Unboxing Manufacturing: STEM for all at Our Lady's Hospital School
Year Awarded
2021
Amount
€46,276
- Organisation:Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR)
- Audience:Primary Students, Primary Teachers, Post Primary Teachers - Junior Cycle, Post Primary Teachers - Senior Cycle
- Format:Informal Education
- Location:Dublin
Project Summary
Continued medical developments have resulted in higher survival rates for those with complex and enduring medical conditions (Uggeri et al., 2016). Managing a health condition impacts affects many aspects of a child and adolescent development such as motivation, social relationships and the ability to access the same educational resources and opportunities as their healthy peers. Unboxing Manufacturing will facilitate and support meaningful learning experiences for children and adolescents whose illness and frequent hospitalisations have resulted in school absences.
Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR), I-Form, the Research Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Confirm, Research Centre for Smart Manufacturing will work in collaboration with Our Lady’s Hospital School (Ireland’s largest paediatric hospital) located in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin to co-design and co-create pedagogical workbooks and kits that provide their students with the opportunity to engage actively with Manufacturing and Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. The content and material developed in this project aim to enrich the learning opportunities for the children who are missing school due to hospitalisation and distract them from the medical issues that brought them into the hospital. Children and adolescents will learn about manufacturing, how it has evolved over the years, its impact on society and the link between manufacturing and STEM subjects through educational, fun and engaging hands-on activities and challenges.
It is proposed to run the pilot programme in 2022 at Our Lady’s Hospital School, with a view to a national rollout with other hospital schools across Ireland in 2023.