YOUNG SCIENTISTS
Happy hens
If hens are warm and have the freedom to run around and flap their wings, they will enjoy good health and reward us by laying lots of eggs. As Annie Mae Doherty, a first year student at St Joseph’s in Charlestown, Co Mayo, remarked, it is easy enough to see when hens are happy, but, she was curious to know what makes the free-ranger more productive than its battery cousins. So, for her BT Young Scientist and Technology project Annie Mae began recording egg yields against day and night temperatures, and she also got in contact with battery hen producers in Carrick-on-Shannon and Co Meath, so see how their figures compared. The producers, she said, responded with some good data on the number of eggs laid, the feed, and temperatures, and Teagasc also provided Annie Mae with a lot of valuable information. Not surprisingly, Annie Mae found that hens like their comforts, and even if free to run around, low temperatures will make them lay less eggs. Another factor, which would be less obvious to most people, is that they need plenty of light. To keep them laying, said Annie Mae, they need their 14 hours of light a day. So, the hen house needs to be warm, but not too warm, and it needs a light. Annie Mae was surprised at how few people in her locality were keeping hens, but with the downturn of the economy, that’s beginning to change. “Most of the people I talked to,” she said, “had only got into hens within the last 18 months or so.” A generation ago, practically every house in the area would have had hens clucking around the yard, and Annie Mae said it would be a great benefit to see their return.
Working on the project, she said, had fired her curiosity. “I really enjoyed the doing the project”, she said, adding that “I’d like to follow up on this to find out how they incubate and hatch their chicks out.” Above, Annie Mae Doherty at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Report: Tom Kennedy
The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition will take place in Dublin from January 11th – 15th 2012. For more information on the exhibition, check out www.facebook.com/BTYSTE or twitter.com/btyste or www.btyoungscientist.com LLIVEK IN
Entries are invited for the RDS Primary Science Fair and selected projects will be on show at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Closing date 5th October 2011. LIVE Details from Karen Sheeran at the RDS, 01 2407990. Email: [email protected] LINK
PRIMARY SCIENCE
Sligo winners
STuDeNTS from Sligo were among the top winners in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup competition for young innovators. The competition, now in its ninth year, is open to students everywhere. Students have to submit projects that address serious global problems, such as road safety or poverty. The students from Ireland, as Team Hermes, came tops in the Software Design section for a plug in device that monitors dangerous driving or hazardous road conditions.
As award winners the students were presented with $25,000 The team from Sligo Institute of Technology are Aíne Conaghan from Ballybofey, Donegal, James McNamara, a postgraduate research student from Ballyfarnon, Co Roscommon, Calum Cawley from Castlebaldwin, Co Sligo, and Matthew Padden from Ballina, Co Mayo. Awards were also presented to students from the uS, Jordan, Taiwan, China, Romania, France, Poland, Brazil, Thailand, the Czech Republic, Oman, Korea, Slovakia, Japan and the Philippines.
SCIENCE SPIN Issue 48 Page 32