Cell EXPLORERS
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€265,214
- Organisation:University of Galway
- Audience:Primary Students
- Format:Informal Education
- Location:Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Limerick, Louth, Meath, Monaghan, Roscommon, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Online
- Topic:Science
Project Summary
Cell EXPLORERS is a successful science Education and Public Engagement (E&PE) programme delivering STEM activities regionally and nationally (www.cellexplorers.com). It uses a unique model for sustainable E&PE in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) where student and staff volunteers, locally deliver outreach activities to school children and the Irish public. It has the dual benefit of engaging children and the public whilst developing key graduate student attributes and researchers’ public engagement skills in a way and at a scale unique in Ireland.
This project will support the Cell EXPLORERS national network made of 13 existing partner teams located in Connacht, Munster, Leinster and Ulster. Using co-learning generated during its previous expansion, the network will run school visits in their geographical areas, reaching 15 counties across the 4 provinces of Ireland. Partners will have more options to run activities in contexts best tailored to their team, including with youth groups and remotely, allowing them to achieve sustainability and better reach those who do not typically engage with STEM.
Importantly, this project will use the programme’s recent research and evaluation findings, guided by one of the experts of the Science Capital Teaching Approach, to achieve the revision of both the classroom intervention and the team member’s training. This study, impossible to obtain by standard evaluation, will allow the porgramme to maximise impact, to put in place a sustainable evaluation of for future delivery, and to develop best practice of the dissemination of E&PE activities to schools, or other informal settings involving brief interactions.