RCSI held a ‘Come to Your Senses’ workshop for primary school teachers today.

The programme aims to promote ‘learning through doing’ and encourages teachers to develop their confidence and enthusiasm for science education in their own classroom. The workshop is being run as part of the RCSI REACH (Recreation, Education and Community Health) programme.

Teachers from St Enda’s primary school, Whitefriar Street and the Presentation Convent, Warrenmount will participate in the workshops. The programme will use the theme of the five senses to introduce some basic scientific concepts, combined with hands on experience of classroom activities and experiments, all relevant to the four strands of the science curriculum.

The workshops will be hosted by RCSI staff members including Dr Kenny Winser (‘Sight’ workshop); Dr Marc Devocelle (‘Taste’ and ‘Smell’ workshops); Dr Maria Morgan (‘Touch’ and ‘Smell’ workshops) and Dr Jackie Daly (‘Hearing’ workshop). Eric Clarke set up the Moodle site as a post-course support for the teachers. Introduced in 2005, Moodle is a virtual learning environment that enables students to access all curricular data and learning materials such as lecture notes and interactive based tutorials.

Maria Kelly, REACH project manager, said: “The workshops will introduce primary school teachers to alternative, hands-on and fun ways of teaching science to children. They ultimately aim to enhance the teaching of science in primary schools and encourage more children to take a greater interest in the subject.”

An innovative programme, REACH stands for Recreation, Education and Community Health. It is a unique initiative that aims to increase third level participation rates and enhance life chances for those students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly those from the south inner city.