empowering students, teachers and families to make positive changes in society through collaborative relationships that extend beyond school walls and enable lifelong learning for all.
local community challenges with global relevance, student empowerment, balanced multi-stakeholder engagement, perceptions of science in society,
and lifelong learning.
Experience in
science and art
collaborations
Multidisciplinary
staff
Young audience
(15-25s)
Central
city location
Local research
collaborators
Open Science Coordinator
Informal Learning Researcher
OSHub-IE works as a community broker between schools, researchers and industry that promotes transdisciplinarity and active global citizenship, by providing or pooling networks of stakeholders that support teachers building student action out into local communities and vice-versa.
Target public:
Transition Year Students, particularly from communities at high risk of educational disadvantage.
OSHub-IE developed a STEAM-focused year-long programme to empower students to become active citizens within their own communities. This programme aimed to spark inspiration through STEAM workshops, to identify challenges of local concern, to construct projects to tackle these challenges and to showcase their work beyond the classroom.
The role of OSHub-IE throughout this process is the following:
- To connect schools to experts and local stakeholders who assisted with workshops and provided guidance to students throughout their OSHub project development phase, placing these projects within a real-world context. Through these interactions, students gain relevant and real-world insight into the topics they are exploring and are encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions. In addition, it acts as inspiration for future career paths for the students;
- To prepare the sessions and inform the invited stakeholders of their role, ensuring clear communication between all actors involved;
- To evaluate the programme from the perspective of students. Teachers and the hub itself. and make suitable improvements for the following year;
- To coordinate the project showcase, including organising a location, ensuring the physical design of informative panels and student projects, inviting the guests, and developing the programme;
- To ensure sustainability of the programme.
To support teachers in secondary schools facilitating this year-long programme, TCD developed a teacher training workshop, co-created through teacher consultation and the OSHub Ireland: Teacher Handbook, which outlines all elements of the programme and links to required resources, providing a means for teachers to adapt the material to suit their local context. Specifically, it includes relevant definitions, diversity equity and inclusion guidelines, a selection of transdisciplinary inspiration workshops and a series of guidance materials. These guidance materials include co-creation session outlines, how to build a research question, how to activate the research question as a project and finally tips and tricks for showcasing student work.
Through teacher consultation a handbook was created by TCD to help teachers in Irish high schools facilitate a year-long programme to develop student citizenship and STEAM skills culminating in a project build and showcase. The handbook includes relevant definitions, diversity equity and inclusion guidelines, a selection of transdisciplinary inspiration workshops and a series of guidance materials. These guidance materials include co-creation session outlines, how to build a research question, how to activate the research question as a project and finally tips and tricks for showcasing student work.
The handbook is intended to support teachers, but requires the additional assistance of a broker such as an Open Science Hub or other institution to provide feedback, connect schools with relevant expertise and to host a school project showcase to reach audiences within the schools’ local community and beyond.
A key point about this programme and framework is that the lead up to deciding on final projects and showcase formats is equally important - the journey is part of the enrichment experience as well as the destination and final visible outputs. The programme has content that should serve a period of 8 months of the school year (e.g. September to April).
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Developed in Summer 2021 and informed by the pilot programme feedback, the Teacher Handbook outlines all elements of the programme and links to required resources, providing a means for teachers to adapt the material to suit their local context. It is designed for a collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, but much of the pack can be reworked for another local context in a different country. The handbook is laid out in a way that the workshops can be given as stand-alone activities.
An exploration of how diversity affects decision making and the selective sharing of knowledge based on dominant cultural identities, all through the lens of astronomy.
An exploration into sustainable living and current and potential future challenges our world faces, how we can come together to tackle these challenges as local communities and a global society.
This workshop expands learners’ perception of what is considered ethically appropriate when engaging the public through art practices and scientific research, and how to innovate responsibly.
This is a series of co-creation sessions designed to collaboratively select a challenge topic and initial project ideas for an Open Schooling project through the approach of rapid ideation.
The goal of this workshop is to provide an open and supportive space in which learners can voice their opinions and insights on societal topics that often pose challenging ethical questions.
Overview of how to make and implement zines as a creative and personal way for learners to reflect on their learning experience of any activity/workshop undertaken.
