‘Most groups ever’ from Moate CS exhibit at Young Scientists

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Moate Community School will have its highest ever of number of projects displayed at the 2026 edition of the Stripe Young Scientist & Technology exhibition.

Science teacher Ms Mairead Cusack that it is a a major achievement for the school to have a total of ten teams bring their innovative scientific explorations to the RDS in Dublin today (Wednesday, January 7), as they share their work with judges, fellow students, and curious visitors.

She praised the students’ commitment and progress in the lead-up to the Young Scientist exhibition, noting the exceptional level of work involved this year.

“All the groups have been extremely busy over the last month making three-minute videos and their log books. They've been working on the projects since September,” she said.

The experience, she added, will help students to build their confidence and communication skills.

“By the time they get to Saturday, they’re not going to be stressed speaking to people or the media, they’ll be so used to explaining their work,” she said.

One of the Moate projects, 'Freeze-Free Drinkers: Engineering Freeze-Resistant Livestock Drinking Systems', developed by students Denis Murray, Conor Fox, and Tom O'Connell, was inspired by everyday winter challenges on a family farm.

“My Dad is a farmer, and during the winter the drinkers on his farm freeze, which just increases the workload on him,” Denis said.

The project set out to prevent freezing by combining a solute with a pump system to keep water moving.

“We added a solute which is beneficial to the cattle, and we also used a pump to regulate the flow so the water keeps moving and doesn’t freeze,” he said.

After testing multiple solutes and concentrations, calcium chloride proved most effective. “We found that 0.6 grams was the optimum concentration, it completely stopped ice from forming after an hour in the freezer.”

A working prototype using temperature sensors and a conductivity meter showed the system could reduce freezing, helping farmers save time and avoid dangerous icy conditions.

“Farmers can use their time for other things,” Denis said. “A lot of farmers are older, so this can prevent farm accidents as well.”

Sixth year student Fionn Campbell developed his project 'RoadSense: Piezo-Powered Energy Harvesting from Traffic' as an exploration of energy harvesting from roads using piezoelectric materials.

Piezoelectric is the electric charge that accumulates in certain solid materials and biological matter in response to applied mechanical stress.

“The initial idea came from the energy crisis. Electricity costs were crazy at the time,” he said.

Fionn designed a small-scale piezoelectric speed ramp to test his idea, but the results showed that energy generation alone was not viable.

“The bottom line was that it wasn’t economically viable compared to solar or wind.”

Rather than abandoning the project, Fionn decided to shift his focus to using the piezoelectric speed ramp for various sensors.

“Instead of using the pulses for electricity, I wanted to use them for sensing, including traffic counts, vehicle speed and even weight.”

The final concept is a self-powered, modular road monitoring system.

“It wouldn’t replace existing systems, but it would be a cheaper, reusable alternative,” he explained, adding, "human life has no cost, and if this improves road safety, that’s what matters.”

Students Sibéal Egan, Saoirse Hiney, and James Seery came up with their project 'From Irish Fields to Salmonella Shields: Producing Natural Egg Coatings to Inhibit the Bacterial Contamination of Eggs' using their own experiences owning hens.

The project aims to slow egg spoilage and reduce salmonella risk using natural coatings.

“Both me and my friends have hens, and we get too many eggs to eat quickly,” said Sibéal. “We wanted to be able to store them for longer without them going bad.”

The team tested hydrophobic coatings such as vegetable oil, beeswax and propolis, alongside antimicrobial plant extracts.

“We measured pH, mass loss and the Haugh value to see how fresh the eggs were compared to a control.”

Vegetable oil performed best at slowing spoilage, while yarrow and propolis showed strong antimicrobial effects, and the group decided these were their best tools for creating the product.

The students believe the product could help reduce waste and improve food safety.

“It means people with hens don’t have to throw away eggs or give them away because they spoil too quickly,” Sibéal said.

Another project, titled 'Using Native Irish Plants to Reinvigorate Soils Following Prolonged Flooding at Lough Funshinagh', was developed by students Emma Kelly, Emily Galvin, and Rachel Pillion.

“Our project was inspired by the flooding at Lough Fushinagh, because the soils wouldn’t rejuvenate quickly after the water receded,” said Emma.

Soil samples were analysed before testing fermented plant juices made from native species such as nettle, dock and dandelion.

“We measured pH, nitrates, alcohol and microbial populations in each plant juice,” Emma explained.

“Nettle had the highest shoot length, dock had the highest root length, and dandelion had the highest germination rate.”

From this, the team developed an idea for a product called 'Flood Fix', a spray designed to restore flooded soils.

“We feel our product would really help farmers get land back into productive use more quickly,” she said.