Our primary objective was to assist in driving change and collaboration in our schools in relation to STEM education. We wanted to promote STEM education in our schools to ensure learners of all backgrounds, ability and gender are equipped with skills needed to participate fully in STEM education. As per the DEIS plan 2017 (Irish Department of Education), we embrace the goals of improving the path of educational opportunity for those who come to education at a disadvantage and of strengthening the capacity of education and training to break cycles in communities with high concentrations of disadvantage.
The Limerick DEIS Initiative moved from a focus on literacy to problem solving in numeracy and we wanted to further extend problem solving into STEM. We wanted to investigate why our PISA/TIMMS results differ to countries like Finland - what is the difference in our curriculum, our educational approaches, methodologies & resources? National STEM Education Policy Statement 2016 - 2026 and STEM Education Implementation Plan 2017 - 2019 were released in Ireland - we wanted for our schools to be able to engage with these policies and plans.