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In our school, we would use the local bridges as inspiration. We have two bridges within walking distance of our school. The Killaloe bridge is an 18th century bridge with 13 arches which can only handle one lane of traffic. The Brian Boru Bridge is a two lane modern bridge opened in 2025 and built to handle regional traffic now and into the future.
Making comparisons of the bridges would form a very interesting part of an engineering project. The similarities and differences of the old and the new bridges could be analysed and used to form the basis of our own lesson on bridges.
I have previously completed STEM projects on bridge building with Fourth Class where our building material was newspapers and tape. The children needed to build bridges strong enough to hold toy cars and vehicles which would be able to cross the space between two tables or chairs.I would give certain criteria to the class and groups.
The bridge would need to cross 50cm.
A successful bridge could hold a certain weight.
The strongest bridge would be the one which held the most without sagging.
The bridge could not be taped or held to the table.
These resources are excellent. I think it is so important for children to learn about our native trees and flowers.
Outline how you would use some of the course resources to conduct a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the school year. What resources and recording sheets would you need? How often would you bring learning outdoors? How would you integrate other subject areas?
When I taught First Class for a number of years, I stressed the importance of wildlife and flowers among my colleagues. I remembered well from my own school days learning about different plants and flowers. One of the resources that we used was a book called Wild Things at School by Éana Ní Lamhna. The idea behind this resource was that children learn about one plant and one animal per term. The book has information for all ages and year groups from Junior Infants to Sixth Class. I encouraged my colleagues to include this resource and idea in their planning. I used this resource with First Class, Third Class and Fourth Class for many years and my colleagues also used it in their planning.
https://www.meath.ie/system/files/upload/WildThingsatSchool.pdf
Combining the many useful apps and websites in this module for identifying and recording plants and animals with the above resource, I would identify, catalog and record many of the wildflowers and plants in our local environment. We could use the field close to our school which we have access to and along the waterway a short walk from our school.
I agree that this resource is excellent to have. It is something that could be returned to again and again. Children of all ages and adults such ourselves often wonder what flora and fauna are around us. It can be overwhelming but the biodiversity maps make it so interesting and accessible.
First Class – Map Skills
With younger children, it is important to teach concepts using things that are familiar. I would begin by mapping our classroom and our school. Google maps and Google Earth are very useful resources to give the location of the school on the map and to give an aerial view of our school. Subsequently, I would work with children to map our local village showing the major locations on the map such as shops, church, river, bridges, hotels, gaa pitch, handball alley, playground, bus stops, school etc Learning the symbols for these locations would also be part of the lesson.
The children could learn to read simple maps of their locality including estates where they live eventually mapping routes from different locations such as from their own home to school. The children could try to guess which child has the longest journey to school. We could use Google Maps or another mapping technology to measure this.
Your lessons show excellent examples of cross curricular integration. A themed teaching term or number of weeks is very engaging for children.
Having reviewed and analysed the text of Dr. Maeve Liston’s STEM article, I understand the point that is being made that thought should be given to all elements of the S.T.E.M. acronym when planning lessons. Integration across our curriculum is well founded currently and STEM is one of the areas where this has become commonplace. We all now assess our plans for how we can bring true cross curricular teaching to the fore.
In our school, we have embraced Curious Minds in recent years and its potential to use STEM as a focus to projects and tasks each year. We see evidence of each element of STEM being used by the different groups within the classes. Group work, self reflection, self assessment, cross-curricular work, presentation skills, personal development, public speaking, etc. are all evident as the children work on their projects. Going forward it will be vital that children maintain and improve on all of these skills for future application in post primary school and in the workforce.
