STEM in ACS

In Athboy Community School we offer many opportunities for students to engage in STEM.

At Junior Cycle we offer Short Courses in Coding and Digital Media Literacy. We also offer Science, Wood Technology, Graphics and Engineering.

At TY we offer 10-week taster courses of Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science & Coding, Astrophysics, Technology, Construction, Graphics, Engineering also Sustainability & Climate Action and Car Maintenance.

At Senior Cycle we offer Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Construction Studies, Design & Communication Graphics.

Throughout the school year, every year group has the chance to engage in many STEM activities. Examples from this year include:

Taking part in national challenges such as the BEBRAS Computational Thinking Challenge, IMTA Junior Maths Quiz, ISTA Senior Science Quiz and the Astro Pi Challenge.

We also run a Science club and a Maths Support Club.

Every year group takes part in the activities that occur during Science week, Engineering week and Maths week.

We have also had students participate in BT Young Scientist and SCiFest.

STEAM Meath

Athboy Community School have been awarded a place programme called STEAM Meath over the next three years. STEAM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.

STEAM Meath is a fully-funded STEAM programme for primary and post-primary schools in Meath. Their goal is to transform STEAM education in schools throughout Meath and ignite young people’s creativity.

Utilising the three FIRST LEGO League Divisions, students from Second Year to Transition Year have had the opportunity to get involved. Each participating school received a fully-funded FIRST LEGO League package which included;

• LEGO Education Resources (STEAM Park, SPIKE™ Essential or SPIKE™ Prime)
• FIRST LEGO League Registration
• Teacher training
• Student Workshops
• Participation in Regional Showcase or Tournament

Schools will be supported by the Learnit & Creative Hut teams to get the most out of these amazing resources and their participation in STEAM Meath.

The programme is running over three years from 2023 through to 2026 and 16 successful schools will be supported by the team at Learnit & Creative Hut throughout the entirety of the programme. STEAM Meath is supported by Meta.

Students worked on their Robotics project over 24 hours between October and February 2024 for this academic year and competed against other Meath schools in the Ardboyne Hotel in Navan. Both students and teachers benefited hugely from this introduction to the initiative and look forward to another excellent challenge next year.

Blended Learning Initiative

Four of our teachers have now completed the Repurposing Education through Blended Learning (REBEL) Project with the Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST/OIDE) and have shared their expertise with colleagues.

Repurposing Education through Blended Learning’ (REBEL) is an Erasmus+ funded project across four European countries that aims to reinforce the ability of education and training institutions to provide high-quality, inclusive digital blended learning. The key outcomes of this project are as follows:

• To gather data from case study schools in each country to clarify blended learning understanding and the needs of primary and post-primary schools and teachers.
• To develop a practitioner training programme focused on effective blended learning in practice.
• To create bespoke toolkits – Primary REBEL Toolkit and a Post-Primary REBEL Toolkit – to develop a practitioner training programme focused on effective blended learning in practice.
• To produce a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) to disseminate key findings and best practice from the project.

Digital Portfolio Initiative

Formative Assessment using Digital Portfolios:

Athboy Community School has engaged with the Digital Portfolio Initiative in conjunction with the Professional Development Support Service for Teachers and a number of other schools in Ireland since 2022.

The focus is on formative assessment strategies are used to measure student learning and understanding of a topic.

Through the initiative teachers are exploring how to practice formative assessment using devices and online platforms. The aim is to improve our teaching, learning and assessment while adapting to the modern digital age.