Young Scientists of the Year

MrAbyss

Real science or woke back slapping for middle class teens?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Go and shyte you, it’s a fabulous competition with the aim of developing young people’s interest in the STEM careers, of which there’s always a need for. Why try and detract from that?

Grab All Association

Sweet Jesus

I hope they aren’t sent forward to the EUCYS to represent us. They’ll win for sure! Just when you think this sh!te has peaked.

mycro2013

Could also be called, which science teacher has the best idea for winning, competition. Doesn't quiet have the same ring to it though.

silverharp

they aren't working on flying cars then or training pets to spot cancer?

y0ssar1an22

I think it was a statistical analysis on gender stereotyping amongst 5 to 7 year olds. Christ! I'm sure 99.99% of them only know boys and girls. Some scientists should take note

c montgomery

I see their project as social/behavioural science rather than the usual chemistry/physics/biology/engineering projects.

I dislike this project winning as when viewed against previous winners it seems quite weak and obvious.

I have not seen the other projects entered however in this day and age with kids being as smart as they are I think there must have been numerous better overall projects .

Best of luck to them however, they put the effort in.

c montgomery

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

I think it was a statistical analysis on gender stereotyping amongst 5 to 7 year olds. Christ! I'm sure 99.99% of them only know boys and girls. Some scientists should take note

Exactly. The lads did a survey on a load of kids.
It smells like a "lets make the data fit our hypothesis " kind of project.

MrAbyss

The Irish Times are having orgasms over it. You would think the school had found the cure for cancer the way they are going on.

selwyn froggitt

Years ago I won the Young Scientist of the Year...










He was a nice lad, I kept him in the attic with his test tubes.

MrAbyss

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

I think it was a statistical analysis on gender stereotyping amongst 5 to 7 year olds. Christ! I'm sure 99.99% of them only know boys and girls. Some scientists should take note

It was a political project and not a scientific one. This is why it won. No other reason.

Still waters

Fair play to the winners, how will their project be viewed (social science?) is this the way the young scientists is going, can we expect more studies on psychological or societal rather than actual science based projects

Montage of Feck

Soft science in my opinion.

wingnut

I prefer Scifest its more 'grassroots'. BTYS is a racket kids have to pay €30 to enter. I've seen really good project proposals turned town and gone to the event to see some projects that are utter junk.

No doubt there are some amazing projects and kids at it (and past winners who have gone on to achieve fantastic things). I just think the BTYS is more 'show' where scifest is more focused on 'science for all'.

Fr Tod Umptious

I think the winning kids will turn out to be very good and smart investors.

At this early age they have spotted an opportunity and invested their time in something they knew would be a winner in our current social climate.

The Rape of Lucretia

Social science is no more scientific than scientology. It wouldnt know a STEM if it jumped up and bit it.

mfceiling

Is this the competition where the parent/teacher does the project and the kids take the credit?

The Rape of Lucretia

The project also seems agenda driven, having a goal to develop an initiative to combat gender biasm which is most unscientific - how do they conclude there is anything about gender bias that needs combatting ?

TheValeyard

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Social science is no more scientific than scientology. It wouldnt know a STEM if it jumped up and bit it.

Next years entry!!!

Bob Harris

I only saw the LLS show explanation of if but I thought it was bull**** to be honest.

First off it didn't seem very 'scientific'.

Secondly their conclusions are hardly ground-breaking. Boy are like boys and girls are like girls? Okaaay.

Thirdly, what do do about it? From what I heard they want to make boys less like boys and girls less like girls.

I've seen winners from other years and their projects were really quite impressive. This just seemed like some 'woke' pandering the
type of which the LLS fully embraced on the toy show a few weeks back.

spurious

Ah yes, AH in all it's glory.

Terrible pity they are boys or the usual misogynists could slither out with their tuppence worth too.

Fr Tod Umptious

Bob Harris wrote: »

I only saw the LLS show explanation of if but I thought it was bull**** to be honest.

First off it didn't seem very 'scientific'.

Secondly their conclusions are hardly ground-breaking. Boy are like boys and girls are like girls? Okaaay.

Thirdly, what do do about it? From what I heard they want to make boys less like boys and girls less like girls.

I've seen winners from other years and their projects were really quite impressive. This just seemed like some 'woke' pandering the
type of which the LLS fully embraced on the toy show a few weeks back.

Well I think it's scientific because of the way they conducted the research and analyzed the data.

Doing that is in itself a scientific exercise.

A poll on AH asking are FG s**te is not scientific.
An opinion poll by MRBI or Red C saying that support for FG is x% is scientific.

griffin100

I wounder would it have won it it didn’t find the ‘results’ that it did. I doubt it. It’s hardly a groundbreaking piece of research.

There are significant challenges in designing unbiased questions and questionnaires and survey methodology. I wounder who proofed their methodology and questions. There are also ethical considerations when dealing with young persons / vulnerable groups. Again I wounder was there any ethical review of their access to children and the benefit of this ‘research.’

MrAbyss

This is a young scientist

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/national-international/17-year-old-discovers-planet-6-9-times-larger-than-earth-on-third-day-of-internship-with-nasa/2242386/?fbclid=IwAR1LYNMJuI98nfnBLZg60fLWN8NGZXemHWBot54pJe5ybQrpbwKNuRiEuCE

17-Year-Old Discovers Planet 6.9 Times Larger Than Earth on Third Day of Internship With NASA
NASA announced the news on their website this week, after confirming the teenager’s work, submitting a paper that Cukier co-authored for scientific review and announcing the discovery of the planet, now named “TOI 1338 b,” at the 235th American Astronomical Society meeting

MrAbyss

Who were the judges? Panti and Vogue Williams?

The Rape of Lucretia

"The individual runner’s up was project entitled “A statistical analysis of the impact of adolescent smartphone use on adolescent social anxiety and social isolation”.
The project collected data from 792 12-19-year-old post-primary students looking at levels of social anxiety, social phobia and adolescent loneliness, in addition to smartphone usage."


Young Scientist seems to be losing its way away from science alright. Science for the snowflake generation's obsession with themselves rather than the world outside them.

HappyAsLarE

James Watt would be turning in his grave.

Fr Tod Umptious

HappyAsLarE wrote: »

James Watt would be turning in his grave.

Next year's runner up, the students who generated electricity from James Watt turning in his grave.

The winner did a project on gender or some such.

Nekarsulm

It's a pity they don't run it on the Saturday as well, attendance would be huge, and interested adults could go.
It's a bit of an ask to take your child out of school, and take a days leave from work yourself, to get to see the projects.
Went about 3 years ago, really enjoyed it and was surprised to see the number of agri based projects.

TheValeyard

Did I hear that over 60% of this years projects were environmental related? Could be something in that lot that could be beneficial for society.

Martina1991

The Rape of Lucretia wrote:

Young Scientist seems to be losing its way away from science alright. Science for the snowflake generation's obsession with themselves rather than the world outside them.

There are 4 categories in YSOTY.
1. Biological and Ecological science
2. Chemical physical and mathematical science
3. Social and behavioural science
3. Technology

Fr Tod Umptious

Nekarsulm wrote: »

It's a pity they don't run it on the Saturday as well, attendance would be huge, and interested adults could go.
It's a bit of an ask to take your child out of school, and take a days leave from work yourself, to get to see the projects.
Went about 3 years ago, really enjoyed it and was surprised to see the number of agri based projects.

Why would that be a surprise ?

We are still a rural country and there are loads of students in schools in areas where agri would be a big part of the local economy and day to day life.

HappyAsLarE

Martina1991 wrote: »

There are 4 categories in YSOTY.
1. Biological and Ecological science
2. Chemical physical and mathematical science
3. Social and behavioural science
3. Technology

No. 3 is for the stupid scientists.

NEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDSS!!!!!

vriesmays

y0ssar1an22 wrote: »

I think it was a statistical analysis on gender stereotyping amongst 5 to 7 year olds. Christ! I'm sure 99.99% of them only know boys and girls. Some scientists should take note

That would be sociology and that's about as scientific as astrology.

Nekarsulm

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

[/b]
Why would that be a surprise ?

We are still a rural country and there are loads of students in schools in areas where agri would be a big part of the local economy and day to day life.

Very true, I suppose one aspect leading to my surprise was simply the location, Dublin 4, and secondly the fact that as 45% of the population live in Dublin, and a fair % live in other urban centres.

MrAbyss

TheValeyard wrote: »

Did I hear that over 60% of this years projects were environmental related? Could be something in that lot that could be beneficial for society.

or just cashing in for popularity sake. I bet the teachers told the girls to wear pigtails and scowl like Greta so as to improve their chances.

vriesmays

These kind of social science experiments give different results depending on the era. Several famous psycholgy tests from a few decades back now give conflicting anwers becasue society has changed. That why it's not real science. You mix vinegar and bleach together; same results as when done back in the 1950s.

Potential-Monke

Having a gander through the other entries/winners of other categories, and it just makes the winners seem like they just ticked the right boxes: https://btyoungscientist.com/results/

TheAnalyst_

Interestingly from the same school as the infamous cheat from two years back.

mikhail

TheAnalyst_ wrote: »

Interestingly from the same school as the infamous cheat from two years back.

I was talking with a fella who's been a judge on it. He mentioned several schools in Cork are enthusiastic supporters of this, and matchmake students with mentors from the universities and elsewhere when it's called for. I asked him about the case you referred to, and he was satisfied that entries like that get grilled pretty well to make sure they did it themselves. He recalled some examples of projects that were very impressive themselves, but where the student was weak under questioning and was marked down. I am not without some reservations, but I don't think it's reasonable to refer with certainty like that to some kid as a cheat just based on the fact that his ma mentored him.

vriesmays

If these two 'scientists' surveyed a similar age group in a school in Asia or South America the results would be different.

Doctors room ghost

vriesmays wrote: »

If these two 'scientists' surveyed a similar age group in a school in Asia or South America the results would be different.

If they tried that sh1te hawking in South America they would probably be shot.

vriesmays

Despite awareness of the lower percentage of females relative to males pursuing study and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, “we still do not understand exactly why this is the case,” said head judge in the category Prof Joe Barry.


It's because the really smart people who are interested and capable in these subjects are mostly men. The rest study social science.

Martina1991

vriesmays wrote:

It's because the really smart people who are interested and capable in these subjects are mostly men. The rest study social science.

Well thats a load of sexist sh*te.

solerina

Nekarsulm wrote: »

It's a pity they don't run it on the Saturday as well, attendance would be huge, and interested adults could go.
It's a bit of an ask to take your child out of school, and take a days leave from work yourself, to get to see the projects.
Went about 3 years ago, really enjoyed it and was surprised to see the number of agri based projects.

They do run it on a Saturday as well...it’s on today !!!!!

The standard of underage football is atrociously bad too. What's the point

Edgware

MrAbyss wrote: »

Real science or woke back slapping for middle class teens?

"Woke"? Oh you're so cool.
Middle class teens?
If you check back the list of winners over the years you will see as many winners coming from State schools as private schools.
Its fools like you that think education is wasted on people coming from low and middle income homes or maybe you have a big chip on your shoulder equal to the empty space between your ears

Potential-Monke

I'd imagine it was more of a go at real science vs bssocial science. Compare the winning group from this year to last year for example:

2020 - A statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5-7 year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias.

2019 - Optimizing The Simulation Of General Quantum Circuits

I must admit to rolling my eyes when I saw the topic alright.. Like, really, for the people running it to bring it into disrepute by just pandering to the fad of the day is quite sad..
I saw the clip of them going up to collect the award..they looked like they thought they were at a Justin beiber concert or something..

Dr. Bre

No doubt they wil be banging on about climate change