Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697803617156.pdf (Ireland)
Opening Statement by Áine Hyland, Emeritus Professor of Education, University College, Cork to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on the Future of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) in Irish Education with a focus on STEM in Post-Primary Education.

(Tuesday 18th April 2023) Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh, don cuireadh dom a bheith anseo inniu.
Chairperson and members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, thank you for inviting me to take part in this Roundtable discussion on the future of STEM in Irish Education.

Thank you also for your report of May 2022 on senior cycle reform – Learning for Life - which provided an excellent overview of the issues and concerns that were raised by teachers.

That report has been widely welcomed.


I would like to support the statement made by Humphrey Jones on behalf of the Irish Science Teachers Association, at the session of this Joint Oireachtas Committee on 21st March where he set out the concerns of science teachers about the new Junior Cycle Science and Leaving Cert Agricultural Science syllabi.
He expressed the hope that the NCCA will listen to the voice of the science teachers before they finalise the proposed new Leaving Cert Physics, Chemistry and Biology syllabi.

I am particularly pleased to have the opportunity today to draw the attention of the Joint Oireachtas committee to a relevant and exciting new initiative – the National Children’s Science Centre (aka.

The Museum of Possibilities).

I am the chair of the Exhibits Advisory Committee.


This project has been in gestation for over 20 years and is now finally about to come to fruition.

This new science centre will support and complement the Department of Education’s primary and post-primary science curriculum and will provide facilities for students and teachers to engage in an interactive and non-formal way with the world of science and its possibilities.
1 Until now, Ireland has been the only country of the OECD and of the EU not to have a national children’s science centre.

The need for such a science centre was identified in 2002 by the then Irish Council for Science, Technology and Innovation and was reiterated in the Report of the Review Group on STEM Education in the Irish School System in 2016.
The National Children’s Science Centre aligns with the government’s STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026 which emphasises the need to nurture “curiosity, inquiry, problem-solving, ethical behaviour, confidence and persistence, along with the excitement of collaborative innovation”.
It will also contribute to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and will be a resource for students and teachers in the interpretation and expansion of the Department of Education’s STEM curriculum at primary and post-primary level.

The OPW drew up a stunning plan to restore and refurbish the North Wing and planning permission has recently been granted by Dublin City Council.

The centre (totalling almost 10,000 sq.


metres) will house three floors of immersive, interactive exhibits, a laboratory and a purpose-built state-of-the-art Planetarium.

It will have dedicated activity spaces for very young children and will cater for primary and second level pupils as well as for the curious of all ages.
It will have a policy of equality of access and will have a particular focus on ensuring ready access for people of different abilities and disabilities and for those from less advantaged backgrounds.
The Board of the National Children’s Science Centre (a voluntary group of people committed to education in STEM and the Arts - STEAM) is chaired by Michael Collins, and includes eminent scientists Professors Luke O’Neill (Trinity College Dublin) and Brian Ó Gallachóir (University College Cork) as well as Ali Hewson, Jonathan Westrup, Mindy O’Brien, Cathy Moore and Frank Doonan.
The Centre adjoins the Iveagh Gardens and will re-establish the original connection between the building and the Gardens, restoring it 2 to the way it was 160 years ago when the building was used for the International Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures.

The building will not however, encroach on the Gardens themselves in any way.

In the early 2000s the government agreed to co-operate with the Board of the NCSC in delivering such a centre, by providing a venue and a suitable home for the centre.
The location was originally to have been in Heustongate (near Heuston Station) but that plan fell through during the recession.

In 2013, the Office of Public Works offered the North Wing of the National Concert Hall building on Earlsfort Terrace as a location.

This wing has been unoccupied since the Medical Faculty of UCD moved to Belfield in 2007.
An agreement was reached in 2016 that OPW would conserve and renovate the building and that the Board of NCSC would fund the exhibits and set up a structure to manage and run the centre.

We are very excited about this development which we know will greatly increase the level of interest in STEAM education for all.
We would very much welcome the support and endorsement of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for the proposed new National Children’s Science Centre on Earlsfort Terrace.
Further information about the proposed Centre is available on the website www.nationalchildrenssciencecentre.ie; in the PowerPoint presentation accompanying this submission, or directly from the National Children’s Science Centre, North Wing, National Concert Hall Building, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02N527.

Áine Hyland, Ph.D., D.Litt.

(h.c.), D.Sc.(h.c.

), M.R.I.A., Emeritus Professor of Education, University College Cork.

ahyland@ucc.ie.

Tel.

087-2432853.

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