Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry
Contact the Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry team and arrange a school visit | cellexplorersittralee@gmail.com
The Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry team brings the Fantastic DNA School Roadshow to primary schools around Kerry.
The team are currently getting ready to deliver more visits around National Science Week in November 2023.
About
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The Cell EXPLORERS Munster Technological University (MTU) Kerry team (formerly know as IT Tralee) was established in May 2016. The team is based in the South Campus of MTU Kerry and was previously coordinated by two lecturers, Dr. Geraldine Twamley Stein and Dr. Antoinette O'Grady. Dr. Naill Burke is the new Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry coordinator, who is a Lecturer at the Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre, MTU Kerry. The team members who demonstrate in the schools are undergraduate students with an interest in science outreach from the Pharmaceutical Science or Wildlife Biology courses.
The team succesfully brought the Fantastic DNA School Roadshow to primary schools around Kerry last November around the time of National Science Week. In 2023, the team will be visiting more schools around Tralee. Learn more about the past school visits of the team and the evaluation feedback they have received in the infographic section.
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The Team
Here is the Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry team for 2019! It is currently coordinated by Dr Niall Burke, assisted by Bernard Boateng. Read more about them in their profiles below!
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With his team of volunteers, Niall & Bernard will be engaging primary school children around Kerry, teaching them about DNA and helping them perform DNA extractions in their own classrooms!
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Are you a staff/student member of MTU Kerry? Interested in sharing your love of science with young people? Contact Niall at niall.burke@mtu.ie to get involved!
MTU Kerry Cell EXPLORERS team 2019
Dr. Niall Burke
Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry Coordinator
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Lecturer,
Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre,
MTU Kerry
Dr. Niall Burke received both his BSc in Physiology and Research MSc in Microbiology (industry focused) from University College Cork (UCC) before working as a Research Assistant within the Vascular Sciences Department at Imperial College London, UK.
He completed his PhD in Cardiovascular Sciences at University College London (UCL), as part of The Hatter Cardiovascular Institute team, while researching the role of mitochondrial dynamics in cardiac ischaemia-reperfusion injury. Dr. Burke then worked as a postdoctoral fellow within the pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca PLC in Cambridge (UK), where he was investigating the role of cell signalling kinases in drug-induced structural cardiotoxicity.
He has significant in vitro cell culture and molecular cell biology experience. Dr. Burke is currently based at MTU Kerry in Co. Kerry and currently holds the position of Scientific Project Manager for Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre.
The Coordinators
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Bernard Boateng
Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry
Co-coordinator/Team leader
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Lecturer,
Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre,
MTU Kerry
Bernard is a Pharmacist by profession, previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over ten years in various roles including regulatory affairs, quality control and other managerial roles. He holds M.Sc. in Pharmaceutical Analysis from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK and pursuing a PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
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Currently, Bernard lectures at MTU Kerry campus in the Department of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the International Medical Commencement Programme. Bernard’s research interests are in the field of developing innovative analytical tools for bioprocessing monitoring in line with principles for process analytical technologies (PAT) and quality by design (QbD) for the biopharmaceutical industry.
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As part of his role with Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry, Bernard assists in the coordination of the team. This includes recruiting and training CE volunteers, lab management and organising events.
School Visits
The MTU Kerry team was set up in May 2016 with a training day with the University of Galway coordinators followed by a training school visit to the nearby Moyderwell Primary School. This was the old primary school of one of the coordinators, Antoinette, so there was much excitement when the team visited! The Fantastic DNA session was run with both 5th & 6th classes.
In 2019, the team visited 2 schools, 4 classes, engaging 99 children with Fantastic DNA. In 2017, Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry visited a school in Abbeydorney and was part of the Kerry Science Festival. The team visited 2 schools in Tralee during Science week 2022 facilitating Fantastic DNA in a box to 44 children.
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MTU Kerry Cell EXPLORERS school visit map for 2022
The team will continue school visits this year. If you would like them to visit your school, please contact the team by email.
Check the team impact and the feedback from schools !
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All Children and teachers visited have a chance to provide us with feedback on the visit. This helps us to evaluate the quality and impact of our visits!
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A summary infographics is generated for each team every year. It shows the metrics of the team activity, highlighting children's and teacher's experience by summarising their feedback and includes pictures from school visits.
Click on the links to discover the Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry team visits over the past years:
What pupils and teachers say:
“This workshop had all the students engaged in class from start to finish. They enjoyed the science – they never thought they could ‘see the DNA’ for themselves”
[Secondary school teacher, 2022 feedback]
The scientist “…explained it very well and took his time explaining the experiment which made it easier to understand” [13 year old 1st year female pupil, 2022]
“It gave an idea of what science experiments are really like” [13 year old 1st year female pupil, 2022]
MTU Kerry Team Training School Visit
Building DNA model
Fantastic DNA training
Building DNA model
Past MTU Kerry Team Members
Dr. Geraldine Twamley Stein
Former Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry Coordinator
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Lecturer,
School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Institute of Technology Tralee
Geraldine is a UCC graduate in Biochemistry. She received her PhD in Molecular Biology from EMBL, Heidelberg, Germany. She has over 21 years of lecturing experience in science subjects. In IT Tralee she has taught a variety of courses including Forensic Biotechnology, Biodiversity, Biochemistry, Ecology and Conservation Science. She also supervises undergraduate and postgraduate projects in the area of field biology, agriculture and parasitology.
Geraldine has experience in coordinating community projects that bring students from ITT and local members of the community together to solve local problems in the areas of ecology and conservation. She has lectured and demonstrated for science taster programmes in the IT Tralee laboratories for transition year students and was involved in the setting up and judging of the first Sci-Fest for County Kerry.
Dr. Antoinette O'Grady
Former Cell EXPLORERS MTU Kerry Coordinator
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Lecturer,
School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Institute of Technology Tralee
Antoinette is a Chemistry lecturer at IT Tralee in the School of Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences where she teaches students in Wildlife Biology and Agricultural Sciences courses in addition to Biological and Pharmaceutical science students. She has a Masters in Environmental Analytical Chemistry from UCC and got her PhD in Physical Chemistry at Queen’s University Belfast.
Prior to joining IT Tralee, Antoinette worked in industry as a sales manager and an application specialist, where she trained and supported researchers in using the product. She is excited about the benefits that having a Cell EXPLORERS team in IT Tralee will bring to her students.