A visit to the Queen of Tarts in the Dublin’s Temple Bar is always a treat.
I have fond memories of Dr. Pam Eddy’s most recent visit to Dublin and our stop to see “the Queen” together.
In fact, I sent a little box of raspberry scones home with Dave a couple of weeks ago… he stopped by Pam and Dave’s on his drive home from the airport to deliver the Queen’s best.
This is the plaque that Fergus Whelan posted on the stair tower at the Church on Mary Street (a religious building now operated as a bar and restaurant). The plaque honors Francis Hutcheson, “Father of the Scottish Enlightenment,” whose ideas made their way into the US Declaration of Independence.
The plaque’s coverings catch refections of the buildings across the intersection, at the west end of Henry Street. Here you see Primark’s world headquarters (the lovely red brick building with the patina-ed copper dome) to the right of Francis’ likeness.
Pam Eddy at the Jeannie Johnson tall ship.
I found more photos from our adventure to visit the Jeannie Johnson….
Mast of the tall sailing ship.
The tour guide tells the story, drawn form historic accounts, of each character on the ship. (This guy reminds me of my red-bearded friend Wayne.)
There are many amazing sites I have recorded but haven’t had time to share.
One is the Jeannie Johnson, the replica ship from the famine era that is harbored right here in Dublin.
Dr. Pam Eddy and I visited the ship in March.
In contrast to most “coffin” and/or “famine” ships, no lives were lost on the Jeannie Johnson. There was a very skilled physician on board–and quite bit of luck to boot.
This is what it looks like on deck and also in the berths below deck….
Charlottesville’s Kevin Donleavy has an Irish music program on air tomorrow. I hope you’ll tune in via internet! He explains how, below. I always enjoy hearing Mick O’Grady play at the Cobblestone pub, and he’ll be featured in the program.
Photo of Stefan Paz Berrios and Mick O’Grady, downloaded from Danny Diamond’s Flickr site.
Hi, music heads and tune-fanciers,
I’m becoming a bigger and bigger believer in collaborative learning! Last semester I did lot of research about how engineering professors (i.e., lecturers) here at Dublin Institute of Technology worked together to develop new ways of teaching electrical engineers. I was amazed to discover how incredibly much they learned by working together.
Such impressive knowledge gain is the premise behind Project-Based Learning and other group-based learning formats.
Orla and Shannon in the throws of course planning.
My day today was filled with meetings about collaborative research and teaching projects.
With the help of five different tech guys, I got SPSS up and running so that I will be able to help analyze data on that Mike Murphy and I collected from engineering and engineering technology students. We asked them what they saw themselves doing in the future, how well prepared they feel to start work, and what kinds of things they’ve focused their efforts on over the past few years.
After lunch I met with Orla Hanratty of DIT’s Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) and introduced her to Brian Bowe. She’ll be co-teaching a course (i.e., module) with us in May. We aim to increase the usage and visibility of Problem-Based Learning at DIT by teaching more teachers to use Problem-Based Learning in their own classrooms.
And now, tonight, I’ve been working on a proposal for funding with Ted Burke and Damon Berry. It’s an opportunity that the college’s head of research, Marek Rebow, told me about yesterday and it has to be completed immediately.
I rallied the troops. Ted drafted some text. Then Damon and I were adding our own contributions to it using Google Docs. It was so strange… Damon and me editing the same document at the same time. It turned into a bit of an academic chat session. We tossed ideas back and forth, discussing budget, objectives, and ways to improve what we’ve already got in place.
We’ll do more of that tomorrow, when the three of us meet to hash this out… and have some fun learning in the process.
Thanks to my former student, Kristina Iverson Crawley for posting this gem on Facebook today:
Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny. – Mahatma Gandhi
The sun is out in Dublin today, bringing good cheer….
Setting up to film, the room was filled to capacity with Mulligan relations.
Cinematographers and musicians filled the tiny musicians’ corner at the Cobblestone pub last week. They were filming a documentary about traditional Irish music, focusing on the influence of the Travelers (the ethnic group that’s had the roughest time here in Ireland). I’ll try to keep you posted as to when and where the documentary will air.
And then the filming commenced.
Lobby of Ireland’s Criminal Court building, located near Heuston train station.
Former Fulbright Pam Eddy and I enjoyed a quick visit to Temple Bar’s First Thursdays events during her February visit. Throughout most of the year, the galleries and other cultural establishments throughout Temple Bar stay open late (6-8 PM) on the first Thursday night of each month.
Pam and I had time to visit just two galleries because I’d been part of a Fulbright “field trip” to the Criminal Courts of Justice building that started at 5 (as pictured to the left).
It appears that First Thursday is officially dormant during March. This year, it will re-emerge on Thursday, April 4.
The surprising thing about the many free cultural events offered in Dublin each year is the high level of participation among Dublin residents. In many other cities, residents ignore such offerings. That is truly not the case here!
The Temple Bar Cultural Trust website explains:
First Thursdays Dublin is a Temple Bar Cultural Trust initiative that brings together art galleries, cultural and creative spaces on the first Thursday of every month – by sharing the same late-night opening times.
First Thursdays Dublin (FTD) happens on the first Thursday of every month. Opening hours are extended from 6 – 8pm in a number of galleries. Please note: this list changes every month for First Thursdays! It offers you an extra opportunity to visit exhibitions, attend cultural events and experience some light-night culture. It is our way of experiencing a taste of Culture Night on a monthly basis!
Here is the list of the galleries, cultural and creative spaces that are now part of First Thursdays Dublin:
My engineering colleagues, Drs. Ted Burke and Damon Berry, hosted a brilliant RoboSlam last Friday. They had recruited a diverse crowd of participants to help them refine the way they teach kids to build robots. You can see the basic method (which is being tweaked for use with a new group of kids in May) on their RoboSlam website. I’ve attempted to capture the excitement (and my confusion) in the images below.
Before the event, Ted sent me this:
Hello All,
You’re receiving this because you’re on our list of participants for the upcoming RoboSlam workshop. Hopefully you’re still willing and available! If so, please reply to let us know so that we can confirm our numbers.
The details are:
What happens over the course of the afternoon is this:
We previously ran this workshop as a public event in the MAKESHOP which is part of the Science Gallery at Trinity College. It was a resounding success and it convinced us that this has real potential for a wide audience. Our next workshop with ordinary participants is with a larger group of transition year school students who will be visiting Kevin St in May. What you (extraordinary participants) will be doing on March 22nd is basically the same activity that the participants normally do, but what we’re trying to achieve in this session is slightly different:
Once we get the robots working, we may wish to reward ourselves with a visit to e.g. Ryan’s for some scholarly reflection on all that we have learned. Naturally, this part is optional.
Ted
Ireland by Chance 