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Hi Orla
The oil pastels with water colour will so effective. Charleville Castle is a great place for the school to have access to. I live in Mullingar and still need to visit!
Westmeath is a very culturally rich heritage, and we are lucky to have Belvedere House and Gardens on our doorstep. There are a few aspects which we could focus on throughout a year.
Lt Col Charles Howard-Bury was a renowned British Army officer, politician, and explorer and an owner of Belvedere House and Gardens. He led the first 1921 Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition in the 1920’s. During his travels—specifically on a journey through Central Asia—he bought a young bear cub. He named the bear “Agu” and there is a statue of the bear in the gardens. This fact can be an inspiration point for looking at both travel and other expeditions to Everest (including modern explorers such as Team Ireland in 2026 and the father/son climbers from Mullingar Hiking Club in 2024) Many aspects could be considered- training, equipment, clothing etc. And if possible, bring in a climber to talk about their experiences.
Agu, the bear, could be a springboard for younger classes to look into facts about different bears in the wild. In groups, they could create different ‘life size’ bears from red pandas to Polar Bears using recyclable materials. Older classes could support younger classes with this challenge. The groups could present their facts in a presentation on a PowerPoint or written formats along with their ‘bears’.
The gardens themselves could be used for some seasonal investigations – looking at specific tress and plants and photographing and sketching their growth over the seasons.
Richie Clarke, a wood sculpturer, has created beautiful carvings in both Belvedere and Mullingar Town Park. These explore different folklore of Ireland. In groups, or each class, could research some local stories and create their own 3-D models in clay, playdough, natural materials etc. The junior classes could look at the story of the Children of Lir and see the stained-glass windows in Multyfarham Abbey either online or in person.
Mary that sounds like a lovely lesson and so nice to have something so fascinating beside you. I’d say the class will really enjoy the lesson.
Research engineering in your local area and describe how you would use a local building, structure or other engineering feature as inspiration for a classroom or outdoor design and make project
There are modern wind turbines visible from our school in Dalystown NS and we have had access to Mount Lucas Wind Farm. As a class/school we could investigate how they are designed and how they compare to other historic windmills in Ireland and Europe. We could look at the more widespread use of windmills in the Netherlands for example.
Looking at historical models, the children could investigate the challenges of wooden structures against metal ones- perhaps creating ones using Lego and then found materials such as twigs etc.
They will need to research and discover how to make the ‘arms’ move, and older classes may use the ESERO website for information on air and using barometers. They may need to investigate how many arms are needed and what angles they need to be.
The infant class could use the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’ as inspiration to create their own windmills in groups, using recyclable materials- plastic bottles, straws, cardboard may all be needed and collected. ‘Paxi explores Wind’ on the EESA website is nice introduction of how wind works. This could be used from infants up.
The school/classes can test their windmills to see will they move when placed outside and discuss how to improve their designs.
Hi Ruth
I love your ideas for increasing pollinators and increasing biodiversity. We are lucky enough to have planters for each class- in time I would like to see them being used seasonally to grown fruit and vegetables, and then have a number of pots around to grow pollinators and space these between the planters and in the outside space. We will also look at reusing items to create new ‘pots’ for pollinators such as old boots etc.
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?
I have the joint task of teaching first and second class and being the co-ordinator for our Green Schools. We will map the area and register it for the Pollinator programme.As part of this I would task the older children to make the meter squares for the school to use for the FIT count. This integrates with maths in a meaningful way.
With my class and the junior room, we would go out once a month with our magnifying glasses and paper and sketch what we see. This integrates with art, science and geography. Using pegs we can discuss the plants we have identified. A student or the teacher will take pictures of their flowers/plants and this can be presented at assembly. For ease, a blank copy could be used for infants and a project copy (half lined) for first and second class. Older classes could use the half full page blank/half full page lined copies to record their findings and write down any additional information they can find online or using the wildflower and tree identification books. I think using the copies will be an interesting assessment tool as the students can see their progression of their knowledge and their drawing abilities.
At least once a term I would task each class to pick an area of the garden to do the FIT count using the metre squares. This will be recorded on Pollinator website. Older classes may help with the younger classes to count using tallies or colour boxes etc.
I would encourage all staff to do the Biodiversity in School online course (perhaps as a Croke Park hour) and use the tools on the website to help with the identification of insects and tree types etc.
Hilda and Mary ye are spot on! The historical changes to weather and looking at models of climate change are such relevant topics now. We all seem to be looking at the air con and keeping our houses cool now; while even ten to fifteen years ago the selling point of a house was its ability to keep in its heat!
That is such a great way to get Green Schools Team invested! I’m in a small school and its a struggle but I will be definitely looking into this, this year. We are on our travel theme and need to make proposals to our local council about extending footpaths etc. The mapping tool will be really useful for this.
For younger classes I would start off using the 3D mapping model with a walk around the school. I know my First and Second Class will really respond well to this-whether its using natural found materials first, and then using Lego or other art/recyclable materials in the classroom to create a 3D model.
Then we would discuss who would use the map, what they would see etc. Then we would look at Google Earth/Maps to see how our school looks. Then I would bring them out again as “investigators” to identify the types of land uses around the school. They might look for a trundle wheel or metre sticks at this point, to get a more accurate measurement. As a class , we could decide then what symbols to use and create a 2D map in groups using the Biodiversity/Heritage in Ireland video as a guideline.
We could compare our results to Geohive or Biodiversity in Ireland results. These can be presented to the school at assembly and shown on the Green Schools Noticeboard.
Hi Katie
I agree. The challenge is to do real authentic integration over tokanism. I think its less is more and get in depth.
Hi Hilda
Thanks for the name – we can always use more female scientists names. I’m hoping that there will be a special study on our Irish female astronaut will provide an opportunity to study more women in science.
Having reviewed the paper Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Liston 2018) reflect on what STEM education looks like in your classroom.
I think, as others have said, STEM is not quite visible in my classroom, as up to now, there has been much more emphasis on the Science, as a stand-alone subject, without reference to the other aspects of investigation. I think this is as much of a reflection on me, being unsure of myself and reliant on experiments in the textbooks and not knowing where to find information. One of my biggest worries is teaching a misconception instead of the correct facts.
There have been some successes in the past- project work on Living Things, specifically animals in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. I have taught infants to second class predominately and can see how the lesson plans in the Curious Minds websites, ESERO and ESA Kids will be very useful in the coming year. I had used the Discover Primary Science website previously and have often used National Geographic Kids videos as a ‘wonder/curiosity’ point.
Linking STEM to themes will be a very useful way to explore future topics. For the junior classes, you could easily use ‘Take a Look’ Lesson 15 ESERO and link the topic to colour/rainbows/ refraction in the junior classes.