October 2017 NUI Galway’s CÚRAM Opens Laboratories for Year Two of Teachers in Residence Programme

Following a hugely successful pilot of its Teachers in Residence Programme, CÚRAM, the Science Foundation Ireland Centre for Research in Medical Devices, based at NUI Galway, is now enrolling for the second year of the programme with applications being accepted up to 11 October, 2017.

The Teachers in Residence programme supports both primary and secondary school teachers in science education and promotes equal opportunities in science for all students in the classroom. The programme has ten places available annually, for five primary and five secondary school teachers, with priority placement given to teachers from DEIS schools. The residency runs for ten evenings over six months from October to March.

Teachers work directly with researchers  to develop content for the classroom, while learning about the medical device research being carried out at CÚRAM that will improve the quality of life for patients with chronic illnesses like Parkinson’s and heart disease.

Scientific Director of CÚRAM Professor Abhay Pandit said: “We were really impressed with the level of dedication and creativity shown by the primary and secondary teachers in the pilot year of the programme. We now have a suite of excellent resources developed for both primary and secondary school classrooms which will be built on year by year by these teachers, who are the real experts when it comes to engaging the next generation of scientists and engineers. Our goal is to provide inspiration for teachers by providing access to current, cutting edge research happening here in Ireland and working with them to incorporate it into classroom activities. If we can inspire and excite the teachers, our hope is it passes onto their students for years to come.”

During the residency, teachers are introduced and linked to the range of educational resources provided by Science Foundation Ireland and to the ReelLife Science video competition for primary and secondary schools. A guest speaker will lead a discussion around encouraging equal opportunities in STEM careers for both boys and girls, and teachers will be invited with their classes to attend educational workshops run by CÚRAM during the Galway Science and Technology Festival in November 2017.

Lesson plans and classroom activities developed during the pilot programme will be made available online at the end of October and participants in this year’s programme will evaluate and develop these further. The resources developed through the programme constitute a ‘learning module’ about CÚRAM and MedTech in Ireland that links with multiple streams and themes in the primary and junior cycle curricula.

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