A YEAR 10 student from St Dominic's Grammar School on the Falls Road has swept all before her, winning first place in the prestigious BT Young Scientist competition.
Ava McGurk came out on top in the Junior Social and Behavioural Sciences category. As Ava's project was the only one from any school in the North to be awarded first place in a category, St Dominic's Grammar School was also awarded Best Overall School in the North of Ireland.
Ava personally won €300 for her award.
Speaking to the Andersonstown News, a delighted Ava said: “I’m very proud and feel privileged that I was recognised for my project and feel elated that I have been able to participate in scientific research.
“The competition was an amazing opportunity and it was definitely worth all the hard work and late nights.
“It is also fantastic that St Dominic’s has been recognised as the best school in Northern Ireland in this year’s competition.”
Ava's project looked at how external factors influence people's perception of taste. In her first experiment Ava proved that if someone is given yellow jelly they will 'taste' lemon flavour even when no flavouring is added. Ava investigated other factors that might influence people's taste perceptions – music, background visuals – and also looked at how this can be used as a method of obesity prevention to see if people can be influenced into perceiving a pleasant taste from low calorie food.
For the competition Ava had to submit a 50-page report, a three-minute video and undergo three separate online judging sessions with scientific experts.
Ava's research began when her investigation won the school Science Fair in 2020 when she was in Year 8. She had further success with the project in Year 9 when she won the Junior category in the Sentinus Think Big competition. The BT Young Scientist competition had over 500 projects competing, so Ava's achievement puts her amongst the best young scientists in Ireland.
