EPISTEM PODCAST

• EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 31

  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.

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• EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 30

  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.

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• EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 29

  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’.

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• EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 28

  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.

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• EPI∙STEM PODCAST EPISODE 27

  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’.

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