Secondary School (Transition Year) students at Cashel Community School undertook an ambitious year-long inquiry titled Tipperary Women in History. This project was designed collaboratively by their history teacher, branch librarian Maura Barrett, and creative media lecturer Bernard Goldbach from the Technological University of the Shannon.

Grounded in constructivist curricula, the project positioned the public library as a “third place” where teens could interrogate primary sources beyond the classroom. Weekly workshops in the Cashel Library introduced critical historiography, gender-balanced perspectives, and ethical research protocols, while parallel sessions in the digital makerspace scaffolded podcast scripting and metadata management. The design purposefully embedded local heritage collections—newspapers, parish records, artefact catalogues—into an experiential learning cycle, fostering civic identity and transferable information literacies through iterative peer critique and librarian feedback.

Learning outcomes were mapped against the Irish National Council for Curriculum and Assessment key-skills matrix, emphasising managing information, being creative, and working with others. Students articulated three measurable objectives: synthesise biographical narratives of 24 Tipperary women, compare historiographical representations across print and digital archives, and publish multimodal artefacts meeting FAIR-data standards.

Formative tasks—citation drills, reflective field notes, and storyboard pitches—fed a shared rubric co-constructed with learners; this rubric weighted critical analysis (40 %), media-production quality (30 %), collaborative contribution (20 %), and public-facing dissemination strategy (10 %). Assessment descriptors referenced SOLO taxonomy to support progressively deeper modes of knowledge construction.

Pedagogical sequencing followed an engage-explore-explain-extend model. During the “explore” phase, students rotated through archival vignettes in the Tipperary Hidden History Museum, sketch-noting artefacts linked to figures such as Lady Margaret Butler and Dr Mary J. Donovan. Back in the library’s podcast suite, visiting mentor Bernard Goldbach facilitated micro-workshops on mobile journalism: learners captured ambient sound with Osmo Pocket recorders, edited segments in Spreaker Studio, and generated captioned audiograms via Headliner. Reflective prompts situated each digital choice within scholarly-integrity frameworks, interrogating AI-generated transcriptions for bias and error. Peer-mentoring circles used the library's spacious workspace for synchronous feedback, reinforcing the community-of-practice orientation underpinning the curriculum. Session artefacts were uploaded to a shared Google Drive, enabling asynchronous curator commentary and iterative refinement.

Summative assessment converged during a public showcase. Post-produced multimedia objects will be incorporated into exhibition panels by the Tipperary Hidden History Museum.

All the artefacts of this production are licensed under Creative Commons, allowing syndicated hosting on regional radio, school social channels, and the county’s digital-heritage portal. Evaluation surveys recorded heightened historical-empathy scores and significant growth in digital-storytelling self-efficacy among participants.

This curriculum design demonstrates how rural libraries and museums catalyse transformative historical scholarship among mid-adolescents.

Keywords: History, podcasting, AI, education.