Youghal students crowned science contest winners

Students from Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Youghal, Co Cork have been named winners of the Merck Millipore School Science competition 2015.

Kate Keane, Tara Murphy, and Clodagh Tyrell received the Merck Millipore perpetual trophy and an iPad mini for their project entitled “An analysis of our generation’s ability to detect lies and how to improve this skill”. The school also received a state-of-the-art PC and printer.

Judges Martin McAuliffe, site director of Merck Millipore Cork; Paul O’Connor, the company’s head of quality; and Professor Jeremy Glennon, head of the analytical chemistry department at UCC, congratulated the students whose winning project was one of a number of prize-winning entries at this year’s event which was held at Fota Island Resort.

The judges praised the winners’ excellent presentation and were very taken with the level of experimentation and research.

“It’s a fantastic project. Many congratulations to the winners and their teachers,” said Prof Glennon. “Communication science is a very relevant subject matter in today’s world and the conclusions drawn from the research performed were clearly demonstrated.”

The students’ curiosity about the different techniques that exist for lie detection was the source of their inspiration for the project. They devised a number of experiments and methods to help identify optimal ways to establish if a person is lying.

Upon dissecting and analysing the results, the students came to some clear conclusions that people often exhibit a certain set of behavioural and physiological characteristics when lying — for example sweaty palms.

Martin McAuliffe said: “It is wonderful to see the creativity and innovation involved in these projects and the enthusiasm these students have for science.”