‘Family size should determine water allowance’

FAMILY size should dictate the amount of water a house is allowed without charge when metering is introduced, a pair of researchers has found.

The findings, from one of three prize-winning Young Scientist projects at Kinsale Community School in Cork, are already winging their way to the desk of Environment Minister Phil Hogan, whose officials met transition-year students Caoimhe Hill and Faye Murphy at last week’s exhibition in Dublin.

“If they had the option of the free allocation being based on the number of people living in the house, household income or the same for all houses, most wanted it based on who lives there,” explained Caoimhe.

She and Faye surveyed almost 400 people about a range of environmental taxes and were first-prize winners on Friday in the group intermediate behavioural and social sciences category at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

They were joined on the winners’ podium by two second-year students for whom success was nothing new. Their successes and other prizewinners led to Kinsale Community School receiving the National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals Best School Award.

Ciara Judge and Sophie Healy-Thow were part of a group project a year ago with which they became the youngest students in the competition’s history to be awarded one of the top overall prizes. This year, they won individual prizes in separate categories, with Ciara inspired by a question she pondered when struggling to sleep one night.

“I had put some lavender on my pillow but I couldn’t sleep and I started thinking about the impacts of plant extracts,” she said.

The project involved comparing the effects of eucalyptus and lavender on snails and mealworms and Ciara hopes the results could prompt further research on the stimulant or relaxant properties of these or other plants. Her sister Aisling was the 2006 overall winner and is now studying at University College Dublin, but Ciara said it was her interest in biology and aspirations to be a vet that spurred her on and the project was named as best individual in the junior biological and ecological category.

Aisling’s success was followed by Kinsale Community School students Liam McCarthy and John D O’Callaghan who claimed the top prize in 2009.

For her winning individual project in the junior social and behavioural sciences section, Sophie surveyed more than 1,000 people on their awareness of how their dietary choices impact later health. She found that, while people are aware of the effects of poor diet, they do not necessarily change bad habits.

“In this economic climate, people are more willing to go for cheaper food, like fast or frozen food rather than fresh vegetables,” she said.

Other category-winning projects from Cork at the 2012 exhibition came from students of Coláiste Choilm Ballincollig, Coláiste Muire in Crosshaven and Mount St Michael, Rosscarbery.

The Presentation secondary schools in Milltown and Tralee celebrated an individual category winner.