Young Scientists of the Year

MrAbyss · 11-01-2020 10:26AM #1

Real science or woke back slapping for middle class teens?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy · 11-01-2020 10:28AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:37AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:38AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:40AM

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

y0ssar1an22 · 11-01-2020 10:46AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:48AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:53AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:57AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:58AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:58AM

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 · 11-01-2020 10:59AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:04AM

Soft science in my opinion.

wingnut · 11-01-2020 11:04AM

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'.

11-01-2020 11:07AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:07AM

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

mfceiling · 11-01-2020 11:07AM

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

The Rape of Lucretia · 11-01-2020 11:10AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:11AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:14AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:15AM

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.

11-01-2020 11:21AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:45AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:57AM

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 · 11-01-2020 11:58AM

Who were the judges? Panti and Vogue Williams?

The Rape of Lucretia · 11-01-2020 12:07PM

"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 · 11-01-2020 12:08PM

James Watt would be turning in his grave.

11-01-2020 12:14PM

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 · 11-01-2020 12:16PM

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 · 11-01-2020 12:16PM

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 · 11-01-2020 12:16PM

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

Young Scientists of the Year

Comments