Huge congratulations to 1st Year Pobalscoil students Keelin Kelly, Katie King and Hannah Leahy for securing 2 nd place in their category at this years Young Scientist of the Year.These young ladies have been actively beach cleaning locally for years and were inspired to create their MARCUSbot in order to collect the prolific amount of micro-plastics that pollute our shores and waterways.
Report by 1 st yr student and award recipient Katie King.
MARCUSBot stands for Mechanical Axial Rotator Cleaning Up Seashores. Keelin Kelly, Katie King and Hannah Leahy, 1st year students at Pobalscoil na Tríonoíde entered the Junior Technology category at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. The girls won a 2nd place prize! The girls designed a machine to remove plastic from seaweed and sand.
There are 2 stages to the cleaning process – a flotation chamber and a spinning drum. It was discovered that netting and small plastic were effectively removed in the spinning drum phase while large plastics were separated from the sand and seaweed in the flotation chamber. The girls were inspired to undertake this investigation as they live near the beach and enjoy all that their local environment has to offer.
David King was their mentor for the entirety of the project and competition. Martin O’ Brien, Engineering teacher at Pobalscoil na Tríonoíde,Youghal Clean Coasts Group helped the girls to build the machine. Grainne Furey of Youghal Blue and Green Community Network and Aine Galvin of Youghal Clean Coasts Group provided support, advice and assistance. Science teacher Barbara Kirwan of Pobalscoil provided support and encouragement.
And finally, a huge thank you to the parents of the girls and the fantastic community volunteers who generously and enthusiastically assisted the project by helping with testing and cleaning.
