South Dublin County Libraries are cornerstones of their communities, enriching the fabric of the County through information and learning and by providing access to the world of ideas and information. Recently South Dublin County Libraries has partnered with Foroige and IT Tallaght (School of Engineering) to form a very exciting project entitled Fiosracht (Curiosity). The project will engage with young people and their families with STEM subjects through a series of camps and an ever-changing exhibition space. The TechSpace in the County Library in Tallaght will be used to provide workshops and talks for identified young people 9-18 years, especially girls, to encourage them to engage with STEM subjects such as Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics. Funding for the project will come from the Science Foundation Ireland Discover Programme.
The Fiosracht space will be launched in January 2017 and will be used throughout the year. Fiosracht camps will take place in March to coincide with Engineer’s Week, in May, and in November to coincide with Tech Week. Camp activities will take place in each of the three organisations, with camp outputs on display in the Fiosracht exhibition space in the library.
The programme is designed to encourage young people to be inspired to create, produce and have fun with digital technology and maker activities. The aim of the space is to inspire and empower young people to use their native interest in technology to master 21st century skills.
The Fiosracht (Curiosity) project is a partnership between three stakeholders in the South Dublin County region including IT Tallaght (ITT School of Engineering), South Dublin County Libraries and Foroige. This project will add something new and exciting to what we do.
The project will be based on the proven approach piloted by the award winning Project 42 in the Royal College of Art (RCA) which delivered a summer camp for children based on the principles of Design Thinking.
We believe it will be an important and effective outreach programme, inspiring children and particularly girls, to engage with STEM subjects.
South Dublin Libraries is excited at the prospect of entering into partnership with ITT (Institute Technology Tallaght) by contributing to, facilitating and delivering STEM based programs to promote digital literacy and exploration in South Dublin.
Creative Tech Fest
A Tech club operates weekly in the County Library in Tallaght where children meet on a weekly basis to create projects and work towards entering national Maker competitions. This year the Tech club was delighted to be asked to participate in Creative Tech Fest.
The Creative Tech Fest is an annual celebration and exhibition of all the work that young people and educators have carried out in their local TechSpaces throughout the year. Youth organizations and Partner organizations work with young people from across the national TechSpace Network and celebrate this year’s latest creative technologies in style! The event is produced by Camara Ireland Ltd. and was held on Friday, 4th November 2016 in The Foundry Venue at Google in Dublin.
Five children from Techspace Tallaght were selected to participate. The Techspace in County Library Tallaght has been facilitating techspace workshops every Saturday morning. The participants work on maker projects with a facilitator John. From the list of regular attendee’s, five were selected to go to Creative Tech Fest. On the day each child got to see the latest in technological innovation, attend a makerspace workshop and leave with a finished product.
All of our tech children did the torch making workshop. It was a great day and Techspace Tallaght was delighted to be a public library represented at the event. Thanks to John, Coleesa and Barbara organizing and to the children’s parents for their assistance.