Cookstown High School scoop two BT Young Scientist awards

Simon Paine, TJ Lindsay and Jack Scott were the overall winners in the senior technology category, and also secured the Met Eireann Special Award for Meteorology.

Graham Montgomery, Principal of Cookstown High School said,

Our mission at Cookstown High School is to provide and promote excellence, opportunity and support, and our involvement in this project fits that mission exactly. We believe in encouraging pupils to perform and achieve outside their comfort zone as that will help them develop their character. 

The team has worked incredibly hard under the leadership of Mr Johnston who was the Institute of Engineering & Technology STEM Teacher of the Year in 2016 and the Sentinus STEM Teacher of the Year in 2017.  We are delighted that pupils have had the opportunity to work closely with industry and higher education throughout the life of the project. 

Involvement in this competition has been crucial to developing the self-awareness and confidence of these young people and its legacy will be felt throughout the school as they in turn cascade their learning to others.

Sara McCracken, Head of Marketing, Research and Communication said,

It was clear from speaking to TJ, Jack and Simon the amount of thought and creativity that had gone into developing their weather station, which was inspired by a Blackberry Pi.  They had built their own solar panel and identified the most effective wind turbine through testing.  

It is clear that they are not yet finished and we wish them every success as they develop the commercial viability of their weather station. 

A group of CSSC officers and teachers from a number of controlled schools travelled to the RDS to visit the exhibition thanks to CSSC’s partnership with BT.

If you would like to learn more about BTYSE please contact your school support officer or visit the BTYSE website.

16 January 2018