A great victory for Ballinrobe students

Ballinrobe Community School celebrated major success at the recent BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition held in the RDS, Dublin, last month. 

Leaving Certificate students Emma Sweeney, Emily Butler and Luke Molloy, produced an impressive project on Swift Conservation, which focused on the observation of the feeding habits of fledging common swifts correlating to weather conditions. The students picked up the Met Éireann Award (Biological and Ecological) for the observation of the feeding habits of fledgling Common Swifts (Apus apus) correlating to weather conditions. They were also awarded the prestigious 1st Senior Group in the category awards for the project.

It was certainly a proud day for the students, their families, Ballinrobe Community School and the town and its environs.

Participating student Luke Molloy was surprised to hear that their project had won but was delighted with the outcome and had special praise for his year in Transition Year.

"We have been doing this project since roughly First Year, however, things really started to take off in Transition Year. TY was a great year and gave us the time to really get to work on this project.

“My family were very happy with the outcome, especially after all the classes that I have missed for this project!”

This project has also altered his plans for a career after secondary school.

“I was originally hoping to do an apprenticeship; however, this project has really opened my eyes to doing something along the ecological route."

After the joyous results at the BT Awards in the RDS on Friday, January 10, the winning students had a party in the school the following Wednesday, where they celebrated with their fellow classmates and teachers.

Emily Butler explained all of the hard work that went into this project.

“We did the project over a four to five-year period. In our TY Year (Transition Year) we basically spent every day watching the videos of the birds, investigating their habits, and taking down all the data. In Fifth Year, we applied for the BT Young Scientist competition, and for the first few months we correlated all the data and made all the graphs.

"We all worked together for a lot of months, and it was great to persevere and to make sure that everything was complete.

“We actually hadn’t heard of the common swift until Mr Rourke [science teacher] told us about it. Mr Rourke was approached by Swift Conservation Ireland and then he informed us of the project and helped set the wheels in motion."

Emily also said they made friends with some of the other competing students in the RDS.

“The first day was a bit nerve-racking; however, it was actually very relaxed up there. All of the judges were lovely and we made friends with students from different schools as well.

"It was a huge surprise. We were kind of hoping to get the Met Éireann Award as we had used some of their data, but to actually top the group category and win that award was a complete surprise."

For her career path, Emily would like to study journalism in college.

“I actually want to study journalism, with an emphasis on perhaps something similar to this project, such as biological or ecological journalism.” 

Emma Sweeney was delighted to see how the common swift had been highlighted and is now in the public’s mind.

“It is nice that the bird gets more recognition and that we can teach people about the swift. It might encourage more people to get swift boxes and we can try and increase the swift population. It was great to be able to do a project like this, especially before the Leaving Certificate.

“It has really helped me personally as well as I can now let people know about something that I have a real interest in. Anyone who takes part in the BT Young Scientist will come away with a new set of skills."

Emily has an interest in animals and she also works with horses.

“I love animals and I work with horses as well. Doing something like this project and actually observing a wild animal, was something new and really interesting."

As for the future and college, Emily would like to study endangered animals and explains that we can learn a lot from nature.

“I was thinking about studying ecology in college, and further studying endangered animals and learning more about them."

Science and Chemistry teacher Barry Rourke explained the tremendous amount of work that his Leaving Certificate students had put into this project.

“They put in a tremendous amount of work and effort into this project and they did a fantastic job on their poster as well. I am really proud of them, and it is also a proud day for the school.

“It took two years, from the beginning to watching the videos, the analysis, to final document, and then the actual exhibition itself in the RDS. It took a lot of effort and dedication to complete the project."

Mr Rourke explained the importance of TY to the project.

The majority of the analysis on the video came from the student’s time in TY as they wouldn’t have had the time to do it in Third or Fifth Year due to exams. That is the beauty of TY, as it gives students the time to work on a project like this."

This prestigious national success is a great boost for Ballinrobe Community School.

“It puts the school on the map and it is also publicity for Swift Conservation Ireland, and it is great that the general public are made aware that we can increase swift numbers through simple actions. The swift nest with three chicks can survive, but we just need to provide enough food and a habitat for them to live."

As for the future, Mr Rourke explained that tentative plans are in the pipeline for Ballinrobe Community School for next year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

“We may have some plans for next year. However, it is very difficult to qualify for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition as they have 2,500 entries from schools all across the country. Only 500 schools actually pass the initial qualifying phase, so to win a prize out of those 500 schools takes a lot of work and it is a great achievement.

“Hopefully, we can push on and build on this success, and do something else on the Swift Project, or come up with some other ideas about the ecology in the local Ballinrobe area."