Microsoft, for the first time, brought their DreamSpace experience outside of their €134m campus at One Microsoft Place, Dublin and the destination for this unique pop-up event was Saint Eunan’s College, Letterkenny.
Working along with the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) department in the school, four lucky primary schools were invited into the newly refurbished Computer Science suite in the Saint Eunans which was transformed into Microsoft’s DreamSpace for the day – complete with beanbags, Surface laptops, Micro:bits and of course the Microsoft tutors.
Students from Killian National School (Inver), Cloughfin National School (Lifford), Scoil Mhuire gan Smál and Educate Together (Letterkenny) were chosen to participate and were assisted by Computer Science students from Saint Eunans throughout the day.
The workshops focus on teamwork, engineering, coding and the skills of ‘making’.
Students got an insight into what life was like in Microsoft’s new Irish headquarters in Dublin and how the building was constructed. The kids then got an opportunity to design and construct their own building using only paper and lollipops.
These marvels of engineering were then tested against simulated earthquakes (shaking of tables!) before students got to design and code their own shake sensors using the Micro:bit computers. These skills of teamwork, engineering, design and debugging are high on the wishlist of many of today’s employers.
The Minister for Education and Skills, Mr.Joe McHugh, dropped in to meet the students and was very generous with his time, chatting to each group about their project and their thinking behind the designs.
This was a huge honour for Saint Eunan’s College and a great endorsement of their STEAM Academy which is nearing two years old. This initiative has taken several STEAM subjects under its umbrella including the new flagship Transition Year course which includes Computer Applications, HTML, Python Programming, CAD and 3D printing. Saint Eunan’s is also one of only 40 pilot schools in the country that offers Leaving Certificate Computer Science under the Academy banner.
Microsoft are intending to roll out more of these pop-up events nationwide following the success of the event in Saint Eunan’s. We look forward to continuing the relationship between the College and the company into the future.
