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Brilliant idea to develop a whole-school plan on the issue to centralise children’s voice in the school’s plan.
Research Question:
How can we reduce the amount of single-use plastic waste produced at our class birthday parties and what positive impact could this have on the local environment?This research question would garner interest in all classes, but perhaps 2nd class where all children tend to attend large parties x30 times during the year.
Children may not realise the prevalence of single use plastic in every encounter of the party (i.e, wrapping paper, bottles, cheap gifts that may easily break, gift vouchers etc)
By building awareness, children could be encouraged to use alternative, more sustainable options to replace these single uses of plastic to positively impact the environment and also build creativity rather than always opting for convenience.
Firstly, it would be important to brainstorm the concept of single use plastic and the negative effect it has. With parental support, an audit could be carried out at a birthday party at the start and end of the year of parties to compare the merits of children’s learning.
Children could work as a class to suggest realistic ways to reduce plastic at parties. E.g, bring your own lunch box/ wrap with newspaper/ colourful paper/ make a present rather than buying cheap plastic items. avoid gift vouchers etc.
By focusing on a habits within their own home environments, pupils are more likely to remain engaged and recognise that their individual and collective actions can contribute to reducing single use plastic and subsequently addressing climate change.
This would be a lovely way of modernising space exploration for children in primary schools at the moment. Children took huge interest in the recent moon orbit and its important to make it relevant in the current age.
This could certaintly foster massive interest in this topic within the classroom!! Children would really enjoy comparing and contrasting the journies taken by various satellites and their purpose. It would bring the concept to life for them.
5 satellites that have passed by Ireland.
1. Starlink Satellite (Internet communications)
Creating broadband internet from low earth orbit.
2. Sentinel 2 (Earth Observation)
Takes high resolution images to observe land and costal changes including agricultural, forestry, fires, waters and other changes to landscape.
3.NOAA 20
Measures the earth’s atmosphere and surface to provide and improve weather forecasts.
4.NOAA 21
Its surface and atmospheric measurements help with weather predictions.
5. Cosmic 2
Measure atmosphere using radio occulations.
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<td data-start=”399″ data-end=”429″ data-col-size=”sm”>🛰️ <strong data-start=”405″ data-end=”428″>Starlink satellites</td>
<td data-col-size=”sm” data-start=”429″ data-end=”455″>Internet communications</td>
<td data-col-size=”xl” data-start=”455″ data-end=”643″>Provide broadband internet from low Earth orbit. Thousands of Starlink spacecraft circle Earth, so individual satellites frequently cross Ireland.</td>
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<td data-start=”644″ data-end=”664″ data-col-size=”sm”>🌍 <strong data-start=”649″ data-end=”663″>Sentinel-2</td>
<td data-col-size=”sm” data-start=”664″ data-end=”684″>Earth observation</td>
<td data-col-size=”xl” data-start=”684″ data-end=”865″>Takes high-resolution optical images of Earth’s land and coastal areas. It is particularly useful for monitoring agriculture, forests, water, fires and changes to the landscape.</td>
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<td data-start=”866″ data-end=”884″ data-col-size=”sm”>🌦️ <strong data-start=”872″ data-end=”883″>NOAA-20</td>
<td data-start=”884″ data-end=”921″ data-col-size=”sm”>Weather & environmental monitoring</td>
<td data-col-size=”xl” data-start=”921″ data-end=”1145″>Measures Earth’s atmosphere and surface to improve weather forecasts and monitor environmental conditions. NOAA lists NOAA-20 among its currently operating polar-orbiting satellites.</td>
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<td data-start=”1146″ data-end=”1164″ data-col-size=”sm”>🌦️ <strong data-start=”1152″ data-end=”1163″>NOAA-21</td>
<td data-start=”1164″ data-end=”1186″ data-col-size=”sm”>Weather forecasting</td>
<td data-start=”1186″ data-end=”1423″ data-col-size=”xl”>Its instruments collect atmospheric and surface observations that contribute to weather prediction and climate/environmental monitoring. It is another of NOAA’s current polar-orbiting satellites.</td>
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<td data-start=”1424″ data-end=”1442″ data-col-size=”sm”>🌐 <strong data-start=”1429″ data-end=”1441″>COSMIC-2</td>
<td data-col-size=”sm” data-start=”1442″ data-end=”1475″>Atmospheric research & weather</td>
<td data-col-size=”xl” data-start=”1475″ data-end=”1712″>A constellation of six small satellites that measures the atmosphere using <strong data-start=”1552″ data-end=”1573″>radio occultation. The measurements are used for weather forecasting, space-weather monitoring and climate research.</td>
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</table>Green Schools is a fantastic initative that already exists in our system to promote this topic and encourage a whole-school approach to climate change.
Home is beautiful production that conveys the challenge of the climate crisis in a very powerful and effective way. It is very well produced and highlights the beauty of planet earth and its habitats, juxtaposed against the dire consequences climate change is having and will continue to pose if action does not occur. Home made a strong argument for sustainable living.
Children have a heightened awareness for this and are better at adapting than adults. It would be important to praise their current actions and suggest futher ways their schools & home environments could become more sustainable. While Greta Thunbery has been an excellent figure head for the need for climate action, children should be praised and encouraged for their efforts.
Teachers could work towards promoting climate justice within the classroom by offering learning opportunities via the resources available from Global Schools & encourage children to write their learning & suggestions to local political representatives to build their sense of responsibility and ability to change the course of the climate crisis.
While children hear about the concept of climate change, it is imposrtant to guage their prior knowledge about the causes and effects of the climate crisis. Children could be engage in a STEM lesson about the impact of climate change on certain countries based on their location/proximity to the sun.
I would use a KWL chart while illiciting key vocabularly from the children to guage their undersanding and give them ownership of their learning. It would be important to focus on the impact human activity and choices are having on the climate crisis and the moral lesson that can be learned that certain countries are having a profoundly negative impactive on the lives of others in the developing world.
Children could be asked to use key questions to facilitate their learning using ipads & a range of suitable online resources to research key concepts within. They could present their learning by designing campaign posters / sharing their learning at the whole-school assessmbly.
I agree, the Paxi video is highly engaging for children to make sense of an abstract concept (not directly caused by children.)
Children always engage very well with visual animations of a concept to foster their enthusiasm for learning.
Ì agree, the gallery walk is a fantastic idea to act as a stimulus for the discussion on climate change. It could be a lovely way to introduce the topic. Children could work in pairs to observe the images and think pair share at the end of the activity to share their observations & learning.
It would also be interesting to compare weather journals from year to year to give children a better sense of climate change.
A chairde,
I was also considering the language aspects when teaching weather & climate. While children in my context would have a good grasps of the english terminology, in a Gaelscoil context all STEM lessons become language lessons dur to teaching new terminology. Pictures are key to successful understanding for us in a Gaelscoil.