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I think investigating the effect of flooding on low lying areas would be a really interesting project for our children. Every winter they hear and see the devastating effects that flooding has on areas on the news. By investigating the reasons why this is happening and looking at the affect it has had, we hopefully will encourage them to be proactive in taking steps to prevent floods from occuring so frequently in the future.
I really like this idea of using the proverbs as a way of interviewing or discussing weather with older generations. I also like the idea of encouraging the children to watch the weather forecast with their parents or grandparents and to discuss what was said.
I downloaded the satellite tracker by Star Walk without any issues. I really liked the way you can subscribe to get notifications for the next satellite appearance and alerts about the nearest flybys. I can imagine the pupils’ excitement of seeing the timer decrease for a satellite passing by. Even seeing your exact location in lines of latitude and longitude would be fascinating for the kids
5 satellites that have passed Ireland recently are
International Space Station (ISS)- researching microgravity. It is testing technologies that will be used in the future for trips to the Mars and the Moon. It is currently hosting Expedition 72.
Starlink Satellite- this acts as a connection for internet users who may not have reliable access otherwise.
EIRSAT-1 which is Ireland’s first satellite that was led by students from UCD. Its mission was to raise awareness and advance education in space science in Ireland.
NOAA-20- provides essential data for weather forecasting and climate monitoring
Copernicus Sentinel-1A- uses radar to provide all weather, day and night imagery of earth’s surface.
I actually cannot believe the amount of satellites that pass by Ireland, varying in size from small shoe box to a football field. My students would love learning about these and the roles they play.
I really like the idea of using the film Home for cross curricular activities. This could be used as a stimulus for so many subjects like explanation writing in English, SPHE myself in the wider word and in the Learn together curriculum strand an ethical approach to the environment. This would further deepen the children’s understand of Climate action
I really like the idea of using the film Home for cross curricular activities. This could be used as a stimulus for so many subject like explanation writing in English, SPHE myself in the wider word and in the Learn together curriculum strand an ethical approach to the environment.
I have to say I found the Climate Aid video a hard watch, it portrays the devastation that our carbon footprint is causing so vividly without any room for excuses. It would be a great introduction to Climate Action for a 5th or 6th class and would initiate a great group discussion. For some students in younger classes it may be frightening but pausing the video and discussing what a picture depicts could be a good alternative.
I really enjoyed the film “Home”. The imagery and narration was very thought provoking and gives mountains of information to spark curiosity and debate. I would use clips from this film to discuss how we could help reduce our carbon footprint. For example if you are teaching about reducing water consumption the clip that shows the dry river Jordon compared to the 800/1,00l a day that people in Las Vegas use is a stark contrast. This could start a group discussion about how we can reduce our water consumption by turning off the taps when brushing our teeth or using a water butt for gardening. Continuing on from this we could have a discussion about food and how the foods we eat out of season from other counties cause huge problems for our environment.
I really like this idea of using questions to reinforce to the the children that we as humans have the power to shape our future climate. Comparing the questions “what will summer like in 2050” and “what we would like summer to be like in 2050” would involve a lot of change in human behaviours.
Activity 3 gives pupils a brilliant opportunity to really see the cause and effect of human behaviours, of their behaviour, on our climate. As I will have 3rd class next year I think The Paxi video is a great visual for them to understand the greenhouse effect, simplifying it in a way that is accessible for them to understand. Furthermore I feel a lot of group discussion will be necessary to reinforce the concept before completing the activity. I feel that the Teal tool might be a bit detailed and confusing for younger children so alternative teaching tools such as posters or even simplified written information may be more useful. Encouraging the children to imagine different climate scenarios in the future is really developing their skills of observing, analysing, inferring, communicating and problem solving
I have never heard of curious minds before and I feel that their template is an amazing teaching tool for many subject areas but Science in particular. It is invaluable to have that written instruction for a teacher to be able to really reflect on the lesson and consider how to further develop the children’s learning.
I love Tara’s idea of comparing the data that the children collect with another school in a different region. Even if my school in Wexford was to compare data they collected from a weather station with another school in the North or West of the county they would learn a lot about how weather differs even within the same country!
These two resources provide simple, practical and useful activities that teachers can easily use in the classroom. I love the idea of using the children’s birthdays as a way of discussing weather, bringing in photographs to discuss past birthdays and by grouping the children into their month groups to observe patterns of weather behaviour. I think this would bring huge opportunities for discussion and allow the children to understand how the weather is always changing. From watching and discussing the climate zone video, the children would have a good reference to analyse the statements and give informed reasons for choosing weather or climate
Measuring the temperature activity would give the children amazing hands-on experience of how weather data is collected and analysed. They world be practising vital skills such as predicting, observing, measuring, analysing and comparing their results. I think the children would engage more in creating the data display as they have been part of collecting the data first hand. I love the idea of setting up the weather station in September and allowing the children to observe the weather over the entire school year, maybe collecting data at 12pm every Friday.