Last year we were recognised for our continued hard work in the area of STEM education. As part of the SFI Curious Minds Awards programme we earned the  Platinum Award. The highest award achieveable to primary schools under the SFI.

We were one of less than 50 schools nationwide that  achieved this accolade. 
As part of this Award we  set ourselves some unique targets for the promotion of  STEM in our school.

Below are some details of the tasks we undertook.
Our goal is was as follows:

• We aim this year to raise STEM awareness  across the school community by increasing the frequency  of exposure and  the variety of focus of our STEM  Showcase Days.
   

Building on what we know to be a successful and engaging strategy of  delivering  STEM projects for the purpose of exhibiting to  a wider 'public' audience we hope to  encourage all stake holders to  engage on a more meaningful level with the STEM subjects and recognise them as part of every day life.

This 'deeper' engagement  is recognised as being one of the key factors of the  most recent Science Foundation Ireland Strategy where it states that one of the key benefits of the successful implementation of said strategy will be to 'Empower and Inspire Deeper Public Engagement'

What will we do to achieve our goal?

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In order to achieve our goal we will   greatly increase the number of opportunities that our pupils get to take part in STEM  Showcase Events. These will include but are not limited to:

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• Whole school Assemblies

• EU Codeweek Workshops

• Class Science Fair.

• Science Blast Science Fair (3rd to 6th)

• Local Science Fairs (Community/School Clusters)

• Open Science Fair (individuals with open investigations)

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What will  success look like for all stakeholders in the school community ?

 

For our pupils we feel that :

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 Success will be that  as their confidence in STEM subjects grows so too will  their  familiarity and confidence  in the communication of their learning. From this we expect to see increased motivation and engagement with the  STEM subjects.

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For our teachers we feel that:

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If we are successful in  delivering more opportunities for Science demonstrations and Exhibitions  then  our classes will be challenged to start from  self generated  trigger questions to hypothesise, predict  and investigate before bringing their findings to share with the public or school friends.

Alongside that key motivational  benefit having  project work  in classrooms will  benefit the teachers by:

 

• Helping  Implement the requirements of the Digital Strategy.

• Give genuine context to learning improve intrinsic motivation

•  Providing a Range of opportunities for Assessment  both formative and summative. And teacher peer and self assessment.

•  Generating Increased opportunities for inclusion through group work in mixed ability teams

• Improved relationship between teachers the wider school community, other schools etc

 

For our parents we feel that success will result in:

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• A greater willingness to get involved with Scientific Inquiry at home by 'Asking the Scientific Question' and following with their children as they work towards their next Science Exhibition/ Project.

• A greater recognition of what scientific exploration looks like for our pupils.

• A wider promotion of the concept that we are all capable of being scientists  by   firstly, posing a question, then working scientifically to uncover an answer and finally sharing those findings with others.