STEPS Engineers Week, run by the Engineers Ireland STEPS programme, gives children the opportunity to discover engineering, facilitated by their teachers, parents and local community. STEPS Engineers Week 2023 will take place from Saturday, 4 - Friday, 10 March 2023.
During STEPS Engineers Week-themed lessons are taught in primary and secondary school classrooms across the country to help children discover the exciting world of engineering in Ireland. Teachers and schools can access free engineering resources provided by the STEPS team, or create their own engineering themed activities.
STEPS is here to support you in planning your primary school Engineers Week activity. This page contains all the information that you need to get involved with STEPS Engineers Week 2023.
Help empower teachers and organisers to communicate effectively about engineering.
Providing teachers with engineering themed activities.
STEPS Engineers Week activities should show off what engineering is to young people. This is the only requirement from STEPS – otherwise the sky is the limit!
Do you need any activity idea? STEPS has collated a list of activities suitable for primary school audiences that you might like to carry out. These can be found below.
If you have another engineering activity in mind, that’s great! Please do feel free to go ahead with your own activity. You can carry out the same activity each year, you are under no obligation from STEPS to come up with something new each year.
Here is a selection of suggested activities and resources that the STEPS team have gathered for primary school level.
Primary teachers, learn about engineering and how to communicate about it with your students.
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STEPS has over 20 free primary level engineering activities available for teachers to download and carry out in classrooms.
How to access free STEPS Engineers Week resources:
These free STEPS Engineers Week 2023 resources will be available in Autumn 2022. Please subscribe to our mailing list to hear when these go live.
This resource consist of PowerPoint quizzes exploring engineering, with a short introductory film, for three different age groups.
Do you have what it takes to get top marks in the STEPS Engineers Quiz? As Creatives has created family-friendly quizzes to explore engineering at home and challenge each other to see who the ultimate engineer is! Watch the intro short film to learn more about engineering all around you.
Suitable for age 8-12
This bumper pack contains 15 hands on activities for you to get involved this STEPS Engineers Week. You can carry out one or as many activities you like! Print and copy the activity page of your choice.
Contents:
Explore engineering in these five engineering themed colouring sheets.
The Engineering in our Lives short animated video shows you how engineering is all around us! Watch this short video, and complete the accompanying workbook so see how engineering is our lives.
Watch the video now on the Engineers Ireland YouTube channel.
The Engineers Ireland STEPS Team has partnered with Dazzling Discoveries to bring you two Engineering with Paper Activities. Students build a slide, jungle gym, see saw and more in the Engineering With Paper: Build your own Playground pack. Students Build their own paper creature in the Engineering With Paper: Design your own Creatures pack. Add hair, wings, facial features and more.
Access four exclusive episodes of STEM programme Mission Unstoppable, available to watch for free.
Be inspired by female STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) superstars in leading fields including agricultural tech, entertainment, animals, design, and space - all categories key to the teen experience. New to the show as a correspondent is STEPS Ambassador Fig O’Reilly, a “NASA Datanaut” and Miss Universe Ireland 2019.
Age suitability: 10+
Episode Information:
1. Saving the bees: In this episode, our STEPS Ambassador, Fionnghuala O'Reilly finds out how we can help save the bees. A scientist explains the importance of bees to our crops and food supply. Also in this episode, An agricultural tech is showing how the latest technology is being used to improve agriculture. A researcher dives into the ocean to survey the giant sea bass population off the coast of California. A mechanical engineer teaches you how to make a battery with a lemon.
2. Laser printing cars: Fionnghuala meets with Engineers who are forging a path into the future of 3d printing. Also, a gemologist takes us through the 4 Cs of diamonds grading: cut, clarity, colour and carat. A chemical engineer shows us how vitamins are made.
3. Wildlife biology in Alaska: Fionnghuala finds out how science is used to track animals in the wild. A wildlife biologist tracks animals from shrews to wolverines, deep in the Alaskan forest. A teacher shows us how she inspires the next generation of STEM innovators. An astrophysicist takes us through the totally stellar life cycle of stars.
4. Astronaut training in zero gravity: A pilot shows Fionnghuala how real astronauts experience weightlessness in space. A scuba diving expert teaches us how to get scuba-certified. An astrophysicist takes us far, far, away, in her explanation of exoplanet detection. A reliability engineer working at a major oil company explains why safety is always a priority at her job.
The Engineers Ireland STEPS team have paired up with Jasmine Florentine, author & project illustrator of Hex Allen and the Clanksmiths, to share Hex Allen's Guide to Defeating Monsters! Join Hex and her friends as they use science and engineering to get out of a bunch of scrapes, and make some fantastic gadgets in this special and exciting activity.
Jasmine has created a video demonstration especially for STEPS Engineers Week! Watch now on the Engineers Ireland YouTube Channel.
The STEPS team has selected a list of films and documentaries that will get students excited about engineering and STEM. Used as part of a lesson, movies can spark discussion and reinforce topics.
Teacher preparation before the screening:
On the day of the screening:
COMING SOON
The STEPS team has selected a list of books about engineering and STEM. Why not complete a reading from one of these engineering themed books?
Hello! And welcome to your Engineering Challenge Passport. We are about to embark on a Round-the-world engineering adventure like no other.
On this trip you will face many challenges. For each one you will need to use your inner-engineer to look at the problem facing you and come up with a way to solve it.
The Engineers Ireland STEPS team has created the Wind Energy Challenge Pack, designed for students to explore sustainability in engineering. Primary school students take on the Pinwheel Challenge.
The pack contains an engineering discussion guide and detailed activity instructions. Available free to download, the activities can be carried out with materials found in the classroom or home.
Take the STEPS Engineers Week Primary School Quiz! Either call out the questions, or display the PowerPoint on Screen.
Use the Quiz Presentation for the Quiz, and the Answers Presentations to score the quiz!
Take the Engineering Challenge! Match the engineering descriptions with the images, and learn about different types of engineering. Colour in the matching sheet.
Take the Sustainable Engineering Challenge and match the ways engineers are helping achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Children with autism are often visual learners, and this resource was created with this in mind. It’s a bright and engaging resource, focusing on repetition of key words associated with engineering, matching games, and activities based on developing vocabulary.
STEPS Engineers Week has primary school engineering shows that teachers can screen for students in classrooms. Streaming Monday, 5 - Friday, 10 March 2023, teachers can register for free to receive a link to our pre-recorded fun & educational shows. The shows can be viewed on any device that normally streams videos.
Register for engineering shows now.
You will be sent the link in the days before STEPS Engineers Week.
Watch the pre-recorded engineering show in your classroom at a time that suits you.
The shows can be viewed on any device that normally streams videos.
Click on the title of each resource to drop down the accordion and learn more about the resource.
Access this resource: Human Life, Properties and Characteristics of Materials
Explore and investigate how people move; Understand how materials may be used in construction; Explore the effect of friction on movement through experimenting with toys and objects on various surfaces.
Click the link below for more information.
https://www.sfi.ie/engagement/discover-primary-science-and-maths/engineers-week/
Dream, Invent, Create is publication to introduce engineering to kids in primary schools. It will help them make a connection between the everyday world and engineering — and excite them about the possibilities. You can purchase digital editions to share with students remotely, either purchasing a single licence or in batches or 10, 20 or 30. Shop now.
Available to access now for free is A Guide for Teachers: Dream, Invent, Create a Career in Engineering
Get kids excited about a career in engineering. Fun lessons, guidance and insights about engineering learning and careers, and the support educators need to make it all work for primary school students. Although it does reference , there are lots of discussion guides and worksheets that work as a standalone resource. Download the Teacher Guide and Student Workbook now.
The documentary focuses on the critical value of our most precious natural resource and explores the ongoing threats to its future. It seeks to educate and inform; with a range of contributions from engineers, scientists and consumers. It explores the development and current state of Ireland’s public water network, with a unique perspective on the ongoing national project to upgrade the country’s drinking water supply and wastewater treatment, and the role we all have to play in conservation.
Visit Irish Water's website to access. Access the YouTube playlist.
Irish Water has additional resources available that are relevant to the documentary and Water education available on www.water.ie/education, including The Story of Water Activity Booklet, videos, quizzes and worksheets and more. Links to An Taisce and Scoilnet resources are also available.
Irish Waters’ educational resources are available on Scoilnet, to help students learn all about water in a fun and engaging way with videos, fun activities, and support material. Check out the resources at Scoilnet resources.
Microsoft Dream Space and The Garage - Primary School Sessions Microsoft Dream Space and The Garage are hosting two free online sessions this STEPS Engineers Week for primary school students on Wednesday, 9 March. Through an immersive, alternative teaching and learning experience, Dream Space at Microsoft Ireland and The Garage will inspire students and teachers to see technology in exciting new ways, helping them to realise the full potential of what they can achieve.
Booking is live now here.
DreamSpace HomeSpace is an initiative by Microsoft Ireland to help educators, parents and children participate remotely in some of Microsoft Ireland's favourite DreamSpace activities.
With Microsoft Ireland's Full STEAM Ahead episodes, you will hear from inspiring guest speakers, learn lots about science, technology, engineering, art and maths and will also have lots of fun taking on fun maker challenges.
These challenges will require you think really creatively, problem solve and generate solutions by using materials that you find around your home. We can't wait to see what you create.
Get started by visiting RTÉ Learn, and access seven fantastic Full STEAM Ahead lessons.
Access Full STEAM Ahead lessons now.
How would you build a new railway to join the residents of the town to a city?
Your task is to choose the best route through all the obstacles, thinking about how your choice will affect the company, environment and community.
Play the new online game here!
Twinkl have a great range of activities including individual activities children can do remotely or in the classroom.
Access resources now.
Make sure to tag us and use our special hashtag #STEPSEngineersWeek and tag us:
Registered activity organisers will receive a Digital Promotional Pack to help promote your activities. The pack includes:
As an activity organiser it is critical for you and your students to evaluate your STEPS Engineers Week experiences, so we can analyse the positive impact of all your hard work. You can do this via our online evaluation or via a printable evaluation sheet.
STEPS will email to all teachers who have registered to gain access to resources, or have registered their own activities.