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School Roadshows

 

School visits allow students the opportunity to perform real experiments within their classrooms. Thus children engage with science in a fun way and learn the importance of the scientific method. School visits are performed by a team of motivated volunteer students from the University, providing young, enthusiastic science role models. Our high demonstrator to child ratio ensures that all levels of learning are catered for.

 

 

Fantastic DNA! is an hour long activity in which childen learn about cells and DNA. Each child performs a banana DNA extraction and builds a DNA model. This session is ideally designed for children in 5th or 6th class but can be easily adapted to the learning level of 3rd and 4th class. We can accomodate 30 children in a class and the teacher must be present at all times. You can find out all about the Fantastic DNA! school roadshow on the Fantastic DNA! webpage.

 

 

School Roadshows

Little Cells is an interactive session that introduces children in the junior cycle of primary school (5 - 8 years old) to the concept of cells that make up our body. Initially developed in collaboration with Dr. Naomi Lavelle of Dr How Science’s Wows, the session has been refined by Biomedical students inlcuding Katie Flatley who brought it to schools last year. This exciting session helps children to discover the basic components of a cell and their role in the cell’s life, through interactive play and hands on projects. 

 

The session makes use of a presentation as well as visual and tactile games. In the last part of the session, the children will create their very own type of cell from jumping clay and will be able to take it home. 

 

To arrange a visit for your school or class contact us at cellexplorers@nuigalway.ie or fill out the form on the 'CONTACT US' page. 

 

Other school visits

 

We have also developed activities based on microscopes (Amazing Cells!) and lung capactiy (Breathing) to senior cycle primary school children, as well as two activities based on Microbiology (Battling Bacteria and Magnificent Microbes). Some of these teaching resources are available in the Teachers Zone (simply register your details to the site to gain access). 

 

We have several activities designed for secondary school students based on DNA structure and metabolism, DNA extraction, PCR, electrophoresis and DNA fingerprint analysis. Further activities are in development. 

 

 

Festival workshops

Festival Workshops 

 

Cell EXPLORERS has developed several highly interactive workshops for the Galway Science and Technology Festival; the School of Natural Sciences Next Top Model Organism Workshop, the Brain EXPLORERS Workshop and The Cell EXPLORERS Workshop. These workshops are run during the Exhibition day of the festival and are open for the public to attend. See the GSTF  page for more information about the festival exhibition day and how to apply for free tickets for the workshops when they become available.

The School of Natural Sciences Next Top Model Organism Workshop gives the public a chance to meet with NUI Galway scientists and to discover the research topics of the School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway. Researchers and postgraduate students present what the organism they work with and the research that they do. The exhibition allows the general public to learn about up to eight model organisms used in research by the School of Natural Sciences. through observation of these organisms and discussion with researchers about their specific use in research, the visitors will select their favourite model. The public will vote for their favourite model, and choose the Next Top Model Organism ! A draw will be organised among participants to win a visit to the School's research laboratories. 

 

 The reigning top organism 2015 is the Human cell after which replace Hydractinia echinata this year! This workshop has also been run for the College of Science Summer Experience. This 40min workshop is most suited for secondary school students and their parents but can be of interest to senior cycle primary school children too (from 10 years old). 

SNS Next Top Model

The Cell EXPLORERS workshop allows children and their parents to learn about cells and DNA by cycling through 5 hands-on discovery activities: Building a 3D cell jigsaw, preparing a cheek cell slide, viewing cells under the microscope, extracting DNA and building DNA models. This 50 min Workshop is suitable for parents and children (from 6 years old). 

Cell EXPLORERS workshop

The Brain EXPLORERS Workshop. Developped by Biomedical science students and improved by Amira, this workshop introduces the public to the basics of brain biology using hands-on and interactive activities! Sometimes run in conjunction with the walk-in 'Amazing Brain' exhibition of NUI Galway Neuroscience centre, this workshop will allow the public to discover the anatomy of the brain, the different cells which make up the brain tissues and their roles, an explanation of how nervous signals are transmitted from cell to cell similar to electric signals and an introduction to mechanism generating the electric signal constituting the nervous communication.

 

Activities include puzzles, matching games, model building races and interactive circuits during which the public can go from the cellular level up to how the brain and the nervous system work as a whole. 

 

This 30 minute workshop is suitable for parents and children (from 10 years old). 

 

This workshop has been developped with the support of the American Society for Cell Biology and The Biochemical Society. 

 

Brain EXPLORERS workshop
Science Camps

Science Holiday Camps

 

With our partner outreach program, Eco-EXPLORERS, we have developed Bio-EXPLORERS holiday camps for children aged 8-13 years old. Since 2014 we have run 6 Bio-EXPLORERS science camps during either Easter or Summer holidays. The camp days are split into investigating ecology, insects and exotic animals with Eco-EXPLORERS and learning about our bodies, cells, microbes and DNA by peforming experiments with Cell EXPLORERS. This summer we have also involved our Kitchen Chemistry friends from the School of Chemistry. All profit made from these camps are fed back into our science outreach activities. Visit the our camp webpage for more details about past camps and keep an eye on our upcoming activities page or email us to be put on a list for details on our next camps. 

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"Scientist for a day" is a science-taster day that we usually run during October and February mid-term break together with Eco-EXPLORERS and Kitchen Chemistry. Have a look at what it contains here!

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Cell EXPLORERS also takes part in the NUI Galway Youth Academy scheme for high ability 4th, 5th and 6th class primary school pupils.

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Open Days and Science Fairs

 

We have been active in representing NUI Galway science outreach with interactive workshops at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition, NUI Galway Open Days, the launch of the Galway Science and Technology Festival, the Irish Science Teacher Association Conference, the Big Day Out ran by St Patrick's festival, Teentech and, internationally, in representing Irish science outreach at the Malta Science Expo and the Gozo Science days.  

 

Contact us if you would like us to bring our interactive, hands-on approach to science to your science festival or school Open Day.

Open days and science fairs
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