As part of their prize, the winners of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2009 were given the oppportunity to compete in this year's European Young Scientist Contest.

Kinsale Community School Pupils, John D O'Callaghan and Liam McCarthy flew off to Paris to take part in this prestigious event. It was here that they picked up the first prize for their project, which not only made them the number one young scientists in Europe but saw them awarded £7,000 for their efforts!

Following the win, BT Chief Exectuive Chris Clark said, "This is fantastic news and we are very proud of John D and Liam's achievements" ... "I hope the news of this win inspires students throughout the island to enter the 2010 exhibition".

Irish entrants have now taken home a total of 11 awards at the European Young Scientist Contest - so who knows - maybe you can take home the 12th?

With this years exhibition approaching so quickly you should definitely be well under way with your experimental work. You should aim to have your project finished by the 1st of January (I know, it never happens!), to let you relax and practice your presentation for the judges.


CliCk For Dylan asked: What type of questions do the judges ask?

Most of the judges don’t ask you too many direct questions. Although it is called a discussion you will find that you do almost all of the talking! When the judge comes they will introduce themselves and probably say something like “tell me about your project” or “so, what is it all about?”

I always liked to have prepared a few lines of an introduction because when you are under pressure your mind can go blank! Start at the beginning and work your way through your project, talk about how you came up with your idea, your research, experimental methods and your results.

Most of the time the judge will just listen and nod, after a while they might start to ask direct questions on your project. These could be anything from questions on your apparatus, your analysis or the theory behind your project. The questions are to test you and see how much you really know, the harder the question the more they are testing you and in some cases it might mean they are really interested in the project.

If you are asked something you don’t know, admit it, there is no point in trying to make something up these people are experts in their fields, you are not expected to know everything, so don’t worry! Also be passionate about your project, that’s the point of the competition and the judges like to see that the students have enjoyed doing the project.

Congratulations to all of you who have become finalists for this year’s competition! It is a great achievement to be accepted but now it is time for the real work to begin.

I told you last week that you should be beginning to prepare for your data collection, and even start running some tests. Unfortunately you will probably find that you will have to do most of the work at the weekends but don’t waste the time during the week!

Your report is the most important part of your project and you could be working on it when you can’t do any practical work. It is collected and read over night by one of your judges so it is important that you include everything you have done in it. There is some great advice on how to structure your report on the website (www.btyoungscientist.com) so check that out if you are stuck.

Right now you should be writing up any sections you have done work on like Research or Experimental Methods. You can always add in or change any information if you need to but for the moment write up as much as you can. You should also remember your project diary. Every time you do any amount of work or research you should make a note of it, this will help you remember what you have done when it comes to writing up your report. Bring your diary to the exhibition with you as well as it shows the judges all the time and effort you put in.

I think that’s enough for you to chew on this week, the most important thing to remember is your report, it will save you a lot of time (and panic!) in the last few weeks coming up to the exhibition if you do as much of it as possible as you go along.