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“HOME” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand is a wonderful, thought-provoking documentary that illustrates the impact of human activities on our planet. It gives us an insight into the absolute beauty of Earth and how we as humans have enormous influence on its future as well as its present state. The breathtaking shots of Earth together with such interesting facts and information are well presented but this could certainly be a difficult watch for young children. I would integrate this lesson with an SPHE lesson on the circle of control where children learn to identify things we can and cannot control in terms of climate change. I would hope this would help deal with eco-anxiety which some children could face.
Following on from this, I would like to show “Home” in segments, pausing and having group discussions to record facts and information, with a full class oral activity to conclude. There are endless opportunities for lessons to consolidate learning and provoke thinking in this module eg the carbon footprint calculator and other videos such as Greta Thunberg. Hopefully this will translate into improving everyday actions like reducing waste, conserving energy, and supporting sustainable practices in all of our schools.Rebecca I think your idea of linking this lesson to Geography in looking at different countries and monitoring their story in terms of climate change would be really interesting, particularly for senior classes. This is something that could be tracked throughout a whole school year and would also lend itself to integration with the new Maths curriculum.
Module 2 Answer
This is a very interesting and practical lesson that I look forward to using in the classroom. I would begin by initiating discussion and brainstorming to record prior knowledge from the children on what they already know about climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I feel it would be very important to spend lots of time on familiarising children with vocabulary and allowing them time to think and come up with their own questions. I would then go on to show the Paxi video to the children. The video is both informative and enjoyable. Following on from this I would divide pupils into groups and ask them to come up with practical changes that we could make individually, as a family and as a school to tackle climate change. They could then present their ideas at green school meetings and share them with other classes in the school.
I enjoyed your post Conor as I always teach the children in my class about inventions and particularly Irish or female inventors. I find that the children engage in such research themselves with great enthusiasm. Bringing this a step further in terms of how your school could be improved adds a really interesting dimension and opportunity for enhanced learning.
I really enjoyed reading Dr. Maeve Liston’s ‘Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics’, I have been able to identify certain aspects of STEM active in my classroom but there are many areas where I can further develop and promote STEM so that the children can learn through collaborative problem solving. I found the resources in Module 1, particularly the ESA resource “Nose Up High in the Sky,” to be extremely valuable. The activities provided are interesting, engaging and flexible and could be adapted for all grade levels.
For my students next year, I plan to introduce the initial activity on weather and climate. The weather detective activity will be suitable for all levels, teaching essential skills like instrument usage and weather recording. I am eager to set up a weather station at our school. In a very large school with limited space this will be a challenge, but I am hoping that a number of classes could use the station and benefit from sharing ideas, information and learning. Overall, I hope this will significantly enhance my students’ understanding of weather and climate in the coming school year.
