DCU projects among those funded by €5.2 million Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme
The projects cover topics including biodiversity, STEM sign language, climate action and sustainability, coding, epilepsy, understanding pandemics, digital wellbeing, and the link between music, maths, and physics. The initiatives also target a wide range of ages including young children, teens, and adults as well as some initiatives designed for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and attending DEIS schools and those living with sight loss.
The Dublin City University-led projects are:
AI In My Life: AI, Ethics & Privacy Transition Year Workshops
Irish Sign Language STEM Glossary Project - National Expansion
Physics in Action
Speaking about the announcement Minister Harris said:
“I am delighted to announce the 49 projects that will receive funding through the SFI Discover Programme. As we continue to live through the COVID-19 pandemic, we are more conscious than ever of the importance of supporting the public to have access to and to understand the issues that impact our collective future, and the role science and technology can play in providing solutions. These projects will play a role in starting conversations about the role of STEM in society and inspiring our young people to explore careers in these areas. I wish all the recipients every success in the roll out of their projects.”
Commenting on the announcement, Dr Ruth Freeman, Director of Science for Society said:
“The SFI Discover Programme is a key part of our education and public engagement activity. It aims to support projects at local level, as well as at regional and national levels, to stimulate engagement and understanding with STEM. Recently, we published the SFI Science in Ireland Barometer 2020. This research enables us to have better understanding of the public’s attitude to science and provides evidence to inform and shape how our education and public engagement initiatives meet the needs of the people of Ireland.
These projects will play a key role in supporting the public to better understand the evidence behind challenges we have collectively face, and the choices we need to make in the future. We are looking forward to working with these exciting and creative education and engagement programmes, making the excitement and importance of STEM more accessible to a wide diversity of people.”
Details on the DCU projects
AI In My Life: AI, Ethics & Privacy Transition Year Workshops
AI in My Life will engage 500 Dublin teenagers from disadvantaged backgrounds in a 15-week (20-hour) co-created, interactive workshop series encouraging them to reflect on their experiences in a world shaped by artificial intelligence, personal data processing and digital transformation. Students will be empowered to evaluate the ethical and privacy implications of AI in their lives, to protect their digital privacy and to activate STEM career and university awareness. It extends the ‘DCU TY’ programme for innovative educational opportunities for Transition Year students from underrepresented communities in higher education.
Irish Sign Language STEM Glossary Project - National Expansion
There are approximately 5,000 people in Ireland who use Irish Sign Language (ISL) as their first language (Central Statistics Office, 2017). For those Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) people to be fully engaged and scientifically informed, there must first be an agreed lexicon in Irish Sign Language for STEM terms.
At present, this does not exist in Ireland. The absence of agreed signs for STEM vocabulary inhibits the teaching of STEM subjects at all levels of education and presents difficulties for those working in interpreting. It also limits access to mainstream science engagement events such as Science Week. 250,000 people engaged with Science Week in 2016 (SFI Annual Report 2016) - Deaf people must be included in those conversations.
Physics in Action
This project will explore the use of embodied cognition, to support these students in learning about physics. To this end, parents, teachers and pupils will be involved in co-constructing ‘embodied cognition’ activities. Embodied cognition is best defined as actions which assist the brain’s cognitive processing. Studies of the brain show that those networks which control cognition are "linked in one way or another to sensory systems, motor systems and / or motivational systems” (Tucker, 2007, 59). For example, if explaining concepts related to forces (e.g. push and pull), you would ask the pupil to actually pull or push either real or imaginary objects using their limbs and body. Similarly, if explaining ‘friction’, the action of rubbing one’s hands across a kitchen table / bedroom carpet would be used. The key factor is ‘cognition for action’ (Glenberg 2008, 43), where the child’s body is ‘active’ in learning science