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That sounds like a fantastic months work Luke. I love how you have identified different habitats for the pupils to explore. I also love you are tying in biodiversity on the canal with the role engineering played in the design of the canals.
As I am local to Birr Castle I think I would use the story of the 3rd Earl of Rosse, the building of the Great Leviathan and his discovery of The Whirlpool Galaxy as the stimulus to an integrated theme of work involving History, Science, Visual Arts and Creative Writing.
In history, we would learn about William Parsons and how he developed the Great Leviathan. Puils would learn about the importance of this discovery to the world of science. Ideally, I would try and arrange a field trip to Birr castle.
We could make our own telescopes in Science using different lenses. This would be part of a larger unit on light and looking at how lenses work.
Using Lego, we could build our own model of the telescope or we could use other materials to build the model in visual arts time.
We could also learn about William Parsons discovery of the Whirlpool Galaxy. Using creative writing, pupils could either design their own front page of a newspaper detailing the discovery or else they could write a diary entry for William Parsons.
Finally, we could use Spiral Galaxies as a stimulus for a visual arts lesson using patterns and colours where pupils create their own spiral galaxies.I love this idea Hilda, its great to have unique building like this in the locality and it is a fabulous idea to incorporate it into engineering lesson plans. As you say yourself, it may not be a popular building with everyone i nthe locality and it is great to see the children being asked to think critically about the design and see beyond any negative commentary about it
I would use the suspension bridge in Birr Castle along with a range of other local bridge designs as a stimulus for work on a bridge design project for my class.
I would use the SFI design and make framework to structure the lesson. We would identify some well-known bridges and would look at some common design features such as arches, suspension bridges, simple beam bridge etc The children we would ask the children why different designs are sometimes used in the design of a bridge? What role would the bridge play? How does this affect the bridge design? What words would you use to describe a good bridge? What characteristics. should it have? I could show them the video of the farmer from Roscommon. We could discuss what is good about his design and what limitations if any there would be to his design (not able to pass under it with a boat, not wide enough for farm machinery etc)
We could use two sheets of paper and some books to try out some of the simpler design concepts. E.g. what effect does outing the arch under the sheet of paper have?
After agreeing a class requirement specification for the bridge, pupils will then discuss the design they want to create and will work together to use recycled materials to make a model of the bridge. They must work together to figure out how to join all of their materials together.
Integrating with maths, we would look at the different shapes that may be used. We could explore how much weight the bridge should support, the length required for the bridge etc.
When all designs are complete then we would test each solution. Pupils will be encouraged to reflect on the effectiveness of their design.Great ideas there Emer. I really love the idea of involving the children in the gardening club by looking for their ideas and involving them in the process. Sometimes we can all get a little distracted by other activities/deadlines in the school and having a group of pupils that are invested in it can help keep biodiversity on the agenda.
There are many excellent resources and ideas mentioned in this module although I think the one that appeals to me the most is a bird survey of our school garden. I would link it to a larger theme that involves the following activities
Construction of a bird feeder using the framework and lesson plan outlined in the module.
Identification of birds in our garden using identification keys, books etc I have an excellent resource that was included with a newspaper a couple of years ago and I regularly take out of this little book when making identification worksheets etc
We could then include a citizen science activity by either taking part in the birdwatch Ireland garden bird survey which takes place every winter or else we could record our sightings using the National Biodiversity Data centre website. (https://records.biodiversityireland.ie/) We could also look at some of the recorded data from other parts of the country to see if there were any different trends.
I love the idea of using trail cameras in the garden and I will be looking into investing in some of these. We will also use the class Ipads to take pictures of any birds we can spot in the garden.Pat I absolutely love the idea of using drone footage as part of a lesson on Map Making. Not all of the available satellite imagery is useful or clear enough to properly teach a lesson on map making. Using drone footage to isolate and identify features of the playground would be so useful and make the concept of a birds eye view a lot more accessible to children
I think there are so many possibilities for engaging lessons based on the material in this module.
I absolutely love the idea of making a map using found materials in the playground. This would probably be more suitable to younger / middle classes although there is no reason why it couldn’t be used in all classes. I would start off by revising the concept of maps / aerial views etc. We could then do a walk around the village. We could collect artefacts along the way to remind us of our walk. E.g. we could collect some water from the stream, a hurling ball from the local gaa club, a flower from the wildflower garden etc We would then use some of these in the maps we are making with found objects such as sticks etc
This could then be extended using a tool such as GeoHive. We could use a baselayer and draw over it putting in local features we have identified.
I also think GeoHive would be an excellent tool for History and heritage projects. We could use old base layers to explore how the village has changed over the years.
Finally, I think tools such as the biodiversity maps tool could open up opportunities for excellent integration between Science and Data in maths. I would also love to explore the possibility of a cooperative project between different schools where each school records some piece of biodiversity data e.g. number of blackbirds spotted during the winter We could compare data between schools.What a brilliant idea Louise. I often find that Environmental awareness and care was always one of the strands that didnt seem as popular as some of the other areas of the science curriculum. You have made some great suggestions of how climate and environmental issues can be engaged with in a very meaningful way in the classroom.
Module 1 gave a great introduction to the structured approach to Scientific investigation and the integrated nature of STEM. I have previously used the Curious Minds website and find it to be an excellent resource. I will definitely be trying out the Esero and Esa resources going forward. I think one of the big shifts in STEM is to properly plan your activities. Look for chances to integrate across the curriculum. Also I feel to properly engage with a topic, more time may be needed. Many of us are guilty of looking for activities that can easily fit into a fortnights Science time as this easily fits into our planning documents. I think it is also not always possible to cover the material in a text book and also engage with the resources available on some of the websites mentioned above. Support material has to be carefully used to ensure it complements rather than distracts from the main activity. For me, I am going to try and ensure that I have more investigations that properly use the Curious Minds Framework for Inquiry. I am also going to use what I have learned about the telescopes at Birr Castle in a lesson this year.