Awards for Limerick students who have big ideas
PUPILS at two Limerick schools have scooped top accolades in a national competition which has been teaching transition year students how to solve social issues through creating thinking.
The Big Idea is empowering teenagers across Ireland to come up with innovative ways to solve five major social issues in Ireland, through teaching the process of creativity, critical thinking and complex problem solving.
Almost 500 students took part in the first year of the programme, submitting 67 projects across a variety of themes including the Irish housing crisis, fighting pandemics, the ageing population, combatting racism and managing teens’ health and wellbeing.
Projects submitted by students from Desmond College, Newcastle West and Laurel Hill Colaiste FCJ in Limerick city were among the winners.
In the ‘Aging Population’ category, Team Technopad of Desmond College produced an easy- to-understand, colourful manual with large print for older people.
The manual guides the older person through using technology, enabling the person to communicate with their family, do quizzes and Zoom calls, read books, pay bills and shop online.
Also at Desmond College, ‘Micro Aggressions Macro Problem’ was the name of the project that won in the ‘Combatting Racism’ category. The team there focused on primary school students and created an e-book.
Desmond College’s Donal Enright also won Teacher of the Year.
Meanwhile, Laurel Hill’s Team Muuttaa tackled the housing crisis and designed a sustainable home from shipping containers which would be affordable, good for the environment and pleasing to the eye.
The overall winning team was, Team Tech Trio from Presentation De La Salle in Carlow who created an innovative interactive app for children and teenagers to improve their fitness.
Social entrepreneur and industrial design expert Kim Mackenzie Doyle created The Big Idea programme as she believes that creativity can be taught.
“In our first year, we have proven it. One-hundred percent of students involved have learned new skills that are much sought after by industry and society. The programme has developed critical thinking and problem solving in students, skills they can use in senior cycle and beyond.”
The Big Idea wants to bridge the gap between education and industry, and to connect top innovators with students for tangible and long-lasting impacts.
With 101 mentors from a range of disciplines across the country, the students and their projects were supported by innovators such as Dermot Bannon, Diarmuid Gavin, Timi Ogunyemi, Lorna Ross and Roisin Lafferty.
“This programme is an incredible addition to Irish education. The skills that students learn will help them to succeed in any direction they choose. It’s relevant, inspiring and it is exactly what the country needs. We need every young person in Ireland to experience it,” said Chief Innovation Officer at VHI and Big Idea judge Lorna Ross.
“The ideas were fantastic,” said Timi Ogunyemi, Creative and Content Manager Wilson and Hartnell who is urging people to support the Big Ideas concept.
“It’s so unique and needed and has massive potential to affect societal change. It will give students the ability and confidence they need to take on the inevitable challenges that they will face. There is nothing like this out there and we need to embrace it,” he said.
The programme, which already as a waiting list of 10,000 students for 2022, has attracted the support of Irish innovators such as MSD, UX Design Institute, Netwatch, Blacknight, Applegreen, Portwest, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Creative Ireland and many more.