalvey.

St Ciaran's Community School has entered a project on 'The Effect of Moths on Ecosystems.' The effect moths have on a peatland ecosystem in North Meath, their benefits to the peatland and why moths are so important have been researched by Timothy Sullivan and Denis Lynch. Their teacher is Ciaran Dunne.

The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition runs until Saturday. It will be officially opened at 2pm tomorrow and this will be followed by the first round of judging. The second and third rounds of judging take place on Thursday and the results will be announced on Friday evening.