Calmast Wins Best Education Outreach Award
Calmast, the STEM Engagement Centre in WIT were announced national winners in their category at the Irish Education Awards in Dublin, last week. Securing the Best Education Outreach Award for their events programme ‘Maths Week during Covid’ was warmly welcomed by Calmast directors, Dr Sheila Donegan and Mr. Eoin Gill.
Ireland's Top Digital Outreach Programme
The fifth annual Irish Education Awards which recognise excellence in third level education deemed Calmast www.mathsweek.ie as the country’s top digital outreach programme. Over 400,000 people were engaged across fifty plus events online and interactively within schools, public bodies and community groups.
“We are delighted to be recognised for our timely and effective response to the Covid crisis. Bringing Maths at Home resources to thousands of students, teachers and parents during lockdown enabled us to sustain our level of engagement, while also having the unexpected benefit of reaching new audiences through the digital medium,” commented Dr. Sheila Donegan.
Dr. Sheila Donegan, Calmast, Waterford Institute of Technology, Picture: Patrick Browne
Organisers Business River stated “The award categories are designed to highlight the key areas that impact upon student performance and enable providers of Higher and Further Education, their employees and contributors, to have their achievements recognised across the various important facets of their operations.”
Innovative Programme
Calmast digital engagement manager, Ben Dolan said “the award recognises teams who pivoted to develop, create and implement interactive educational outreach programmes during the pandemic. Previous winners include DCU, UCC, RCSI and Systems Biology Ireland. The ceremony was a fully live digital broadcast hosted by Colm O’Regan”.
Calmast is Waterford Institute of Technology’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) Engagement Hub. It was established in 2002 to address issues in STEM. The centre leverages the resources of WIT and is part funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) as the STEM Hub for the South East Region.