Over 2,000 primary school students across Tipperary have learned to code all while learning about Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thanks to a Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) research initiative.
‘Exploring the Sustainable Development Goals through Coding’ is a programme designed by researchers at TUS Thurles campus to show primary school students how technology can help address real-world issues, through a series of interactive and engaging workshops all based around the United Nation’s 17 SDGs.
The project, which has received €350,000 in funding since 2022 through Research Ireland’s Discover Programme, has worked with 2,303 students, 32 primary schools and 131 teachers from small rural schools to larger urban schools, as well as those in Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools.
Most of the schools that have participated in the project are based in Tipperary with schools from Kilkenny and Carlow, also taking part.

The programme also supports teachers to introduce coding into the classroom across a number of curricular areas, including Mathematics, Art and the Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE) curriculum
Pamela O’Brien, Principal Investigator on the Project and Lecturer at the Information Technology Department in TUS, said: “Working on this project with so many national schools from across the region has been incredible, especially to see how engaged and interested they all are in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths (STEAM) discipline.
“During 2023 the research team worked with 750 students and 50 teachers as part of the 2022 award from Research Ireland. Since January 2024 the team has worked with 1,500 students and more than 80 teachers as part of the 2023 award, with a plan to work with an additional 500 students and their teachers before the project ends this December.
“The target audience of the project is 3rd to 6th class students in primary school. But we have also targeted a number of demographic groups including students in DEIS schools and students in Special Educational Needs schools. We have had a tremendous response from our students in SEN schools to-date, and we are looking at expanding the project further for these pupils.”
Over the past fortnight, the team have been hosting a series of exploration days based on the TUS Thurles campus, inviting back 1,000 primary school children who already engaged with the programme.
Students got to experience the third level environment in lecture halls and labs, all while learning about the UN SDGs – such as modern energy, water sanitation, gender equality, inclusivity and innovation, through coding.
Natasha Kiely, Lecturer Information Technology Department and researcher with TUS’s Sustainable Development Research Institute, explains how the programme works:“We wanted to centre the project around sustainability and how technology can address real issues in a real-world context. It was a great opportunity to highlight the power of coding, through the SDG’S, especially to students from rural schools across the region.
“The programme I teach on, is the BSc in Software Development with Games Programming and it was amazing to see how engaged the students were in our ‘Makecode Arcade’ workshops, where we had children as young eight and nine, designing and developing their own games to explore concepts like food donation, counting endangered species and removing plastic pollution from the ocean.”
The SDG Exploration Days have been running across six days: June 4th to 6th , 12th ,13th and 16th , welcoming over 1,000 students and 75 teachers from more than 20 schools through the doors of the TUS Thurles campus.



