Minister of State for Research and Innovation Sean Sherlock has today announced that over 500 Irish primary schools will receive the esteemed Discover Primary Science and Maths (DPSM) Award of Science and Maths Excellence.

The DPSM Awards, which are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year, are run through the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Discover Programme. Of the 517 recipients, 16 schools received their 10th Award of Science and Maths Excellence, and will be presented with a prize from Abbott Ireland.

The DPSM Award requires primary schools to complete activities under five criteria to encourage a whole-school approach to maths and science excellence. These include engaging in hands-on DPSM science and maths activities, visiting DPSM Discover Centres and attending or hosting science events. Hundreds of schools also participated in Greenwave, a nationwide project to track the advent of spring, as part of the Award programme. Participating schools recently submitted their log books for evaluation.

Commenting on the awards announcement, Minister Sean Sherlock said,“Government policy is focused on helping young people to engage with science, technology, engineering and maths. Ensuring our population is skilled and trained in science and maths is crucial to attracting investment, creating high quality jobs and accelerating Ireland’s development into a competitive knowledge economy. It is extremely encouraging to see so many schools embracing the Irish primary schools DPSM programme - an initiative which makes science and maths meaningful and accessible for children. Not only are these children developing core skills in these subjects, but they are also learning many skills which will stand to them in later life including critical thinking, analysing, estimating, measuring, fair testing and recording.”

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