The Technology and Design department of St Mary's University College has worked in partnership with SENTINUS for the purposes of introducing a STEM focused teaching kit into primary schools throughout Northern Ireland.
Kieran McGeown, Course Team Leader of the College’s Technology and Design department and Gerard Hughes, (SENTINUS), agreed that this had proved to be a very effective partnership for the purposes of promoting STEM in primary schools.
The overall teaching and learning objective of the SMART GEAR programme is to introduce primary school pupils to SENSORS (light, thermal and moisture) in a manner which is both educational and fun. Practical projects will be used, allowing pupils to form teams and build a sensor (moisture) controlled car, a sensor (thermal) controlled desk fan and a sensor (light) controlled working environment.
The programme will be introduced to approximately fifty primary schools throughout Northern Ireland.
A total of thirty St Mary’s undergraduates (mainly from BEd1) will be actively involved in the programme as part of their School Experience. The undergraduates will incorporate the SMART GEAR programme into their teaching during their school experience.
The class teachers in the schools will also be active in the programme and thus this will constitute a form of Continuous Professional Development (CPD).
The Technology and Design department of St Mary’s were responsible for the production of the SMART GEAR teaching kits. The kits will comprise a total of three hundred car kits and three hundred desk fan kits. Student members of the College’s Design and Technology Association, under the guidance of Senior Lecturer, Joe Hughes, played a major role in the production of the SMART GEAR teaching kits. John Sweeney, a member of the College’s senior management, gave his active support throughout the entire preparation stage of the project.
On completion of the three introductory projects (car, desk fan and lighting) the primary school pupils of each school will be given the opportunity of incorporating the sensor technology into a clothing design of their choice. The pupils will be mentored by both the St Mary’s undergraduates and the class teachers.
A ‘Celebration Day’ of the pupils’ work has been planned to take place in early March 2012, which will be attended by the Minister of Education, John O’Dowd MLA.
St Mary's students with the SMART GEAR kits.