Don’t miss out on a great opportunity to get some tips and ideas to encourage more young people to take up physics and for supporting diversity in physics! Our series of teacher showcase events will feature teacher, educator, industry and research perspectives on promoting diversity in physics, including a workshop about the careers and opportunities that physics opens up. These are being held online on weekday evenings. These events are aimed at primary and post-primary teachers who teach physics, but may not be specialists, physics teachers, student teachers and career guidance teachers.
October 5th 7.30-8.15pm Teacher Showcase Workshop 1:
Perspectives on Inclusion and Diversity in Physics Education, Dr Eilish McLoughlin
October 19th 7.30-8.15pm Teacher Showcase Workshop 2:
Who are Today’s Trailblazing Physicists?, Elora McFall
Upcoming:
BeeWise: The Physics of Bees, Nancy Serrano, Pauline Walsh
‘Careers in Physics’, Dr Aoife Gallagher, Chief Physicist UL Hospitals and Dr David Richardson, Chief Technical Officer, Ei Electronics
‘Teaching Argumentation and Socio-scientific issues in Physics’, Deirdre O’Neill, Gráinne Walshe
2nd Teacher Showcase: Who are Today’s Trailblazing Physicists? Tuesday Oct 19th with Elora McFall
2nd Showcase – Perspectives on Inclusion and Diversity in Physics Education. A free online SOPHia Project Teacher Showcase Event
The second free online Showcase will be on Tuesday 19th October 7.30-8.15pm. Elora McFall will facilitate this event.
Title: An interactive discussion highlighting trailblazing physicists who reflect today’s community of physics students.
Abstract
When my own journey into the world of physics began, I struggled to find role models who I felt I could relate to. Our Leaving Cert textbook included only one woman, and I was left oblivious to those whose stories have been overlooked. By creating a conversation around both historical and contemporary physicists, this workshop will aim to tackle the lack of diverse physicists represented in the curriculum. There will be a focus on trailblazing physicists sharing insights into their work and experiences across online mediums.
Biography:
Elora McFall is the newly appointed Programme Officer for Ireland and Northern Ireland at the Institute of Physics. She is a passionate science communicator and for the past year held the executive committee position of Advocacy and Outreach Manager at the International Association of Physics Students. Elora studied Applied Physics at the University of Limerick and is a co-creator of the SOPHia Project.
Click on the Eventbrite link below to register for free, and to reserve your place. Registrations will be open until Tuesday October 19th at 5pm. The link to attend online will be sent out to anyone who has registered the day of the event. SOPHia Project Teacher Showcase Events 2021 Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite
For further information please contact
Tara Ryan Project Coordinator The SOPHia Project at sophiaphysicsproject@gmail.com
First Showcase: Addressing Inclusion and Identity in Physics Education Oct 5th
First Showcase -Perspectives on Inclusion and Diversity in Physics Education. An free online SOPHia Project Teacher Showcase Event
The first free online Showcase will be on Tuesday 5th October 7.30 – 8.15pm. Dr Eilish McLoughlin will facilitate this event on ways to encourage more girls to take up physics.
Abstract
In Ireland, national trends of subject uptake at upper secondary level illustrate a gender imbalance in participation across subjects, e.g. home economics and music subjects were strongly female dominated in 2019, with only 3% (1513) and 4% (1974) of boys respectively of the total student cohort (56,071) completing the state examinations (State Examinations Commission, 2019). The male dominated subjects include Engineering and Physics, with only 1% (382) and 5% (2981) of girls respectively choosing to complete the state examinations. This gender imbalance in subject participation is an issue of both national and international concern and part of wider issues around equality and inclusion in education.
Biography:
Dr. Eilish McLoughlin is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School of Physical Sciences at Dublin City University. She is a founding member of the Centre for the Advancement of STEM Teaching and Learning (CASTeL) and served as Director from 2008-2021. Her interests focus on physics and STEM education research at all levels of education, from primary to Ph.D level. She has led and collaborated in a wide range of research projects at European, national and local level that examine identity and enhancement of physics teacher education, curriculum and assessment strategies. https://www.dcu.ie/physics/people/eilish-mcloughlin
Click on the Eventbrite link here to register for free, and to reserve your place. Registrations will be open until Monday Oct 4th at 5pm. The link to attend online will be sent out to anyone who has registered the day of the event.
For further information please contact
Tara Ryan Project Coordinator The SOPHia Project at sophiaphysicsproject@gmail.com
Teacher Showcase 2020
BeeWise: Sustainability in Physics Education
About the Workshop:
The SOPHia project aims to encourage more students, especially female students, to take up physics as a Leaving Certificate Subject. This is a Science Foundation Ireland funded project. In addition to our workshops, and school visits, we also have a website for parents, teachers and students, with curriculum-linked activities. The idea is to generate enthusiasm and interest in physics, which is found in all kinds of unexpected places, for example in the protection of endangered species. Society is becoming increasingly aware of the interconnectedness of all things living on this planet. The critical role which bees play in plant pollination is currently receiving much attention so we decided it would be interesting to learn a little more about these fascinating creatures. We set up our SOPHia hive in an established apiary at Knockainey, Co Limerick in April 2019, and colonised it with bees with the help of experienced beekeeper Pauline Walsh and her colleagues there. The sensors we set up in the hive are streamed to the cloud where it is available to anyone interested, via the Sophia website.
In this workshop, aimed at teachers, there will be:
– an introduction to beekeeping,
– an overview of what we have been doing with our SOPHia bee colony,
– and an introduction to the curriculum-linked bee-related activities we have developed for primary and Junior Cycle Science.
There will be a 35 minute interactive presentation, followed by an opportunity for participant questions and answers.
The workshop is aimed at :
– primary teachers- post-primary teachers who teach physics, but may not be specialists- JC Science teachers- physics teachers- career guidance teachers- student teachers
Presenters:
Pauline Walsh: Founder member of 3 Counties Beekeeping Association and of Irish Beekeeping Association C.L.G., member and national fundraiser of Native Irish Honey Bees Society, member and secretary of Galtee Bee Breeders Group, experienced beekeeper with intermediate level certification.
Gráinne Walshe: Director of the Science Learning Centre at the University of Limerick, and Project Lead for the SOPHia Project. She also teaches physics to undergraduates at UL.
Nancy Serrano: Physics and maths tutor at Limerick Institute of Technology, member of the SOPHia Project responsible for development of curriculum-linked activities for primary and secondary level students.
Email: sophiaphysicsproject@gmail.com
Details of the Full Programme Planned for Autumn 2020
Circumstances in 2020 unfortunately have meant we have not been able to plan for a similar live event and instead we are planning to run a series of shorter virtual workshops in Autumn 2020.
These interactive workshops will begin in October when we will bring the SOPHia beehive project online for a workshop! This will showcase the wonderful world of the science of bees, and some related activities for the use in the classroom, courtesy of our beewise blog!
Provisional Teacher Showcase Programme Autumn 2020
- The science and physics of bees – (Nov 3rd) Pauline Walsh, Nancy Serrano and Gráinne Walshe
- SOPHia Teacher Toolkit – how SOPHia can help teachers to support diversity, and Institute of Physics Ireland assistance for teachers (late Nov) – Gráinne Walshe and Yvonne Kavanagh
- Gender in STEM education (Dec 7th Merrilyn Goos)
- Physics Careers in industry (Jan – tbd)
You can also email sophiaphysicsproject@gmail.com for more information. Details on registration for each showcase talk will be coming soon.