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I think this is a very interesting research question and one that can be tailored to any age group. I think at the moment with the hot meals being provided it has provoked us to think about the amount of food waste being produced and also to ask questions about how this concept can be made more environmentally friendly.
I think this question would be engaging and relevant to the children in my school as our village is built on the river Fergus a tributary of the River Shannon. The river is a focal point of the community with various festivals and events held on the banks of the river throughout the year. Also a large multinational company was located just beside the river for many years providing huge employment in the area. The children are familiar with it as we would often take a walk down along the quays particularly with the older classes during the summer months to observe the river features and wildlife. The river does however flood during times of extreme rain and in storms causing damage to the surrounding buildings, nature and wildlife. The children could begin by investigating the causes of flooding and collect anecdotal evidence from people in the community about historical flooding events in the village. Visuals, videos and written evidence could be explored. The children could then conduct some fieldwork providing it is safe to do so along the banks of the river. As a class we would discuss safety rules beforehand and ensure that everyone is aware of the rules before we embark. The children could look for flood marks on buildings, trees, or riverbanks that indicate past water levels. Discuss how high the water reached and what might have been affected. The children can document this by drawing, writing or taking pictures on a class iPad. Following on from this the children could draw up an action plan on what measures they think need to be taken to protect the local environment from future flooding events. The local county council could be involved as the children could send their findings in to them or ask a local councillor to visit the school and listen to the concerns of the children. We could then look at flooding in other parts of the country and the world. Comparisons could be made and the children could identify how the weather and climate change is affecting regions located beside rivers. I think it would be a great project to do with an older class and it would provide lots of scope for cross curricular integration.
I agree that this is a fantastic resource to promote oral language development as the visuals provide a lot of scope for engaging children in discussion.
Having read through and analysed the ESA resource ‘From the ground to the sky’ which is highlighted in this module I think it would be a great resource to use for teaching about space and satellites particularly in the older classes. I liked the way the visuals provided have actually been taken by astronauts on the ISS. This gives a more meaningful aspect to the lesson as the children are given a clear understanding of what can be seen from space. I think these visuals provide great scope for lots of classroom discussion. The match the photo activities are also very child friendly and can be differentiated accordingly to meet the needs of all the children in the class and I like the way they can be tailored for individual or group work activities. The sentence starters also provide great prompts for both the teachers and the students for whole class and group work activities. This is a resource I would definitely use in the future with a senior class.
I agree here with the need to be mindful of the content that we show to children and also the need to highlight the great work that is being done particularly in schools with regard to caring for the environment.
I think the video ‘Home’ by Yann Arthus-Betrand could be used as an effective tool to teach about climate change. It could act as a great stimulus for classroom discussion based on environmental issues and how we can sustain life on planet earth.
The video is powerful in explaining how human activity is affecting planet earth through deforestation, the over use of natural resources and the impact on animal life. I think this film could be viewed in segments particularly with younger classes and follow up activities could be provided after each segment. I think it would also work as an excellent stimulus for a class project on how we can reduce our carbon footprint and this in turn could link in with the Green Schools Committee and the work that is already being done in school to promote environmental awareness. This can also promote a deeper understanding of the importance of caring for the environment and how small changes can go a long way to achieving this. I also like how this topic/video can be linked to many different subjects and provides scope to teachers to allow children to explore the topic in their own way making it personal to them.
I like the idea of including technology as I think this would work very well with the older classes particularly if they have access to laptops or iPads. It would certainly deepen their understanding of the topic.
I agree there is lots of scope for cross-curricular integration with this lesson and with careful planning it can be very effective to consolidate children’s learning in this way.
The lesson on climate change is very effective and engaging. I like how it gives facts and information and then sets a challenge for the children. If I was teaching this lesson I would certainly use the ESA-PAXI video as I thought this was an excellent introduction to climate change and greenhouse gases. It explains the concept in a child friendly way and offers scope for classroom discussion after. Having explored the TEAL temperature tool I think this would be a good resource to use to support the learning of the climate change lesson however I think it would be necessary to work with the pupils first to explain the concept and probably would work best at an older class level. I think the lesson is good however I think some children would find it challenging particularly with some of the language used in the questions and the skills mathematical skills needed to complete the activities. There is certainly a need to have this differentiated to ensure each child in the class can access the content.
Maeve Liston’s paper “Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” seeks to provide us with a more critical look at STEM education and how it appears in our classroom. I liked how she talked about the importance of ensuring that all the subjects are more connected and that we should not be trying to make a science experiment a ‘STEM Activity’ just for the sake of ticking a box. I think as educators we need to look and see if our STEM lessons are ensuring that the objectives and targets of the lesson are being met in a way that is meaningful for the pupils. I think she has also highlighted appropriately the need for more support and resources to be provided for schools in the area of STEM as it can be overwhelming at times for teachers to plan effectively for it and in turn implement STEM in an already over loaded curriculum. More emphasis needs to be placed on the integrated approach which can be taken with these subjects.
Having looked at the ESA resources I thought about how I could potentially set up a met station in my school. I think it is a great idea and I particularly liked the activity where the children look at weather proverbs. This is a great opportunity to promote links between home and school-including parents and even grandparents in this activity. I think the met station activity would also lend itself to a whole school approach perhaps even led by the green schools committee. Certain classes could be in charge of a weather instrument to include construction, monitoring and data collection. It is an effective activity to include lots of subjects including art and maths also.
There is some great ideas here and lots of integration which is great for planning. Space week is something I will definitely be celebrating next year with my class as there is lots of scope and interesting activities shared in this forum.
The lesson I would use from this module would be the rockets one. I think this is a very engaging and hands on lesson that would be suitable for the Junior Infant classroom. I like the idea of using a story as a stimulus for the lesson. It sets the scene for the lesson and allows the children some time to think about the concept. The building of the mouse rocket would be a great art lesson and I think the youtube video is a great resource to have particularly for infants as it provides a visual aid which helps visual learners. I also like how the video provides prompts for discussion and extension of the lesson-What would make the rocket go higher etc? This could also be a junk art lesson in aistear the following week where the children would be encouraged to use their prior knowledge and build a rocket of their own.
I think a space themed aistear station would be a brilliant idea and one which I will consider for next year. There is lots of scope for development and providing the children with meaningful ways to develop their understanding of space. These photos are great to get an idea of how it could be set up. Thanks for sharing.
An activity that I would use in my classroom is the one based on hot and cold. We spend a lot of time in the infant classroom discussing the weather each day. I feel it is a good way to develop oral language and children like the routine of going to the window every morning to discuss the weather. For this lesson I would incorporate it into my theme of The Toy Shop in Aistear as we already do an experiment where we explore floating and sinking-Which toys will float on the top and which will sink to the bottom. We also then freeze the container with the toys in it and spend a lot of time discussing what will happen to the container when it goes in the freezer and how will we get the toys out of the block of ice again. I find this lesson really helps to develop children’s thinking around hot and cold, freezing and cooling and in turn develops their oral language. I like the idea in the lesson of the different scenarios where they must decide whether is it hot or cold. The movement to different areas of the classroom for this activity would be particularly great for junior infants. I think this could also be linked to Gaeilge and the theme of An Aimsir.
