Research partnerships

You can be what you can see: female role models in pSTEM (2020-2022)

The project aims to encourage more young women to pursue science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) and to consider careers in STEM by identifying and showcasing contemporary Irish women working in these fields.

Highlighting the pSTEM (physics, maths, engineering and computer science) subjects where women are most under-represented, the project will work directly with first- and second-year students with a particular emphasis on those in delivering equality of opportunity in schools (DEIS) participants.

A research-based evaluation of the project will take place involving partner schools.

• Project lead: Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, University College Dublin.
• Project partners: Women in Technology and Science (WITS) Ireland.

Investigating the factors affecting science subject uptake and student engagement with Junior Cycle Science (2019-2021)

This research study has two main objectives: to investigate the prevalence of out-of-field physics teaching in Ireland and to investigate science teachers’ perspective on student participation/engagement with Junior Cycle Physics.

• Project lead: Dr Regina Kelly (University of Limerick) and Dr Eilish McLoughlin, Centre for Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning (CASTeL), Dublin City University (DCU).

Irish Sign Language STEM Glossary – Physics and Astrophysics (2021-2022)

Approximately 5,000 people in Ireland use Irish Sign Language (ISL) as their first language – it is a full and complex language with its own grammar, syntax and structure.

But there are sometimes gaps in the vocabulary of ISL when it comes to technical subjects like STEM. The ISL STEM glossary project will develop a lexicon related to physics and astrophysics.

• Project lead: Dr Elizabeth Mathews, School of Inclusive and Special Education, DCU.
• Project partners: Science Foundation Ireland, Institute of Physics.

Improving Gender Balance in Ireland (2017-2019)

This project aimed to tackle the gender gap in science, and physics, by improving young people’s experience with science in the first three years of secondary school.

This gender balance programme aimed to increase teachers’ confidence and content knowledge for teaching physics; increase awareness of unconscious bias and gender stereotyping; and increase awareness of STEM and careers in STEM.

• Project lead: Dr Eilish McLoughlin, CASTeL, DCU.
• Project partners: Science Foundation Ireland, Institute of Physics.