Cork students to showcase projects at BT young scientist exhibition

The effect of manosphere content on boys, and the impact of removing students’ phones during the school day, are among the projects by Cork students to go on display at the BTYSTE this week, writes COLETTE SHERIDAN
Cork students to showcase projects at BT young scientist exhibition

Loreto Fermoy students Beatrice Cesonyte (left) and Amelie Nolan (right) looked at the impact of content from the manosphere. 

Now in its 61st year, the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) takes place at the RDS from January 8-11.

The exhibition is a showcase for secondary school students who research projects in categories such as technology, social and behavioural science, chemical, physical, mathematical science, and health and wellbeing.

There are 250 prizes from a total prize fund of €50,000. The winner(s) will represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists this year.

Cork participants in the BTYSTE are very much attuned to the zeitgeist.

Third-year students at Loreto Secondary School in Fermoy, Amelie Nolan and Beatrice Cesonyte, have a project with the attention-grabbing title The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Manosphere: The Effect of Manosphere Content on the Mental Health of Adolescent Boys.

As Amelie explains, the manosphere refers to a network of online men’s communities that promote anti-feminist and misogynistic beliefs. Andrew Tate, dubbed the ‘king of toxic masculinity’ is the most well-known influencer in this space. The manosphere is often aligned to far-right views.

Loreto Fermoy students Beatrice Cesonyte (left) and Amelie Nolan (right) looked at the impact of content from the manosphere. 
Loreto Fermoy students Beatrice Cesonyte (left) and Amelie Nolan (right) looked at the impact of content from the manosphere. 

What inspired Amelie and Beatrice to pursue their project was an influencer called Will Hitchins “who makes content against the manosphere and proves these people wrong,” says Amelie.

Adolescent boys “are very vulnerable at this stage in life. They’re looking for male role models who present as strong and confident.”

Amelie and Beatrice received 208 responses to their survey from boys and 64 responses from girls. Only three of the boys had never seen manosphere content. Some 66% of boys surveyed came across manosphere content online even when they were not looking for it.

“A worrying statistic is that 50% of boys felt negative about food after watching the content. Pressure to conform was felt by 57% of boys. This pressure brings with it mental health impacts, feelings of stress and insecurity.”

Feelings of self-worth are defined in terms of how much wealth males have and how many women they attract.

Beatrice, who is good at coding, is working on a website whereby keywords in websites, videos and anything else that might be visited, relating to the manosphere, will result in a white page coming up on the screen telling the viewer the content is blocked.

“It will tell you why it’s blocked,” says Beatrice “and it will give a private link to our website, when it’s ready.”

Eugenie Kelleher, a sixth-year student at St Mary’s Secondary School in Macroom, has a project entitled Algorithm Influences: An Investigation into the Impact of Social Media Algorithms on the Mental Health and Behaviour among Irish Secondary School Students.

“Tik Tok,” says Eugenie, “is in my opinion practically digital heroin. “There is constant stimulation from it with a dopamine hit every time you flick onto a new video.

Tik Tok’s algorithm is so much more advanced than any other social media app. It provides personalised content, such as short video clips, based on past content that the viewer has viewed and interacted with.”

The key findings of Eugenie’s survey of 402 students on how algorithms affect them revealed that 32.6% of them said it has a somewhat positive effect.

Eugenie Kelleher from St Mary's Macroom looked at the mental health impacts of social media. 
Eugenie Kelleher from St Mary's Macroom looked at the mental health impacts of social media. 

A smaller proportion, 22.6%, said it has a negative effect on them. 54.5% of students said (the social media apps) influenced their emotions at least some of the time.”

There is also a “culture of comparison. Around 50% of participants admitted they compare themselves to others based on what they see. This can greatly damage their self-esteem.”

Eugenie says there is a need to better understand the power of algorithms so that people can engage more thoughtfully with social media.

Ultra Processed Food and its Effects is the project carried out by Riva O’Reilly and Sadhbh Tuohy, first-year students at Kinsale Community School.

Riva O'Reilly (right) and Sadhbh Tuohy (left) explored knowledge around ultra-processed foods. 
Riva O'Reilly (right) and Sadhbh Tuohy (left) explored knowledge around ultra-processed foods. 

What prompted the study was simply looking at food labels and seeing how many additives and chemicals we are consuming.

Typically, students’ lunchboxes contain sandwiches made out of sliced pan. “Sliced pan,” says Riva. “It’s ultra-processed food.

We collected 1,000 answers to our survey, asking people to look at the ingredients of food and state whether or not they think it’s processed. I did it on my mom. Her answers were 100% right. I shouldn’t have surveyed her because she’s really good at this sort of thing! The lowest result was someone who was only 10% right in their answers.”

Sadhbh says that “66% of the foods in supermarkets in Ireland are processed. It’s pretty bad. As part of our survey, we asked students what influences them when buying food. Most people said it was more price than taste, and not nutrition.”

With an obesity crisis in this country, most certainly exacerbated by processed food, what should be done about it?

“We think the government should have stricter regulations about how much processed food can be sold in supermarkets. We also think food should be labelled more clearly.”

As Sadhbh points out, people just think of crisps, fizzy foods and confectionery as being processed food but it has a far wider reach than that.

“Anything with additives and chemicals and colouring, should have a big mark on it saying ‘ultra processed’.”

There’s plenty of food for thought in this survey that reveals a lot of ignorance about what people are consuming.

We are constantly hearing that mobile phones should be banned in school, with a government proposal to spend €9m on pouches that the devices could be placed in, out of the reach of students.

This prompted two transition year students at St Brogans College, Bandon, to carry out a project entitled Addicted? An Investigation into the Positive and Negative Impacts of Removing Student Access to their Phones using Yondr Pouches during the School Day.

The students, Mikey Foley and Jakub (Kuba) Kalitka, are not inclined to check their phones during school but they know it’s a big issue.

“Obviously, if students have their phones on during class time, they can easily disassociate from the class and go on their phones instead of learning,” says Kuba.

But he points out that, sometimes, phones can be an educational aid, for recording and other purposes.

Michael Foley and Jakub Kalitka explored the impacts of removing phones dueing the school day. 
Michael Foley and Jakub Kalitka explored the impacts of removing phones dueing the school day. 

He is not himself in favour of banning phones in class, adding: “But you have to look at it from both sides.”

Kuba says there could be a backlash from students if their phones were taken from them. He and Mikey carried out an experiment in class whereby students were given bags to put their phones away for a week.

“Some of them said they don’t use their phones that much in school so it didn’t make much of a difference to them,” says Mikey. “For the most part, the teachers we spoke to are in favour of banning phones.

“We asked the whole school if they wanted Yondr pouches to come in. 85% said ‘no’. 7% or 8% said ‘maybe’ and the remainder said ‘yes’.

Mikey and Kuba were surprised that the research they looked at found that banning phones doesn’t help mental health.

That might seem counterintuitive but students clearly don’t want to be parted from their phones – for better or worse.

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