Congratulations to Jes first year students Aoibhe Briscoe, Ellie Concannon and Katie Owens who took first place in the Junior Group category for Biological & Ecological Sciences at this year’s BT Young Scientists Exhibition. The girls also received a Special Award from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Their project was titled Think Before You Drink: Microplastics. For their project they investigated over 40 tap water samples from 23 primary schools in County Galway for microplastic contamination. They found that 96.9% of all tested samples were contaminated with microplastics and that the level of contamination for drinking water from Galway classrooms (2.7 per 500ml) exceeded the European average of 1.9 per 500ml.
The girls were worked closely with their science teacher Ms. Clodagh Mitchell throughout the project. They carried out their laboratory analysis under the supervision of Dr Audrey Morley, a lecturer in Physical Geography and member of the Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy research in NUI Galway.
NUI Galway Mentored Students Win Two BT Young Scientist Awards