Inclusive STEM Education and Outreach in Educational and Community Settings
Delivered by: Dr Maeve Liston (Director of Enterprise & Community Engagement, Mary Immaculate College) & Dr Eleanor Walsh (STEM outreach officer and CRAFT (Creative Arts and Future Technologies) Maker Space Manager, Enterprise & Community Engagement, Mary Immaculate College)
This workshop will explore how science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) can be meaningfully integrated into educational and community settings to support inclusion. It will highlight playful, accessible approaches to STEM that engage all learners and promote curiosity, problem-solving, and collaboration.
Dr Maeve Liston is Director of Enterprise and Community Engagement and Senior Lecturer in Science Education at Mary Immaculate College. She leads a wide range of outreach and engagement initiatives that promote inclusive STEM and STEAM education across schools, communities, and industry. With over 20 years’ experience in science education at primary, secondary, and third level, Maeve has designed and delivered programmes on creativity, innovation, coding, robotics, and entrepreneurial education. She is passionate about widening access to STEM learning and building collaborative partnerships that support educational and community development. Maeve holds a first-class honours BSc (Ed) in Biological Sciences with Chemistry and a PhD in Science from the University of Limerick.
Dr. Eleanor Walsh (née Meehan) from Mary Immaculate College (MIC) holds a BA Hons and MA Hons from NUI Maynooth, Ireland and PhD (Linear Algebra) from University College Dublin, Ireland. She is currently the STEM outreach officer and CRAFT (Creative Arts and Future Technologies) Maker Space Manager in MIC. Her work in STEM outreach has resulted in numerous presentations and lectures to audiences in private industries and in both the non-profit and educational sectors. She established the Time to Count national numeracy programme in Ireland in 2018. Continuing on this outreach work, she has led the development of the CRAFT Maker Space project in MIC which is an engagement initiative and environment, designed to foster innovation and engagement in STEM education through hands-on learning experiences with children, students, educators (pre and in-service), families and the general public. Through her leadership, the CRAFT Maker Space has become a hub for collaborative projects, workshops and outreach activities designed to inspire and empower the next generation of educators, engineers, scientists and innovators. Her research interests include STEM outreach, non-formal STEM education, integrated STEM, education technology, digital skills, early childhood STEM education, science capital development, women and careers in STEM and STEM industry outreach.