I Wish, an initiative promoting the uptake of science, technology, engineering and maths subjects to secondary school girls, is to run a programme of workshops for teachers at its Dublin and Cork events later this week.
Teach It zones, sponsored by AIB and in partnership with Dublin City University and Cork Education Training Board, will feature training on unconscious bias; engagement with STEM industry experts and representatives; as well as briefings by Science Foundation Ireland about its Smart Futures programme.
The move comes in the face of results from a survey carried out by I Wish in 2017 in which a third of teachers reported being underequipped to teach STEM subjects.
I Wish co-founder Caroline O’Driscoll explained: “Over the last five years, the I Wish showcase events have been hugely successful in communicating directly with female students in Irish schools about the power of STEM choices, courses and careers. We will have directly engaged with over 12,000 secondary school pupils in Ireland by the end of January 2018, and we are seeing first hand the positive impact on young girls’ perceptions and understanding of STEM opportunities.
“The I Wish 2017 survey highlighted the huge role that teachers play in influencing students’ subject choices, and our research clearly shows that teachers want to be more informed about STEM careers and opportunities.
“We hope to grow the Teach It programme to ultimately include short internship-style training with our industry partners and sponsors Dell EMC and VMware, ARUP and other leading technology, engineering and life sciences companies.”
More than 2,300 girls aged between 14 and 17 participated in the survey, making it one of the largest surveys undertaken of Irish secondary school girls on attitudes to STEM and what influences them when making Leaving Certificate subject and career choices.
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