Heart and ‘soil’ is in Limerick school’s two Young Scientist projects

SIX students from Scoil Pól in Kilfinane have put their heart and ‘soil’ into their two BT Young Scientist projects on the heart and agriculture.

Ciara Mulcahy, Zita Regert and Doireann Walsh are the brainchilds of Visualise It! An Interactive Teaching Tool  for the heart while Nadine Lane, Rebecca Donegan and Anna O’Brien  are behind City Greens - A Sustainable Way to Urban Agriculture.

Ciara, Zita and Dorieann say that learning about the heart’s anatomy can be fascinating, however it’s also one of the most challenging topics for students. 

Working under the direction of Claire Bermingham, they wanted to come up with an alternative teaching and  learning tool which can be used by students and teachers to teach and  learn the complex components of the heart anatomy. 

“Diagrams in textbooks can lead to students  struggling to visualise the structures and functions. This is where the  idea for Visualise it! came from. Visualise it! It provides students with a 3D interactive model of the  heart, they can explore every part - like the atria, ventricles and valves - at their own pace, zooming in and out and rotating the model for better understanding.” 

To make the model for the heart they used a cloud-based platform where you can store, share, and work together with others to write code. The code used was called python.  

“We used python because In software development, Python can aid in tasks like build control, bug tracking, and testing. With Python, software developers can automate testing for new products or features.”

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Anna, Rebecca  and Nadine, under the guidance  of  Aisling O’Connor, aim to address the pressing issue of food  insecurity in urban areas.

City Greens focuses on creating affordable, sustainable solutions for people  living in cities or areas with limited access to space, resources, affordable plant  beds or time to grow their own vegetables. 

The team developed two innovative  systems using locally recycled milk cartons and plant pots from their own school  shed, cleverly transformed into plant containers.

Each milk carton includes holes to hold plant pots and a cut off bottom and top.  The cartons were then stacked on top of each other with a PEX pipe where small  holes were drilled in connected to a pump system on the bottom running through the inside of the milk carton system to ensure consistent watering of the  plants, this acted as a sprinkler in contained space.  

The girls chose radishes and tomatoes as their test crops, which they grew in rockwool – a material commonly used as insulation in houses but repurposed here for sustainable agriculture. 

Their approach combines creativity and practicality, offering a potential solution to urban food challenges.  

“City Greens is about empowering  people in cities to grow their own  food, no matter the constraints,” the group explained. 

“By reusing everyday materials and introducing efficient watering systems, we hope to make a real difference.”  

The project has already sparked interest among local community members and is set to inspire further innovation at this year’s BT Young Scientist competition.