In this episode Louise is joined by Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin.  

An Assistant Professor in the School of Mathematics & Statistics at UCD, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin talks about her love of education and how she did not initially set out to be a teacher.

She tells Louise she is someone who “never thought that they were good at maths,” and she had failed her maths test at Christmas in sixth year. It was a grind that helped make the difference - “it was literally somebody else explaining it in a different way.”

“I really think mathematics is down to how it is explained to you and if we do more of that discussion and that peer learning and that dialogue in the classroom, mathematics becomes the subject that it is in real life and not the subject that it reflects in a book.”

Now working with future science and maths teachers, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin says there is a lack of women in the sciences and specifically in STEM and with Louise she shares stories about a Barbie doll that said, ‘math is hard.’

She also talks about chairing The Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss.