Sports initiative to provide educational STEM resource to local community
Programme to be launched 10:30 am on Tuesday September 14th in Tallaght Stadium.
September 7th: As part of its sponsorship of the Unite the Union Champions Cup, Unite has partnered with Shamrock Rovers and Spheros to provide an educational STEM resource to the Tallaght/Clondalkin community. This ground-breaking resource introduces students to football and STEM education through hands-on, football-themed coding and mathematics activities.
This educational resource, which is unique on the island of Ireland, comprises six 10 x 6 metre floor mats designed as football pitches, together with 15 interactive robots programmed by the participants to perform tasks, such as playing football. This develops skills in sport, maths, computer programming and coding. Five local teachers have been trained up to roll out this STEM education in the local community. The programme will begin this September in schools across Tallaght and Clondalkin, and is being formally launched on Tuesday September 14th at 10.30 am in Tallaght Stadium.
Among those attending the launch will be Shamrock Rovers head coach Stephen Bradley, who is himself from Jobstown, and midfielder Aidomo Emakhu from Clondalkin. Shamrock Rovers Academy Director Shane Robinson will also be present.
Commenting, Unite’s Community Coordinator Rhona McCord said:
“Unite is delighted to launch this initiative with Shamrock Rovers and Spheros Sports as part of our sponsorship of the Unite Champions Cup. The programme will provide educational STEM resource to the Tallaght/Clondalkin community and builds on the Champions Cup theme of ‘Diversity, Equality, Community’, which started in 2019 when Unite gave supports to children in Direct Provision engaged in football”.
Shamrock Rovers F.C.’s Community Officer Tony O’Neill added:
“Community is at the heart of Shamrock Rovers Football Club and the club is continuously engaged in supporting and building relationships with the local community. Our schools programme has enabled hundreds of children from schools in the area to engage in physical wellbeing workshops, delivered by our community and academy coaches. I look forward to working alongside our team of volunteers implementing this engaging and inclusive project, providing coding classes for children in our partner schools. We are proud to work with Unite on this initiative.”
Unite the Union, Ireland Region 