On Monday 28 March, QUB Head Gardener Paul Wallace visited St Malachy's Primary School in The Market, to discuss QCAP’s plans to help refurbish the school pond as part of our Communities and the Knowledge Economy work strand. He was accompanied by Niki McKnight, QCAP Programme Manager, and our colleagues Fionntán and Ciarán from the Market Development Association, who met with Mr Flynn the Principal and Sean the Caretaker - the group discussed various options for design, maintenance, and sustainability of the pond area.

The refurbishment will be the focal point for piloting our Knowledge Economy Hub@theMarket - a programme providing opportunities for the community to participate in knowledge-intensive activities: encouraging curiosity, engagement, and skills development across a range of ages, supported by QUB, to consider scientific and environmental issues that directly impact the community. For the pilot project QCAP will work with school staff to co-develop and co-deliver a series of STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Art, Maths) enquiry-based learning activities, linked to the pupils’ curriculum using the pond.

The pond is a wonderful learning resource for the pupils, rich with wildlife, full of frog spawn and tadpoles, and everyone is excited to see how these develop in the coming weeks. Paul will be returning with colleagues in the next few weeks to co-design the pond with the P5 and P6 classes, who will be building some bat boxes and bird boxes on their next visit!

There is a lot to be done and QCAP are grateful to QUB Gardens and Grounds for coming to visit the community and supporting our work.

Keep your eyes peeled for updates.

 

 

 

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