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20 Institute of Technology Blanchardstown Annual Report 1999–2002: Volume 2
21
Access and Community Initiatives
The following educational programmes run at ITB have come about because of the enthusiasm and
commitment shown by the Access Officer and all staff to encourage school children in the region to participate
in educational activities in a fun and non-threatening environment.
Initiatives at Primary Level
Robotics Summer School: As part of a Third Level Access Initiative, ITB provides a summer school for children
from the four local primary schools and Blanchardstown YouthService. The Robotics School was expanded in
2002 to allow the children who were participating in the Soccer 4 Success initiative to avail of the programme.
Over a three-week period in June each year over 120 5th and 6th class children have the opportunity to spend
up to one week at ITB. The goal of the summer school is to introduce children to the exciting and challenging
worlds of information technology. The 2001 programme was expanded to allow the children to work together
on building robots as well as learning how to create a web page and to use multimedia game building. The
summer school culminates in a ‘Robot Show’ and ‘Graduation’ on the final day where the children are joined
by their parents and friends.
Discover IT: 2002 saw the development of a programme called ‘Discover IT’ which was a collaboration
between the four Dublin Institutes of Technology at Blanchardstown, Tallaght, Dun Laoghaire and DIT. This
programme saw 5th Year/Transition Year students spending one day in each of the participating Institutes and
then completing a project with their class in relation to their experiences. The theme of the first ‘Discover IT’
programme was Careers. A video of the project was completed and forwarded to the participating schools to
use as a resource with regard to Career Guidance.
Exploring Electronics: In 2001 we hosted a Transition Year Workshop in ‘Exploring Electronics’ which was
collaboration between ITB, the Transition Year Curriculum Support Service and Cork IT. The purpose of the
module was to make engineering and electronics available to students in an exciting and innovative way.
Soccer 4 Success: This programme is run in collaboration with the Early School Leaving Initiative in Navan and
Warrenstown Horticultural College. For this programme, 12 primary school children considered to be at risk of
leaving school early were identified. They spend one evening per week in Warrenstown Horticultural College
where they do assisted homework as well as a special curriculum designed to support their schoolwork using
sports related material to stimulate interest. The programme finishes with sports activities designed to improve
self-esteem and team building. This programme commenced in February 2002 on a pilot basis.
Language Support – Primary Schools: A languages initiative which commenced in 2001 allows sixth class
primary school children to attend ITB for French language tuition. The programme was devised to link with,
and support, existing programmes in the schools concerned.
Initiatives at Second Level
Language Support – Second Level: A languages support programme commenced in 2001 to provide oral and
aural French and German language support to Leaving Certificate classes. The programme was initially offered to
Riversdale Community College and Blakestown Community School and was expanded in 2002 to offer these
supports to another two schools in the Dublin 15 area.
Teachers Days: The first Teachers Seminar was held in May 2001. This programme allows teachers to spend
a day at ITB. They participated in modules including; the use of teaching aids at ITB, national and
international trends in computing, the use of assistive technology, and the use of the robotics programme as
an educational tool.
IT Module for Transition/5th Year Students: An advanced IT/Engineering module was offered in January 2002
to 5th Year/Transition Year students from four local second-level schools. Students from these schools were
offered the opportunity to learn the basics of computer hardware, operating systems, networking,
programming, the internet and building circuit boards amongst others. The programme was designed to
stimulate interest in Computing and Electronics.