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St Mary’s recently hosted the Association
of Science Education (ASE) annual regional conference. With over
250 participants, from a range of educational sectors including
primary and post-primary schools, ELBs and HEIs and over 20 different
seminars and workshops, this was thought to be the biggest ever
ASE conference held in Northern Ireland. The conference was originally
planned for a different location before the full programme had
been finalised. However when the ASE committee viewed the College
facilities and saw the educational environment that would be offered,
it was decided that St Mary’s would have to be the venue.
The theme of the conference “STEM - Sharing
Good Practice” fitted in well with the College objective
of promoting the STEM agenda and followed the very successful
STEM week held in the College in November when over 240 primary
and post-primary pupils and 60 teacher education students participated
in a range of practical STEM activities. Participants learned
about a range of developments in science education with speakers
from the ETI, CCEA, CASS, and the primary and post-primary and
university sectors. Speakers included Dr Ivor Hickey from the
College, addressing the issue of integrating science with the
arts, and former College students such as Ciaran Kinney and Martine
Mulhern. After the conference the ASE committee expressed their
thanks to the College for making the event such a great success
and expressed their hope of holding similar events in the College
in the future.
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