Music and Science: Quavers to Quadratics
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€27,675
- Organisation:The National Concert Hall
- Audience:Primary Students, Primary Teachers, Third Level
- Format:Informal Education
- Location:national
- Topic:Science
Project Summary
Quavers to Quadratics (Q2Q) is a series of workshops for primary school children, primarily from DEIS (disadvantaged) schools, highlighting the overlap between music, maths and physics, and responding to the lack of STEM engagement typical in such schools. Direct marketing to DEIS schools, coupled with a priority booking system, ensures that the vast majority of places are taken by these schools.
The programme is co-designed, co-taught and co-assessed by academics and students from the School of Education (Science), University College Dublin (UCD); the School of Education, Trinity College Dublin (TCD); and the National Concert Hall’s (NCH) Learning & Participation department.
The programme challenges the idea that music and maths/physics lie at opposite ends of the academic spectrum, and is built with active learning and co-teaching pedagogies. It is very much in-line with the priorities of Science Foundation Ireland’s ‘Agenda 2020’ strategy as well as Junior Cycle reform and primary science strategies. A direct impact of Q2Q will be an increased take-up of STEM subjects at second- and third-level.
This project facilitates the discovery of links between the worlds of music, physics and maths, not only for the students attending, but also for the undergraduate student tutors involved. It also gives this undergraduate cohort excellent teaching experience, hopefully inspiring some of them to consider this career path following their primary degree. Q2Q allows them to practice teaching in a genuinely interdisciplinary fashion – an essential skill for any prospective teacher.