The office of Enterprise and Community Engagement CRAFT Maker Space, in collaboration with the Embracing Diversity Nurturing Integration Programme (EDNIP) in Mary Immaculate College are delighted to announce the resumption of the after-school STEM club Thursday, March 2nd, after its inaugural winter semester series in November and December last year.
Located within the TED Project, Curriculum Development Unit, EDNIP is a partnership initiative which aims to promote and support the integration of migrant children and families into school and community life. The office of Enterprise and Community Engagement (E&CE) enables and connects the MIC community of staff and students with wider society through a range of initiatives that aim to make a difference for all involved. CRAFT (Creative Arts, Future Technologies) Maker Space is an initiative within E&CE. It is an inspirational and creative space where children, families and our student and staff community have the opportunity to carry out activities that fuse the Creative Arts with STEAM, focusing on building innovation, creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills, all of which are key transferrable skills for life. Activities include many educational outreach programmes for primary and post primary schools particularly around the area of STEAM.
Last semester 23 children from four local primary schools attended an innovative Science, Technology, Engineering Art and Maths (STEAM) after school club which was the first of its kind to be delivered in MIC. Beginning in November, the children attended the STEAM club on the MIC Limerick campus on Tuesday afternoons for five weeks and came from four local schools:
- Scoil Iosagáin, CBS Primary school
- Presentation Primary School
- Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School
- St John’s Girls’ and Infant Boys’ Primary School
Each week, a walking bus was organised to bring the students to the campus. During the club the children took part in a wide range of STEAM activities including designing lunar modules and launching them from the steps in front of the college. They took part in a Maths Walk and Maths Week, made battery operated cars and used circuits to make light up cards. The students also visited the ARC, a mobile classroom that teaches about aquaculture. Their submission to Maths Week has been shortlisted for a prize in the Afterschool Programme Section. Winners will be announced shortly.
The students’ families were invited in at the end of each workshop to see what the children had designed and the series ended with a celebration on campus where the children were presented with a STEM kit and a certificate.
Speaking at the certificate ceremony, Dr Ruth Bourke, TED Coordinator, stated that: We were delighted to welcome the children involved in the STEAM after school club and their parents to MIC to celebrate their achievements, showcase their talents in STEAM and see all the fun that they have had! We’ve no doubt that they will continue to enjoy STEAM activity in their educational journey and hope that they will come back to MIC someday as future students and teachers.
This semester there is another exciting calendar of events lined up around the theme of “City of the Future”
Dr. Maeve Liston, Director of Enterprise and Community Engagement stated that ‘This afterschool initiative truly encapsulates the vision of the CRAFT Maker Space at MIC, providing children and families from all backgrounds with opportunities to engage with Creative Arts through STEAM education. We encourage any community groups, schools, industry and any other educational initiatives to contact us to explore the possibilities for collaboration’. She added ‘Our CRAFT Maker Space is your CRAFT Maker Space’.
For further information on EDNIP please contact Lisa Martin at Lisa.Martin@mic.ul.ie and for further information on the CraftMaker/Dept E&CE initiative please email CraftMaker@mic.ul.ie.
