THE FOURTH annual crop of "teacher scientists" have received certificates marking their participation in the Star programme funded by Science Foundation Ireland.
Star (Secondary Teacher Assistant Researchers) sees the summertime placement of science teachers in third-level laboratories where they take a full part in real, ongoing research. They return to their schools in the autumn with new skills and a higher level of enthusiasm.
Minister of State for Science, Technology and Innovation Jimmy Devins presented the certificates yesterday at a ceremony at the Science Gallery at Trinity College.
"Teachers have a crucial role in encouraging students into the sciences," he told the Star participants. Student involvement in the sciences was falling, he added. "In the present climate we need to encourage more students to take up science and engineering."
Star was in a position to help, given that the 37 teachers involved in 2008 would return to teaching with a new enthusiasm, he said. This group alone would probably encounter between 2,000 and 3,000 students this year. In the four years of the programme more than 200 teachers had taken part.
The Star programme was "unique" in Europe, SFI director general Dr Frank Gannon said. Yet it had the potential to cultivate real student interest in the sciences.
The teachers participated in labs across the State working on subjects such as the genetics of autism, nanomedicines to target hospital superbugs, sign language recognition using video images and cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy.