Tension was high on Sunday January 5th in Kinsale Community School as 24 teams of students made their final preparations for the 2014 BT Young Scientist exhibition.  The exhibition is now in its 50th year and begins in the RDS, Dublin on Wednesday January 8th with 550 projects exhibiting.   The 48 Kinsale participants, who are from 1st to 5th year , have been working on their projects since late summer 2013 and are hopeful of emulating the past success of the school in the event. Kinsale Community School has been awarded the Overall Young Scientist title three times in the past 7 years and over 60 category wins and special awards. The 2013 winners Ciara Judge, Emer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow were subsequently overall winners in the 2013 European Contest for Young Scientists. Past school winners have also been overall winners in the European event.

The projects from the school cover a very diverse range of topics.  The Kinsale students have shown their curiosity and creativity by investigating topical subjects such as attitudes to the broadcasting charge and retirement age and an experimental investigations on the use an aquatic weed to control pollution. The students are very proud of their work and are hopeful that the judges will appreciate their efforts. Mr Shaun Holly, the school’s BT Young Scientist Coordinator and his supporting team of teachers and mentors have been guiding the students for the past 5 months of intense activity.

Kinsale Community School first entered the event in 2002 with a single project which won a category award and interest has grown steadily leading to 24 project finalists in 2014 making the school’s representation at the event the largest in the country.