Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council support Fort Hill College innovators of the future at BT Young Scientist Exhibition
January 22, 2018
A team from Fort Hill Integrated College in Lisburn who attended the prestigious BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition this month at the RDS, Dublin today thanked Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council for the support they received from the Development committee.
This event is the premier STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) event in the British Isles and one of the biggest in Europe. Almost 2100 projects from across the UK were entered with only 550 making it to the finals and Fort Hill College was one of only thirteen schools from Northern Ireland to qualify.
Two year 11 pupils, Jamie Martin and Ben Halligan, focussed their project on the use of hamsters to generate a renewable source of energy, and assessing whether or not that resulting energy created could be used to charge mobile phones.
Alderman Allan Ewart MBE, Chair of the Development Committee at Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council said, “It is a really encouraging sign for the economic future of the area and indeed that of Northern Ireland that there is such a high level of interest in STEM subjects in schools. We were delighted to be able to support the team from Fort Hill Integrated College as they represented the Council area at this prestigious science and technology showcase.”
Feedback from the judges was extremely positive. Professor Sarah Jane Delaney, Assistant Head of School of Computing, said, “Well done guys! You picked a very useful and important area for your project. Your idea is interesting and you succeeded in building a prototype and building it out.”
Jamie and Ben said of the experience, “As well as being an amazing learning experience, taking part in the BT Young Scientist competition meant that we had to present and explain our ideas to judges and hundreds of other competition participants and visitors. That will definitely help with future coursework presentations and interviews. We are already looking forward to next year. Thanks to the Council for helping us to participate.”
Aside from the obvious benefits to the team involved, according to Science Teacher at Fort Hill Integrated College Stephen McCormick, “There has been a huge amount of interest generated in Science within the College with other students approaching the science department with project ideas for the competition in 2019.”
Ends