APC News
Engaging With Teachers
Engaging With Teachers
New JCT STEAM Workshop On AMR
APC joined forces with the School of Pharmacy at UCC to facilitate a series of teacher-training workshops, which kicked off in January. The workshops are in partnership with JCT-STEAM who support training for teachers of Junior Cycle (12-16 years) across all subjects nationally.
The driving concept this year was “Solution Generation” – a play on words which implies that we must empower young people to think, choose and innovate in ways that will enhance and sustain our world.
The specific theme of our 2020 workshop was “Biodiversity – The Future is in our Hands”. It invited teachers to consider the future of biodiversity at both the macroscale and microscale. APC and the School of Pharmacy shared insights in to the importance of diversity at the microscale – discussing the microbiome and highlighting the rising threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Building on this, BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums) facilitated a complementary workshop on the threat to biodiversity at the macroscale. Combined the two workshops gave teachers two lenses through which to learn about the threat to biodiversity. In keeping with the theme, the workshops were delivered at three unique locations – Fota WildLife Park, Galway Atlantaquarium and Dublin Zoo.
Participants at this year’s workshops were teachers of science, maths, art, religion, home economics, history, engineering and geography. We know that teachers are uniquely positioned to influence young people’s perceptions and attitudes about science. And because they will teach a new cohort each year, there can be a valuable ripple effect.
Materials and resources from our workshop will be made available to all teachers free of charge shortly, allowing more teachers to engage with the topic of microbiome science in their classrooms.
Photo: APC joined forces with the School of Pharmacy to deliver workshops on Antimicrobial Resistance to Junior Cert teachers as part of the JCT STEAM initiative. Pictured above: Suzanne McCarthy, Aimee Stapleton and Teresa Barbosa, Also special thanks to Cara Hueston (not pictured)
