EPISTEM PODCAST

In the EPI·STEM PODCAST episode 24, Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Dr Jeff Buckley, Lecturer in the Department of Technology Education at the Technological University of the Shannon. Dr Buckley teaches research methods in engineering education to postgraduate students. A former alumni of the University of Limerick Jeff completed his PhD and postdoctoral research in a university in Sweden and in an engineering department.Dr Buckley introduces his current role as Series Editor of a new Springer Nature series of book publications entitled ‘Emergent Discussions in Engineering Education’. The Springer book series is designed to be of support for engineering educators, researchers and policymakers with an interest in contemporary issues in engineering education. Dr Buckley is joined here by our UL colleague Dr Jason Power, an EPI∙STEM affiliate who is a member of the Editorial Board for this Springer Nature book series in engineering education. They are well supported by the Springer Nature team in this endeavour including by the Education Editor, Claudia Acuna. Topics of interest in engineering education include paying attention to affectivity and empathy and how to make the subject more accessible for women and girls. Jeff reminds us that this cultural question provides a challenge to the field, and to society, and needs amore expansive framing, beyond simply numbers or fixing the girls.Dr Buckley and Dr Power Jeff share what they are looking for in a book chapter submission. They show the advantage for an early career researcher accessing the key names in a field through an edited book and the opportunity it provides to engage with the ideas underpinning the field.The musical selection today is by Ayyaz Mehmood, a graduate from the Performing Arts in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Ayyaz is a singer and a songwriter. Here Ayyaz is playing acoustic guitar and singing one of his own compositions, entitled ‘Homelife’.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 22, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD reflect on the newacademic year ahead and the emphasis in the podcast to date of a rich variety of voices connected to STEM and STEAM Education, including researchers, teachers and partners. Here, Geraldine and Michelle discuss the research study Geraldine completed for the European Commission, a scoping study on education and skills that was published in recent weeks (https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/education-and-skills-social-transformations-and-resilience_en). The study is a philosophical critique of education and skills with an emphasison a futures orientation for a fair and sustainable green and digital transition in Europe. The study considers the key question under three headings. First, the study interprets the current state of play of education and skills in a fast-globalising world and in Europe.  Second, the study reveals supranational policy documents from UNESCO, OECD and others that are seeking a paradigm shift in the framing of education and skills, for a new social imaginary that repairs past injustices and provides a new emphasis on societal and environmental aspects. They discuss the findings in relation to teachers’ knowledge base and futuristic apprenticeships. We want thank our Research Assistants who worked in EPI•STEM on a summer internship producing research-led CPDresources, in engineering and STEM subjects, resources that are free to all teachers who register on our EPI•STEM ACADEMY OF STEM TEACHERS (https://epistem.ie/hea-resources/).The musical selection today is The Boyne Water, an arrangement by Martin Hayes and The Common GroundEnsemble played on fiddle by Eilidh Pope, an instrumentalist/composer who completed her BA in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 20, co- hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Associate Professor Diarmaid Lane as the special guest. Diarmaid is a Lecturer in Technology Education in the School of Education and an EPI•STEM Affiliate at UL.Associate Professor Diarmaid Lane shares his personal story of his route into teacher education and research in Technology and STEM teacher education in the University of Limerick. He shows how his continuing reflexive learning ismaking a difference to the pedagogical approaches he espouses with his students and colleagues. Associate Professor Diarmad Lane shares his recent research andhis passion for researching new pedagogical approaches to teaching design thinking and spatial literacy to student teachers in Initial Teacher Education in non-linear ways and as an assemblage of representations.Associate Professor Diarmad Lane is currently writing research with Professor Geraldine Simmie exploringthis issue of reflexivity and how it might hold up a crucial mirror to the ethical and caring endeavour of emancipatory STEM teaching in higher education. Having won numerous prestigious awards for excellence in teaching at theUniversity of Limerick, regionally and nationally, it is clear here that Diarmaid continues to work with colleagues to constructively question and constantly critique his teaching, research and learning. The musical selection today is from Liam Broderick. Liam is a singer and guitarist from Abbeyfeale in Co. Limerick. Liam is a final year student in the BA in Irish Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in UL. Liam performs a beautiful rendition of the traditional song Siúil a Rún, which means ‘Walk my love’ or ‘Come with me my darling’ with origins in the late 17th century.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 19, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Professor Sara Tolbert from Monash University in Melbourne Australia. Professor Tolbert was recently appointed as a Professor of STEM Education and alongside colleagues leads out the new SCIENCE EDUCATION IN THE ANTHROPOCENE IMPACT LAB. The impact lab is designed to reimagine our relationship with the natural world. Previously, Professor Tolbert was the Professor of Science Education at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand.The Science Education Impact Lab positions Science Education today as being at the intersection of nature, culture and society. This throws up new questions and invites a fresh rethink about how we teach science and how we need to equip young people withcapabilities to address complex issues by recognising the complex relationships between ecological systems, political and economic structures and sociocultural practices that shape our current planetary conditions.Professor Tolbert discusses the contested literature that is currently reimagining science education, as a theoretical and social movement resulting in new strands added to the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), including futuristic thinking about science, intersectionality, education and inclusion. The impact lab invites a rethink about the purposes of science education, the history of science while bringing together diverse perspectives and knowledge systems. Link to the SEA (Science Education in the Anthropocene) Impact Lab: https://www.monash.edu/education/research/sea-labScience Education in the Anthropocene Lab - Monash EducationThe musical selection today is a waltz, called Tears, written by Gerry Holland in Cape Bretton in Canada and played on fiddle by Dr. Avril McLoughlin. Avril was a former researcher in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL and is now a Lecturer in Music Education at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 16, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome guests from thepost-primary school, Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom Co. Limerick – Edel Farrell, the physics teacher and three Transition Year students, Felix Nabor, Masha Galinovska and Andrew Szetlitsvoi.The students and their physics teacher recount the deep learning in STEAM education they experienced from participating in the project entitled DESIGN A SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE IN IRELAND IN 2050. The project was offered to schools in Limerick as a pilot partnership between EPI•STEM at the University of Limerick, the HUNT Museum and theLimerick Education Support Centre. Here the physics teacher and TY students share the vision of their futuristic design, the multiple ways they developed asustainability mindset during the project, and the importance of thinking, planning, doing and reflecting on justice for the greater good of society and the local environment.Besides working with the physics teacher, the students worked closely with the Art teacher, Michael Delorgy and the art room provided a welcome space to plan the details of the project.Through this combination of STEAM subjects their OCTO_ECO_VILLAGE concept was formed, a fully sustainable eco-village in the shape of that most versatile animal, the OCTOPUS. The village was fully pedestrianised with green bicycle routes and an underground car park. The eco-village was situated on the banks of a river with ready access to water. Renewable energy was in-built, and climate friendly material was used to construct the dwelling spaces, the local housing and community meeting spaces for cultural activities andmulti-denominational worship. The musical selection today is by Ayyaz Mehmood, a final year student in the Performing Arts in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music. Ayyaz is a singer and a songwriter. Here Ayyaz is playing acoustic guitar and singing one of his own compositions, entitled ‘Homelife’.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 15, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD discuss the positioning of education at a crossroads once again in light of the fast changing global economic landscape brought about by the US President Donal Trump. The imposition of trade tariffs between nation states brings an abrupt end to the last twenty years or more of free trade and free movement of people, goods and services across the globe.The central question Geraldine and Michelle engage with here is why a change to the economy of this substantive and unforeseen scale will inevitably result in changes to the education system in nation states and across continents and to the perceived purposes of education.The political scientist Hannah Arendt reminds us in her book Totalitarianism that when there is a crisis in the economy this will inevitably result in policy changes to the education system. Education is never innocent and the socio-political order of the day is always remade through the education system.The European Commission is currently researching how to reframe an equitable and fair green and digital transition in a futuristic Europe, the importance of care and justice for society and the environment. Geraldine is the expert researcher from Ireland on this European research study. While the global world braces itself for tariff changes, the question is whether or not the political powers are socially constructing a future of neo-conservatism and authoritarianism or a future of deeper democracy, where the common good of society and the environment prevail. This in-between space gives us time to reflect, rethink and to remind ourselves that the etymology of ‘edu-cat-ion’ is to ‘lead out’ human potential with ‘care’.The musical selection today is an original song played on acoustic guitar by Ayyaz Mehmood, a composer and final year student in Performing Arts and World Music in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Ayyaz is singing his own composition, a bilingual love song in Urdu and English called ‘Widhu’. 

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 13, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome their special guest Associate Professor Donal Canty, Deputy Head of the School of Education and Senior Lecturer in TechnologyEducation at the School of Education, University of Limerick.Donal shares the origins of his passion for educationand for technology education from his early life growing up in Kerry. Interestingly, Donal connects his current role as an academic in UL and his former role as a secondary school teacher with the importance of the ethic of care and relationship needed to play his best in a team and to have that positive commitment to the common good.Donal’s passion for teaching and research lies in his deep interest in pedagogy and assessment, and especially in teaching student teachers of technology education in the School of Education how to scaffold the formative assessment of their students. Here he talks about one of his recent publications examining the pedagogies behind that skill of formative assessment using an expansive framework provided by Xu & Brown in 2016. The advantage of this framework is that it provides an uplifting and holistic view ofassessment that includes affective care and cultural contexts. Donal published his paper with colleagues in UL, from the School of Education in UL and from the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, Technological University of theShannon.The musical selection today is by Ayyaz Mehmood, afinal year student in the Performing Arts in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music. Ayyaz is a singer and a songwriter. Here Ayyaz is playing acoustic guitar and singing one of his own compositions, entitled ‘Homelife’.  

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 12, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome their special guest Associate Professor Jason Power, a Senior Lecturer in Engineering Education in the School of Education in the University of Limerick.Jason shares his passion for engineering and teaching engineering to student teachers who will become the next generation of STEM teachers. Jason’s research interest lies in the multidisciplinary spaces between engineering and the psychology of problem-solving and learning. His researchexcellence is in the area of theorising self-efficacy as a crucialpsychological self-belief system in engineering education. This research specialism runs throughout Jason’s research publications, his highly successful competitive grant awards and in his research team of six PhD students.Jason has a wide number of research collaborators across faculties at the University of Limerick and internationally. Jason shares his understanding of the big ideas that matter most in engineering education and his understanding that many complex problems today will need for their solution newly imagined multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches.The musical selection today is the Kilnamona Barn Dance from County Clare, played on fiddle by Dr. Avril McLoughlin. Avril is a Lecturer in Music Education in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 11, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome their special guest Norma O’Brien, the Director of the Limerick Education Support Centre (LESC). Norma explains the ongoingeducative and partnership work of the centre, for example, through ongoing liaison with school principals in primary and post-primary schools in Limerick city and county and Tipperary, providing CPD for school leaders and teachers and workingwith community groups, museums, national and regional policymakers and local enterprises.Norma shares her vast expertise of working as a former scienceteacher and school leader in different schools in Ireland and London and how this has prepared her to live out her values and commitment in her current role as Director of the LESC. We speak about our three way partnership in the Eco-Village project for 2050, between LESC, the HUNT Museum and EPI•STEM. We are already in awe of the project work taking place in the six schools under the guidance of the teachers. We are viewing the projects using the lens of social justice and our understanding of that in terms of the greater good of Irishsociety and ecology. Norma has started a PhD in Educational Leadership in the University of Limerick with the guidance of her supervisors, Professor Patricia Mannix McNamara and Dr. Nicolaas Blom. We wish her every success in her future endeavours.The musical selection today is provided by Ayyaz Mehmood, afinal year student in the Performing Arts in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music. Ayyaz is a singer and a songwriter. Here Ayyaz is playing acoustic guitar and singing one of his own compositions, entitled ‘Homelife’.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 10, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome their special guest Tara E. Ryan, a PhD student in Physics who now works in the ACTUATE LAB in the Department of Chemical Sciences in the Bernal Institute in the University of Limerick under the supervision of Professor Sarah Guerin. Tara is a UL graduate of a science teacher education degree and worked for one summer as a Research Assistant in EPI•STEM. During that time Tara produced CPD resources for teachers in chemistry, physics and earth and science that are now made available on the EPI•STEM ACADEMY OF STEM TEACHERS (see epistem website).Tara tells us of her love of science and physics from a young age and with the support and inspiration of her science teachers in St. Caimin’s Community School in Shannon, Co. Clare.Tara’s research is in the area of piezo electricity, working with crystals to generate electricity from mechanical compression. Her doctoral research involves a search for alternative and sustainable energy sources that can be safely disposed of at end of life. Tara shares how her study is taking place within the scientific community and how she presents at international conferences. Tara’s study won a prestigious prize with UL Engage in the UL Citizen’s Assembly in Limerick.The musical selection today is a waltz, called Tears, written by Gerry Holland in Cape Bretton in Canada and played on fiddle by Dr. Avril Mc Loughlin. Avril was a former lecturer in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in UL and has recently been appointed as a Lecturer in Music Education in Mary Immaculate College in Limerick.www.epistem.ie

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 9, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome their special guest Dr. Avril Mc Loughlin, a researcher and lecturer in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Avril shares her research interest in community music and music education and the important interplay between theory, practice and culture. We tease out some tensions and synergies between the Arts and Music and STEM subjects, and how that plays out in contested views of STEAM Education. While there are technical aspects to all disciplines we are also interested in the many aspects that are upstream of the instrumental. The Arts, Aesthetics and Ethics are central to our rationale for the STEAM Education design project of a Futuristic Sustainable Eco-Village in Ireland in 2050. The seven schools are engaging with the project in this cross-curricular, holistic, and humanising way for a care-based, social and planetary justice view. Looking anew at how to make that transformative difference to our shared life world. We are now signing off until the University of Limerick’s semester starts again in January 2025. We want to give a special word of thanks to Grzegorz Rogola, the senior multimedia designer in the UL digital Hub in the Kemmy Business School for all his expertise and support with the production. Our musical selection today is from Sarbik Guha, known by all as Biki and his Buddies. Biki is a singer, songwriter and acoustic guitarist and a second year PhD student in Arts Practice in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, UL. Biki sings his own composition ‘Hey There Fellow Dreamer’.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 8, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD read from a letter sent to EPI•STEM by the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins. The President congratulates everyone connected to the Transition Year STEAM Education project entitled ‘Design a Sustainable Eco-Village in Ireland in 2050’, especially the students in the seven schools in Limerick. Geraldine and Michelle chat today with special guest Associate Professor Olivia Fitzmaurice. Olivia is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education in the School of Education, an Affiliate of EPI•STEM The National Centre for STEM Education and Academic Director of the Mathematics Learning Centre. Olivia shares her passion for researching and teaching mathematics and how she was persuaded to select math in her undergraduate degree through listening to Professor John O’Donoghue on a UL Open Day, one of the original founders of EPI•STEM The National Centre for STEM Education. Olivia’s research is interested in the social scientific problem of teaching math for understanding in the context of classrooms in Ireland, the deep learning and the multifaceted approach needed. Many of Olivia’s research studies draw from Usiskin’s model, which includes the relational, procedural, conceptual, cultural historical, representational and the necessity to make the vital link to real world applications. Professor Fitzmaurice shares her insights from a joint research study on a diversity of careers and how they were all connected in one way or another to math. Finally, Olivia concludes with a brief summary of the findings from her recent national policy report examining the delicate transition for students of math between primary school and post-primary school. The musical selection is the Kilnamona Barn Dance from County Clare and played on fiddle by Avril McLoughlin. Avril is a researcher and a lecturer in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Limerick.

In the EPI•STEM PODCAST Episode 6, co-hosts Geraldine Simmie PhD and Michelle Starr PhD chat with Associate Professor Regina Kelly. Regina is a Lecturer in Science Education, a Course Director of Initial Teacher Education science programmes in the School of the Education and an Affiliate of EPI•STEM The National Centre for STEM Education. Regina shares her passion for all things physics, looking at everyday phenomena to develop an understanding of physics concepts, moving away from just rote learning a set of formulas and definitions. Regina delves deeper into her research interest in the gender gap in STEM education, the lower participation rates of girls in senior cycle physics and of women in STEM related careers. We hear about WiSTEM2D and Regina’s research into the perceptions of female students enrolled in STEM courses at UL, a project funded at EPI•STEM by a local enterprise, Johnson & Johnson. Regina reminds us that while the ‘gender gap’ in the science disciplines tends to be viewed in terms of participation and performance, it is a complex multivariate problem and it is also important to be aware of more subtle, gender-based differences in the perceptions, experiences and aspirations of females in the science and STEM domain. The musical selection is from Ben King, a songwriter and guitarist from Nenagh in Co. Tipperary. Ben is a first year student, in the BA in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in UL. Here Ben performs his own Reggae composition called Warm.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Associate Professor Keelin Leahy as their special guest. Associate Professor Leahy is a Lecturer in Wood, Technology & Design in the School of Education and an EPI∙STEM Affiliate.In the podcast Associate Professor Leahy recalls how herresearch interest and passion for the subject happened through inspiration from a female teacher of woodwork in her school days in Coláiste Mhuire in Ennis, Co. Clare and through working in the medium of wood with her father. Keelincompleted her undergraduate studies in UL in Construction Studies. Later Associate Professor Keelin Leahy spent a sabbatical year in the University of Michigan in the US. There Keelin worked with a multidisciplinary team in ‘designheuristics’ including researchers interested in psychology and in design. While Design Thinking, both in the US and Ireland was focused more on the output there was less interest shown in the process, and especially in the ways thatyoung people could be inspired to think as creative designers. Today, Keelin has written textbooks for student teachers, for teaching design thinking in the post-primary curriculum in Ireland.Associate Professor Keelin Leahy goes on to explain the thinking tools, steps and skillsets that can nowadays be provided to young people when engaging in ‘domain readiness’ for problem-based learning. These includecognitive and metacognitive thinking tools and strategies that help students to push past ‘fixation’ and that can open minds and hearts to innovative approaches. This ‘heuristic design’ approach not only enriches competence in design thinking skills, it helps student wellbeing and has capacity for all involved to seek ways to make a difference to people, place and planet.  Finally, Associate Professor Leahy speaks to a recentresearch paper published with colleagues in UL who formed an online community of practice during covid-19. The platform supported the colleagues to reflexively engage in relation to their efforts to teach young people online and to learn with and from one another. Keelin speaks to the power of dialogue, the felt sense of collegiality, and the deeper, more meaningful and contextually significant learning arising from this encounter. We will now draw the podcast to a close from this semesterand plan to return when our spring semester starts again in January 2026. We are delighted to announce that the Irish Research Council have awarded us in EPI·STEM with a research fellow for Dr Vo Van De to work in a school-university-enterprise partnership with Eli Lilly and chemistry teachers in schools in Ireland. A special word of thanks to all our guests this semester and to Assistant Professor Matthew Noone for his support from the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance. Finally, thanks to the Digital Hub in UL for hosting our podcast and to our producer, Grzegorz Rogola for his expertise, skill and constant care.The music selection today is by Nora Gowran from Ennis inCounty Clare. Nora is a first-year student in the BA in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Here Nora sings a beautiful sean-nós song, Grá Mo Chroí (Love of My Heart).

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD welcomes Professor Merrilyn Goos as the special guest along with Associate Professor Niamh O’Meara. Professor Goos is currently Professor Emeritus in the Sunshine Coast University in Australia. Merrilyn was a former Director of EPI·STEM The National Centre for STEM Education, where she is now an Adjunct Professor.In this episode, Professor Goos, who grew up in Brisbane inthe mid-eastern coast of Australia shares how her passion and research revolves around supporting teachers in their practices. In a former role, Merrilyn acted as the Course Director of the Professional Diploma in Mathematics forTeaching (PDMT) and published extensively on teacher upskilling programmes. Merrilyn understands that programmes do not seamlessly transport to a differentcountry and that higher level things matter in this regard, such as, the culture of schools and the relationships between a variety of actors. In this episode, Professor Goos shows how critical mathematical thinking has gained in significance in Australia and how this makes sense given that many complex problems encountered today require agility to move between disciplines and to generate new creative and critical solutions. For mathematics teaching this can mean connecting subject matter to real life issues of social justice, such as housing, flood protections, homelessness. Many of these ethical and contemporary issues require skills and competence in mathematics as a vital component of real-world solutions.Professor Merrilyn Goos also completed extensive research,and support of teachers, in relation to numeracy across the curriculum. This involved completing an audit of numeracy across the curriculum while helping teachers to see where numeracy matters in specific subject areas. These border-crossing partnership, including collaborations of mathematics educators and mathematicians, while having a sound theoretical basis can prove challenging in the living contradictions of practice. Merrilyn has recently written timely reviews of STEMeducation - while noting that STEM is included in the Primary Curriculum in Ireland, initial reviews reveal that teachers generally see themselves as subject experts. In addition, there is often no allocated space in the school timetable for STEM in post-primary schools and this thinking has yet to gainthat desired policy momentum.  After serving eight years on the executive of the InternationalConference for Mathematics Instruction (ICMI), Merrilyn is currently President of this prestigious organisation. ICMI works across the global world and especially in developing countries, where teachers of mathematics are often teaching young people without adequate upskilling and more often without resources. ​​The music selection today is by Sarbik Guha, a singersongwriter known by his stage name as Biki, and as Biki and his Buddies. Biki is a 3rd year PhD student in Arts Practice in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Here Biki sings his first original composition ‘Its High Time You Make Her Believe’, while playing his acoustic guitar.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD welcomes Associate Professor Nicolaas Blom as the special guest. Nicolaas is a Lecturer in Technology Education and Course Director of the International Master’s programme in the School of Education at UL.Here Associate Professor Blom shares how he came to UL in2020 from his former role as a Lecturer in Design Technology in South Africa. Nicolaas was attracted to the education system in Ireland through an education technology conference he attended in 2018, where he was highly impressed by the creativity and modelling in the projects on display.Associate Professor Blom’s research specialism lies in interrogation of where young people’s creative ideas and thinking come from, such as, from the layout of the problem, the role of memory and prior experience, and/or the part played by stimulating learning environments. This was the topic of interest in Nicolaas’s PhD study in Technology Design 2016 and continues to interest him nowadays in relation to the cognitive, metacognitive, including learning from indigenous communities. In this regard, Associate Professor Blom isinterested not only in the complexity of students’ thinking, designing and doing but also in navigating their personal ethical journeys of (human) becoming. Nicolaas invites his students to partake in action research projects while working in teams and navigating what the Celtic philosopher, JohnO’Donohue called ‘the web of betweenness’.As part of public engagement, and aligned with AssociateProfessor Blom’s interest in the notion of social sustainability, Nicolaas works in a cross-national partnership project between transition year students in one school in Ireland (Kanturk, Co. Cork) and a rural resource centre in South Africa, with the aim of designing and manufacturing low cost resources for students with severe disabilities, and for instilling a felt sense of social consciousness, for responsibility and action with and for others.  The music selection is by Sarbik Guha, known by his stage name as Biki, and as Biki and his Buddies. Biki is a 3rd year PhDstudent in Arts Practice in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Biki sings an original composition ‘Fly Away to Another Shore’, while playing his acoustic guitar.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Dr Sarah Hayes as their special guest. Dr Hayes is the Chief Operations Officer in SSPC, a research centre hosted in The Bernal Institute in UL through the Department of Chemical Sciences. As a Pharmaceuticals Research Centre, SSPC works with pharmaceutical industries inIreland in designing and delivering academic-enterprise partnerships in research, innovation and public engagement. In this episode, Dr Sarah Hayes charts her journey into herundergraduate degree in science education in UL and later into her PhD study with Dr Peter Childs. Sarah’s doctoral research focused on interrogating science in transition year from the perspective of impact, if any, on future career choice. At the same time, Sarah worked with Dr Childs to plan and deliver a public series of Science Magic Shows to schools. The aim was tomotivate young people to feel the ‘awe’ and wonder in science experimentation as much as to gain improved scientific literacy. This emphasis on affectivity has grown substantially in science education in recent years and moves us beyond former stereotypes.SSPC works with nine other organisations in Ireland,including the universities in Ireland, The Royal College of Surgeons, SETU in Waterford and NIBERT (National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training). SSPC collaborates with over 50 industries in Ireland in the pharma and biomedical sectors. Of the 400 IRC (Irish Research Council) funded PhDsstudents in SSPC, more than two thirds progress afterwards into industry. Nowadays, the challenge to solve complex problems through Research & Innovation requires a next level of multidisciplinary practices that rely on very different styles of leadership and scientific communication than heretofore.We conclude with a chat about the public engagement activities underway for Science Week in Limerick and across the country (www.scienceweek.ie). We briefly open the question of how we might inspire a diversity of young people in Ireland toselect chemistry as a school subject, for a love of the subject in its own right; its intellectual prowess; and using a critical appraisal approach to have chemistry today make a difference to science-in-society, for citizen science and the planet.The musical selection is Gan Anam Jig, a lively traditionaltune played on keyboard by Ciara Geaney from Dingle, an accomplished piano player and a student in the BA in Irish Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Limerick.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Assistant Professor Patrick J. Dundon as their special guest. Assistant Professor Dundon is a lecturer in science education in the School of Education and an affiliate of the EPI·STEM research centre. Pat is also Course Director for the undergraduate programme in UL in biologyeducation, with additional options either in agricultural science or in physics and chemistry.In the podcast, Pat shares his journey into the academy of science teacher education at UL from completing his undergraduate studies in science teacher education and his PhD study in the life sciences in UL, to becoming a science teacher in Castletroy College. In addition, AssistantProfessor Dundon has acted as an examiner with the State Examinations Commission and a resource person with the OIDE team, the teacher learning team overseen by the Department of Education and Youth.Dr Dundon shares his insights of the complexities and nuancesinvolved in teaching young people science, taking a reflective and relational positioning and coming from a rich understanding that the canon of science knowledge is itself provisional and constantly changing. This invites multiplepedagogical approaches - it relates to citizen science and moves science teaching beyond a static body of knowledge.  As a science teacher your aim is to keep the tension alive between being present to the young people and delivering the class that you had carefully planned.Dr Pat Dundon has published school-based textbooks, generalscience books for junior cycle and a recent book for the new Leaving Certificate Biology specification. His current research studies are interested in the multiple experiences of student teachers during their school placement and developing with colleagues a research-led framework for teaching science practical skills. The music selection today is by Yoghan, an original songwriter from Limerick and a final year student in the BA in World Music in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in UL. Here Yoghan is playing his acoustic guitar and singing his originalcomposition called ‘Butterfly’.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Professor Sarah Hudson as their special guest. Professor Hudson was appointed in May this year as Director of The Bernal Institute at the University of Limerick. The Bernal Institute is a highly prestigious research institute at UL that hosts specialist research centres with an interdisciplinary focus on solving complex problems in theareas of health, energy and the environment.Professor Sarah Hudson, originally from Leixlip in CountyKildare began her science career as an undergraduate student in the natural sciences in Trinity College Dublin. Sarah went on to complete a master’s by research in the interface between materials and biology. After that Sarah took her love of canoeing with her as she set off for a year of travelling the world. On return, Professor Hudson answered a call from the University of Limerick to join their research team in the Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI) where she completed her PhD study. Prof Sarah later completed a postdoctoral study and Marie Curie fellowship in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Professor Sarah Hudson, in becoming a renowned scientist inthe field of physical chemistry shares her understanding of the importance of membership of the scientific research community, the need to take time to train and support the next generation of PhD students and post-doctoral fellows and to open opportunities to engage with visiting scientists and fellows. Science today is constantly grappling with complex problems that require co-locating researchers from different disciplines to find a new language and new ways towork together to arrive at innovative solutions.The Bernal Institute in the University of Limerick offersthis state-of-the-art space for research teams from multiple disciplines to collaborate. This infrastructure is further supported by operating teams and hosts a number of funded research centres. The Institute has over 80 Principal Investigators, 200 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, and collaborates with other faculty and departments in UL as well as external to UL, including the localcommunity, industry, hospitals etc.Recently, in a successful partnership between the BernalInstitute, EPI∙STEM and SPSS, we supported the national OIDE chemistry team, the professional support team for schools overseen by the Department of Education and Youth, in their use of the outreach laboratory to plan and designtheir experiments for the in-service support this autumn of all chemistry teachers in Ireland. Working together next year, and with the UL Department of Chemistry, we will host the CHEM ED Conference for all chemistry teachers in Ireland on Saturday, 24th October 2026 at the University of Limerick.The music selection today is by Caoimhe Fitzpatrick from Laois, a first-year student in the BA in World Music in The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at UL. Here Caoimhe sings her own composition called Lady in Purple and accompanies herself on her acoustic guitar.

In this episode of the EPI·STEM podcast, Geraldine SimmiePhD and Michelle Starr PhD welcome Professor Laura Colucci-Gray as their special guest. Professor Colucci-Gray is the Professor of Science Education in the School of Education at Moray House, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Earlier this summer, Professor Laura Colucci-Gray was aninvited keynote speaker at the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) 2025 conference in Copenhagen. Laura introduced the science education delegates and researchers to her theorisations in relation to the importance of the arts positioned on an equal footing with the sciences inscience education and sustainability.In 2017, Prof Colucci-Gray worked with Professor Simmie andProfessor Sibel Erduran, Professor of STEM Education at the University of Oxford and former Director of EPI∙STEM, on a commissioned report for the British Education Research Association (BERA) on the future potential and challenges of STEAM education. Prof Colucci-Gray takes a feminist and new materialist approach to science education and theorises affectivity beyond evidence, for the importance of social and emotional development, not only for human self-flourishing but for capacity to be moved (affected) to care for others in the wider world, for the greater good and sustainability of democratic society, the economy and the environment.As well as providing rich conceptualisations of thetransdisciplinary nature of science education, and the crucial role of the arts, Professor Laura Colucci-Gray works as an expert researcher in research and development projects that make a difference to embodied and place-based learning practices. Recently, Laura working with a team of teacher educators andartists at the University of Edinburgh presented their STEAM education project, the GARDEN AS A PROVOCATION. The project invited science teachers to step into the garden as a metaphor and as a reality, for a new way of seeing,experiencing and experimenting with science in the wider world, inspiring arts-based pedagogies for working in democratic ways with students, to learn science in ways that are ethical, open, contemplative, sceptical and while learning to care for self, others and the environment.The music selection today is by Caoimhe Fitzpatrick, afirst-year student in the BA in World Music in the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick. Here Caoimhe plays acoustic guitar and sings her original composition on human freedom, called ‘Liberties Baby’.