The content in this guide supports students taking part in the DCU History in Your Hands project in 2025/2026.
This project is led by DCU Library in partnership with DCU's School of History and Geography.
It is structured around teaching fourth and fifth year secondary school students how to plan, research and write their research study as part of Leaving Certificate History.
The History in your Hands project is generously funded by DCU Library.
Three local secondary schools are taking part in this year's History in Your Hands project; Dominican College Griffith Avenue, St. Vincent's Boys Secondary School, Glasnevin and Trinity Comprehensive Ballymun.
During the course of this project, a group of students from each school will learn research, collaboration and critical thinking skills.
The students will learn about the different types of information sources available and how to find high quality sources for historical research. They will learn about the value of archives for historical research and how to plan and complete an academic essay. At the end of the project, the students will understand how to locate, evaluate and cite and reference sources.
They will then use the skills they have learned to plan, research and write a research study report as part of Leaving Certificate History.
The skills that the students learn in these sessions will help them to complete school assignments, support their research in third level education and help them to find, evaluate and use information with confidence, in life or work. They'll also get to visit two of DCU's academic libraries and they'll become familiar with the DCU Glasnevin campus and St Patrick's campus.
October 2025 - February 2026
The project team will deliver five classes to the three student groups between October 2025 and February 2026.
We’ll show the groups how to plan, structure and write their own history research study report during these five classes. We'll be using Seán Lester and his work as a diplomat in Europe to illustrate these skills. The Seán Lester diaries from DCU Library's Special Collections and Archives will be featured as one of the key sources in the project. Using the skills we teach them in these classes, the students will be able to choose their own history topic and map out, research and complete a research study report.
The classes will run for 2 hours per session. We aim to make the classes as interactive as possible so we’ll be looking for student participation throughout. This will help the students to retain the skills that they are learning and make the classes more engaging.
We’ll be asking the student groups to fill in a feedback form after each class. We'll use this information to improve the methods and materials used in subsequent classes and in the online guide. The forms will also be used to check if the students are learning the skills we aim to teach them.
Early March 2026
The team will visit the schools in early March and provide them with the support they need to finish their research study reports. They'll also show them how to submit their reports.
20th March 2026
The participating students will submit their research study reports to the project team by 20th March 2026. These will be entered into the project competition and corrected by experienced Leaving Certificate examiners.
14th May 2026
The students will attend an awards ceremony in Cregan Library on the DCU St Patrick's Campus. The first second and third place winners will be announced for each school and the finalists will receive their prizes. Competition booklets will be shared with the teachers, students and attendees.
The research study reports submitted by the students will be marked according to a rubric that closely follows the marking scheme used to grade the Leaving Certificate History Research Study. This marking scheme will be explained to students and shared with them in class and in the online guide.
At an awards ceremony in May 2026, the highest scoring study from each school will be awarded a prize of a €200 one for all voucher.
The second highest scoring report in each school will receive a €100 voucher and the third highest scoring report will receive a €50 voucher.
This means that nine prizes will be awarded in all.
Booklets containing the top three highest scoring entries (one from each school) will be printed and shared with the students at the awards ceremony.
Online guide
This online guide provides additional support for students taking part in the project. It contains general information about the project including its aims, structure and class content.
It will also contain resources including PowerPoint presentation slides used in the project classes, YouTube video tutorials and links to useful historical resources. Based on the feedback we receive from the student groups after each session, we'll be adapting the content of our upcoming classes.
We aim to make the sessions and the resources in the guide as accessible as possible, so all videos will be captioned and the guide will use plain language and avoid jargon. Slides will be made available before each class for anyone who’d like to print them out and use them to make notes during the sessions. The slides provide a useful way for the students to revise what they've learned.
Marking scheme
A marking scheme has been made available in this online guide. This closely follows the scheme laid out for the Leaving Certificate History Research Study.
Questions for the team
Students taking part in the project can ask the project team questions at any stage during the classes or send questions to the team through their teacher. Each school also has dedicated support from a specific member of the team. They can email them directly with questions or report drafts as follows:
Dominican College students: Celine Campbell celine.campbell@dcu.ie
Trinity Comprehensive students: Hayley Brabazon hayley.brabazon@dcu.ie
St Vincent's Boy's Secondary School students: Killian Downing killian.downing@dcu.ie
The History in Your Hands project, led by DCU Library, first ran as a pilot project from October 2023 - May 2024. The pilot project was funded by DCU’s Quality Improvement and Development Fund. Established in 2012, the DCU Quality Improvement Fund (QUID) is an open funding call for enhancement-focused initiatives across academic and professional areas that will impact DCU staff, students and stakeholders.
In 2024 - 2025 the project was funded by DCU Library with support from Student Support and Development. It is now funded by DCU Library.
The History in Your Hands project members from DCU Library are: Eilís O’Neill, Celine Campbell, Hayley Brabazon and Killian Downing.
We’re grateful to be consulting with Dr Will Murphy and Dr Marnie Hay from DCU’s School of History and Geography on the project.
We'd also like to thank Dr Joe Rodgers from DCU Library who contributed to a key project document.
We used History syllabus guides and other supporting documents to inform the content in the History in your Hands classes and in this guide. Please consult these documents if you're looking for more information on any aspect of researching and writing your History research study report: