Foyle pupils recognised for river safari

They presented their work at the festival as wall displays and faced some tough questions from the judges.   

Winning first place in the science category was a salinity project where pupils had measured salinity levels at different depths at four sites in the River Foyle between Prehen and Culmore point to determine what type of vertical mixing was taking place.

Pupils also worked on a bridge design project in conjunction with Roisin Crawford from STEM Aware which won Intel Best Science Project.

This project will now be put forward to the all Ireland stage of the competition in November. 

A third project looking at biodiversity in the Foyle area was awarded a bronze Science crest award. In addition to three glass trophies the school has also won a science show and money. 

Linda Hand, Teacher at Foyle College said: “Many thanks to the Loughs Agency and Riverwatch for all their help, enthusiasm and for enabling us to initially run our ‘science safari’ which gave us the ideas for these projects in the first place.”

Gillian Simpson, Information Officer at Loughs Agency said: “It was quite inspiring to work with these young students.  “They too were inspired by their kayaking trip on the river and this clearly comes through in the high standard of work they produced for SciFest.”

SciFest aims to encourage a love of science and maths through active, collaborative, inquiry-based learning and to provide a forum for students at local/regional level to present and display their scientific investigations.