Mary Immaculate Secondary School has a long tradition of encouraging students to take part in science competitions. It all started back in the 1980's when the school entered its first Young Scientist project. John Sims started mentoring projects and entered his first project in 1990. Since then he has had entries in every single young scientist competition. The school has won numerous awards over the years. Since the mid 1990's the school has won awards at every young scientist exhibition.
As well as entering projects in the BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition, the school enters projects in SciFest, ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalists, Northern Ireland Young Scientists, Festival of Chemistry and Certified Irish Angus Beef School competition.