DCU postgraduate students awarded for STEM work
Two students from the School of Physical Sciences DCU were awarded for their work in the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) at a recent conference held in St. Patrick's Campus DCU.
Diarmuid Hyland from CASTeL, School of Physical Sciences DCU, was awarded the SEAI award for early stage postgraduate research for his presentation "Investigating students' difficulties with differential equations in physics” with runner up prizes from the Royal Society of Chemistry awarded to Sven Schimek from the University of Hannover and Niamh Burke from Maynooth University.
The late stage Royal Society of Chemistry postgraduate award went to Louise Lehane from the University of Limerick for her presentation on “Understanding the interactions between pre-service science teachers within a learning community focused on enhancing scientific inquiry orientations” with runner up prices for Filomena Rodrigues from the Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa and Enda Carr from CASTeL, School of Chemical Sciences, DCU.
The seventh Science and Mathematics Education Conference (SMEC) focused on educating teachers in the STEM area. The conference took place last month, June 16th to 17th, and was hosted by CASTeL, Centre for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning.
Director of CASTeL, Dr. Eilish McLoughlin said: “The SMEC conference is an important event both for centre members and national stakeholders in STEM education. This year’s conference provided an opportunity for those involved in STEM education to discuss issues pertaining to professional learning of teachers from early-childhood to postgraduate level”.
85 researchers, academics and practitioners in STEM education attended the event. There was keynote addresses from Prof. Thomas Guskey (College of Education, University of Kentucky), Dr. Andreas J. Stylianides (University of Cambridge, UK), Dr Sara Hennessy (University of Cambridge, UK), Prof. Shirley Simon (University College London, UK) and Dr. John O'Reilly (University of Limerick). Each of the keynotes provided stimulating and enjoyable talks, which drew from their wealth of experience in research and teaching across STEM and professional learning.
The theme for the conference was STEM Teacher Education - Initial and Continuing professional development. Contributions included professional knowledge, relating theory to practice, policy and reform, evaluation of existing practices and action research.
The conference was opened by Professor Brian MacCraith President of Dublin City University and Chair of the STEM Education Review Group whom acknowledged the importance of the focus of this conference in advance of the publication of the national STEM education review report.
In 2017, CASTeL will host three major international conferences in STEM education.
• CERME - Conference of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, 1 st-5 th February 2017.
• GIREP-EPEC-ICPE - Joint Conference of The Conference of International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP), European Physical Society - Physics Education Division (EPS PED), The International Conference on Physics Education (ICPE), 3rd - 7th July 2017.
• ESERA - European Science Education Research Association will be co-hosted by CASTeL at DCU and EPI-STEM at University of Limerick, 21st-25th August 2017.