Small Schools -the Heartbeat of Rural Ireland.

Providing Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM) projects to small rural schools is a key priority of our Insight Educational & Public Engagement programme.

So during May-June, we continued delivering a series of coding workshops to primary schools in Abbey, Ballinlough, Creggs and on the island of Inishbofin.

With the ongoing closure of village post offices, shops, Garda stations, hostelries and the decline in the traditional parish church attendance (which provided opportunities for local people to meet up weekly) as well as the economic difficulties in maintaining full-time family farming, it is the village school that acts as the heartbeat of the Irish countryside.

In spite of the severe challenges/threats of the present, I am optimistic that a sustainable technology-supported organic-based mixed agricultural sector with a Circular Economy process will be the future of the Irish countryside providing in the process quality products and healthy foodstuffs for the nation’s population and overseas markets.

So it is essential that in the interim local country schools are nurtured in order to keep the spirit of community alive in rural Ireland.

 

Finally, what I also love about visiting these schools is that more and more I met children whose older siblings I mentored, or even sometimes teachers that I taught science and coding too when they themselves were children in primary schools!

Sat March 11: Free 'How to Code Websites' event for Teenage Girls.

A free coding website event for teenage girls (13-18 years) and their parents will take place in Dublin City University (DCU) on this Saturday (March 11th).
Girls Hack Ireland, which is organised by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at DCU, includes a free bus return for Galway participants to and from Dublin. The bus will leave the NUIG campus at 7.15am on Saturday morning, returning from DCU at 4.30pm that evening.
Female participants must be accompanied by their parents to the event.

No prior knowledge of coding is required. Known as a ‘Hackathon’ it is when large numbers of people work together in teams to create assigned web projects. In this case participants will learn about high level web design through building comic strips. The event was first organized in 2015 and involves female students from all over Ireland undertaking designated coding tasks. The aim is to inspire girls to consider the career opportunities that are available in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics or what is often referred to as STEM.
Further details at girlshackireland.org

Should parents and their teenager daughters be interested, please contact me at brendan.smith@insight-centre.org.

Tom Hyland RIP, chairperson of the Galway Science & Technology Festival.

A dear colleague and Champion of Science was buried yesterday.
Without doubt Tom Hyland was one of those legendary few individuals that can justifiably claim to have nurtured and shaped modern Galway.

As head of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) of Ireland Western Region for much of the 1970s through to the 1990s, he helped attract high profile global investment and companies to Galway, ensuring that the city became one of the country's key hubs of industry and business.
Following on from the pioneering work of Bernard Kirk , who was supported by former science minister Noel Tracey and Dr. James Browne (now President of NUI Galway) in initiating the Galway Science & Technology Festival in the late 1990s, he in his capacity as chairperson helped steer it to become the largest annual STEM programme of events in Ireland.
As a member of the Festival board since the early 2000s, I saw at first hand how his single-mindedness and determination ensured that our goals and aspirations each year were met and surpassed.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

The photograph above that I took shows Tom (fourth from left) with fellow members of the great board of 2010 that was the team that successfully transplanted the Science Fair (the finale of the two week long Festival) from Leisureland in Salthill to NUI Galway.
This move represents one of the key milestones in the history of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach in Galway. The university location brought science to a whole new audience with crowds of 22,000+ enjoying an array of exhibitions, workshops, talks and shows across the whole campus unmatched by any similar event nationwide.