Laois Offaly Educate Together Board (LOETB) have launched the second year of their innovative STEAM (Science Technology Engineering Arts and Maths) schools Programme for 2024/24 at a special function at Dunamase College.
The programme is a partnership between LOETB and Laois and Offaly County Councils.
Launched by LOETB Director of Schools, Linda Tynan, thr programme uses a team-based, project-focused approach to learning, with all nine LOETB schools pitting their skills against each other in areas like design, coding, robotics and digital story-telling.
The programme has generated great excitement across the schools and the extraordinary creativity that the students display.
At the launch, Broadband Officer of Laois County Council, Antoinette Brennan, spoke of the difference programmes like this can make to students, giving everybody the opportunity to find their particular talents.
The Programme has already seen over €90,000 worth of equipment and training delivered to over 30 teachers and 250 students across the nine LOETB schools.
Each school participates in all four strands of the programme – Vex Robotics, First Lego League, Minecraft and Podcasting – culminating in four LOETB exclusive competition finals, one for each strand.
The work is then showcased and the winners rewarded at a special STEAM Showcase day, which this school year will take place on April 10.
Thanks to the generosity of the councils, along with new sponsor, NIS (overall prize), the prize fund for this year’s programme will be over €10,000.
This comes in the form of team prizes, as well as STEAM equipment for the winning schools.
At the launch, the four schools who were victorious in last year’s competition:
- Dunamase College – Podcasting
- Portlaoise College – Minecraft Design
- Tullamore College – First LEGO League
- Banagher College – Vex Robotics
All four received their prizes from the council representatives – everything from i-macs, to video cameras to VR headsets.
The work to prepare for these competitions takes place during lunch-time STEAM clubs in each school, where students are facilitated by the supporting teachers.
They work in their teams to develop their respective competition entries, while all the time building up key skills in the areas of creativity, team-work, project planning and problem solving.
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