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 secondary 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 secondary level.
Primary teachers, learn about engineering and how to communicate about it with your students.
<!--cke_bookmark_175S--> <!--cke_bookmark_175E-->
STEPS has over 20 free secondary 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.
STEPS Engineers Week has secondary 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 and 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.
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 - Secondary School Sessions Microsoft Dream Space and The Garage are hosting two free online sessions this STEPS Engineers Week for secondary school students on Thursday, 10 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.
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!
In 2012 the IMTA Council decided to inaugurate a special competition for Transition Year pupils. Dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Tiernan and the many years of devoted work which he had given to the Association the competition was designed to be based on problem-solving and was named as Peter’s Problem.
One of the aims of the competition is to have a ‘real-life’ problem which connects with a typical engineering problem. It is also designed so that computer resources may be used in its solution, including use of the Internet to access data required for the problem. The problem is set at the level of Ordinary Junior Cycle.
Peter's Problem is open to individual students under the direction of their teacher. Completed entries must be submitted by the end of STEPS Engineers Week.
Email petersproblem2022@gmail.com or visit the Peters Problem website for further details.
Are any of your students considering civil engineering as a career or educational option? A special edition podcast is being recorded for STEPS Engineers Week 2022, with students of the Civil Engineering degree at GMIT (Galway Mayo Institute of Technology) discussing their engineering journey.
Click here for more information.
The ‘Role Models in pSTEM: You can be what you can see’ project was created to highlight positive role models for young women in the subjects of physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering.
Meet Sharon McManus
Sharon McManus is an engineer officer of Commandant rank in the Irish Defence Forces. After joining the army in 1996 and completing an army officer cadetship, she completed a BEng in NUIG in Civil Engineering. She is currently on a Masters programme in the defence forces, studying for an MA in Leadership and Management in Defence. This qualification will allow her to compete for promotion to potentially become the first Lieutenant Colonel in any of the defence force services. Her work has taken her far and wide with overseas missions to Liberia and Kosovo in 2006, Chad in 2010 and most recently to Lebanon.
Watch Sharon's Video here. For more information, visit the website.
Make sure to tag us and use our special hashtag #STEPSEngineersWeek and tag us:
Twitter @engineerireland
Facebook @engineersireland
LinkedIn @EngineersIreland
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.