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Activity Set: The Moon
This is a very good starting point for a lesson. Children are always fascinated by the moon in particular when they can still see the moon during the day. This leads to a variety of questions such as why is the moon out when the sun is, I thought the moon only came out at night time and so on. Lessons on the moon can be modified based on the year group. The man on the moon is a good stimulus for a lesson eliciting the children’s prior knowledge on what they know and discussion can occur around what the children want to learn. There is also a wide range of opportunities for integration across different subjects including acrostic poems in literacy, moon drawings in art, history of the moon landing.
A lesson I would love to teach in a more senior class is the phases of the moon using Oreo’s. This is a great hit with the children. It allows children to see the lunar cycle and its eight different phases. The white part of the Oreo represents the illuminated section of the moon and the Oreo biscuit represents the shadow. This is very simple and effective. The children would definitely love eating the Oreo’s once the lesson is completed! The lesson is active and engaging. I would assess the children’s learning at the end of the lesson by getting them to draw the eight different phases of the lunar cycle.An inquiry based activity I would use in my class is the different planets and their distance to the sun. I would prepare for this activity by printing out a photo of each planet and their distance from the sun on a flash card. I would elicit the children’s prior knowledge by discussing what we already know about the plants and the sun. Questions such as which planets are hot? Which planets are cold ? And so on. I would then split the class into groups to make predictions on the distance of planets to the sun. I would ask the children to predict which distance applies to which planet. Once done I would get feedback from the children. I would then get a student to represent each planet and a student to represent the sun by holding up their photos. I would get the children to line up accordingly based on their distance to the sun. By doing so, it is visual for the children to see the closest planet and the planet that is furthest away. Whole class discussion would occur surrounding this and the goal would be that children would see the relationship between planets such as Mercury and Venus being the hottest and being closest in proximity to the sun. The children are also active, engaged and moving around the classroom. There is linkage with maths and the use of number and distance also. Overall, I think this lesson could work very well in the middle of the school perhaps for a 2nd or 3rd class. At the end of the lesson, I would ask questions to assess the children’s learning. It could be a good lesson to introduce space as a lesson group.
This sounds like a great lesson and one that the children would really be engaged in! I love the idea of working in small groups. Informal assessment at the end is excellent to see if learning outcomes have been met
Hello. My name is Alyson and I will be teaching 2nd class next year. I love Space and teaching about it. I love the opportunities space has for integration across subject areas. My favourite space fact is over one million earths could fit inside the sun!
The following is my proposed research with a 2nd class. I have chosen this as our school js situated next to a beautiful walkway. Lots of pupils use this coming in and out of school. There is a river flowing through the walkway that floods quite frequently. We can see first hand the problems it poses for us as a school community.
Question: what has contributed to flash flooding of our local walk way? When does this occur? How do we know it has occurred ?
Climate issue: climate change has contributed to more flash floods and increased rainfall in our local area. In recent years, we are seeing much more localised flooding on one hand, and much hotter weather on the other. There has been a bug change in weather trends in Ireland.
Importance: this flash flooding affects the whole community in particular our school community. The walk way is used for general daily walks by many members of the community. It is used by students and parents on their way in and out of school. When flooded, people cannot pass through. They need to take alternate routes.
Those affected: students, parents, teachers, the wider community.
Data collection proposal:
Make a rain gauge and choose two different months at random
Collect rain water from those two months and compare findings
Look at any research done by local authorities and see if there are any strategies inputted already to prevent flash flooding
Take a walk through the area on a dry day
Look at areas affected when heavy rain occurs
Are there any other measures that could be put in place to help alleviate the issueI agree with Siobhan it is so important to make lessons meaningful buck to the children’s everyday lives.
The EU browser could be used in the classroom to teach students all about satellite data. I explored Satelites using the orbit tracker app, I could see several satellites that have passed over Ireland recently including : Starlink Satellites, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Safellite, and Cosmos 2228. This would be an area that I would have shyed away from teaching before. I now feel I would have more confidence delivering a lesson on satellites. I chose this course to better my understanding and deepen my knowledge in order to improve my teaching in this area and to better learning experiences for my students.
I too looked at Nose Up in the Sky, it is very user friendly and provides a wide range of student activities that are engaging, student centered and structured. It breaks down broader more complex scientific topics into more manageable child friendly lessons
I also agree that using the children’s immediate environment is an important starting point for learning. This is definitely something I will try out when exploring satellites in the classroom
HOME was a very powerful and moving clip that would bea great stimulus to introduce a lesson in the classroom. On reflection, it is very eye opening to watch. I think it is engaging and provides children with An opportunity to reflect on what they can do to help our planet and environment. This video highlights the impact of humans on Earth and a wide variety of topics are explored. It may be effective to focus on a different topic each week and devise a new lesson on each topic , for example week ones focus could be pollution, week twos focus climate change and so on. There are many opportunities for cross curriculum links and integrations. The topics discussed could be explored in English debates, construction of eco systems in visual arts, etc. I do think it is important lessons are meaningful and age appropriate for the children. As well as the HOME video there are lots of useful resources mentioned in this module that I will bring forward to my future teaching, including the Greta and the giants storybook and the carbon footprint questionnaire
I also agree that the clip HOME is powerful. As you mentioned, it gives hope by encouraging us to take action together. It is important for the children to see it is not too late and we can make a difference by combining small actions together
On reflection, Paxis video is definitely a resource I could see myself using in my classroom. It is abe appropriate, informative, and engaging. It definitely meets the needs of younger classes. I think often as a teacher who has more experience in the junior end of the school, I can shy away from exploring big topics such as climate change as I fear ideas are too abstract and may go over the children’s heads. However, a video like this provides an important starting point to overcome this challenge and to introduce these abstract topics in a more child friendly way. It is a good stimulus for lesson to encourage discussion and questioning and allows me as the teacher to elicit the children’s prior knowledge and to see where they are at and where I can go with the lesson. The video provides children with clear and concise explanations of such important topics. It too encourages children to become critical thinkers which is core to curriculum values. I think these activities do just that! There are lots of opportunities for project and group work and meaningful links to other subjects. I particularly liked the Earth under the Lid experiment and look forward to trying it out with my students next year !
I definitely agree with Diarmaid! A really great resource that provides lots of opportunities for discussion
The paper Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by Liston 2018 was very informing and insightful. It provided me with opportunities to reflect on STEM education in my classroom. On reflection, STEM education was an area I feel I would not have been confident teaching in newly qualified. However, I have tried my best. I always use an integrated approach to STEM and try to ensure learning is meaningful and connected for the pupils, as this is very important.
The activities mentioned were great lessons. They both provided student’s with opportunities for active and meaningful learning and also made lessons student centred. I think weather detectives was a great one. This provides opportunities for linkage and integration also. Looking at weather and climate in different countries and comparing and contrasting with other weather in Ireland, creating acrostic poems in literacy, designing and making different weather tools in visual arts such as a rain gauge. Last year in. Y classroom, each child had a monthly calendar. Every morning, we would look at the day and date and log the weather using a simple drawing or symbol such as a cloud, sun, or umbrella. This was a great hit with the children. They loved coming in on a Monday filling in their symbols for what the weather was like at the weekend. This allowed me to see it was much more than a simple learning task the children completed in school. At the end of each month, we would analyse our findings and see what weather we encountered the most this month. We would then check if the weather was in line with stereotypical weather for that month. Discussion would occur surrounding this. This again provided opportunities for integration with maths and data. What weather was the most and least popular, how many days of rain in November, how many days of sunshine across the winter months, and so on. We stapled together the calendar pages for the academic year. I even provided children with the months of July and August for them to keep logging if they wish to do so. On reflection, this was a very meaningful activity that we carried out for the school year. It is definitely something I would recommend trying in your classroom with your students as the learning opportunities are endless!
