As part of JCT’s Festival of Professional Learning, from Saturday 25th March to Thursday 30th March 2023, the JCT Science team facilitated three workshops. The first one, held on 27th March, was an interactive 'live' workshop with science students participating in the elective, 'Cooking up ways to develop students' engagement with sustainability'; the JCT Science team invited teachers, with their students, to join the live and interactive Science experience, using inquiry as an approach to investigate if bioplastics are a solution to traditional single-use plastics. We were also be joined by guest speakers Dr João Frias, a researcher of microplastics and Dr Nóirín Burke, the Director of Education at Galway Atlantaquaria Ltd.
On the 29th March, we were joined by guest speakers Dr João Frias, a researcher of microplastics, Dr Nóirín Burke, the Director of Education at Galway Atlantaquaria Ltd. and Patrick Kirwan, a science teacher in Ardscoil na Mara in Waterford. We aimed to empower teachers to support their students in moving from awareness to action around the topic of sustainability.
Finally, on March 30th, in collaboration with Dr Paddy Kavanagh from DIAS and ESERO, this workshop looked at how data within images released from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can help answer the question 'Is Galaxy formation a continuous process?'.
Materials and recordings for the workshops can be found below.