New FIRST LEGO League Explore SUBMERGED Teacher Guide for Ireland Launches to Inspire STEM Learning in Irish Classrooms
Last Friday 27th September saw the launch of the new FIRST® LEGO® League Explore Teacher Guide for the SUBMERGED℠ season at an event on the DCU St Patrick's campus. The guide is specifically designed for Irish primary schools, with the aim to inspire even more children to develop vital STEM skills.
Over the past eight years, children across Ireland have been exploring STEM through FIRST® LEGO® League. The new Teacher Guide for Ireland aligns with the Irish primary school curriculum. It was created by an interdisciplinary team from the LEGO Education Innovation Studio team in the School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies at DCU’s Institute of Education (including Dr Denis Moynihan, Dr Anne McMorrough, Dr Nicola Broderick, Dr Joe Usher, and Professor Deirdre Butler), with the support of Ross Maguire, Niamh Gregory, and Gerry Kelly from CreativeHUT.
The new Guide assists primary school teachers in integrating the FIRST® LEGO® League Explore programme into their classrooms and curricula, making STEM education more accessible and engaging. It has been designed with explicit links to the Irish Primary Curriculum, including the most recent developments in the STEM curriculum specifications, and the Digital Strategy for Schools, providing a hands-on, fun, approach to learning science, technology, engineering, and maths.
Charlotte Holland, Deputy Dean of DCU Institute of Education, said
“The new FIRST® LEGO® League Explore Teacher Guide for the SUBMERGED℠ season provides an opportunity for children to identify real issues in their lives and that of their local communities, enabling them to design and implement solutions that address real-world problems. Engaging with such project-based learning experiences develops in children key STEM competences such as critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and the use of digital technologies for real-world problem-solving, essential for thriving in the complex, connected digital world we live in today. It also fosters a sense of agency and creativity, empowering children to see themselves as future innovators and problem-solvers in a rapidly evolving world."
The publication of this Guide was made possible through funding from the SFI Discover Programme. For more information or to download the new SUBMERGED℠ Teacher Guide for Primary School teachers in Ireland, visit fll.ie/submerged.