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Inspiring School Initiatives for Bright Minds

Inspire is a range of school initiatives brought to you by the Irish Computer Society and ICS Skills. Sparking student’s innovative and creative spirits, these three different programmes immerse students in the world of technology, engineering and computing.

Using the real life tools and following the daily procedures of technology professionals, students gain real insights into these different working environments. As a result students are more informed, excited and inspired when comes to subject and career choices.

These programs include, F1 in SchoolsTM, Scratch and ChooseIT.  If you want to find out more about these programs then read on!

F1 in Schools

F1 in Schools is a competition hosted by the ICS, open to all secondary schools, to design and manufacture racing cars powered by compressed air canisters. Student teams compete against each other in a National Championship to determine the best-engineered and fastest car in Ireland. Competitors have an exciting educational experience, expressing their creativity, skills and teamworking ability in a fun and positive way. Learn more

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ChooseIT

Responding to the concerns of industry regarding expected shortfalls in IT graduates, the ICS launched the ChooseIT programme. Aimed at second level students, it is an initiative to demonstrate the diverse, fun and rewarding nature of ICT careers and to promote entry into 3rd-level ICT related courses. Learn more ».

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Scratch

Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy for students to create their own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share their creations on the web. It is a fun and interesting way to introduce software development to students.

Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre and the Irish Computer Society have launched a student workbook and competition in software development, utilising a program called Scratch.

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ICS Grid

The Irish Computer Society and ICS Skills strongly believes education must be a priority as a primary route to job creation. Interactive whiteboards, laptops, virtual learning environments (VLE’s) should be common place in Ireland’s classrooms.  Not in the classroom of tomorrow but in the here and now.

With the objective of supporting and aiding the education system of this country, helping it evolving into the dynamic and flexible learning environment it needs to be, the ICS Grid is a digital content service from ICS Skills that provides access to over one million digital learning resources from multiple global providers.

Our library of learning resources delivers high quality digital content to education, helping teachers provide fun, engaging and personalised learning experiences for their students.

These resources are mapped to the Irish curriculum, including thousands of new project maths resources. Every resource is copyright-cleared for education so that teachers and students can use, edit and repurpose digital content in any way they like.

We source and select only the best resources for your classroom, consistently bringing reliable, appropriate and relevant education content into Ireland’s classrooms.

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