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Hi Sinéad,
I agree with you that being hands on has a much more meaningful impact on children, and when it is their own environment, its so important they carry these lessons with them.
I have noticed the same in my own children, with clean up crews being deployed daily and children assigned to be bin monitors, giving them that sense of responsibility and ownership over these practices.
My own children’s school is also included by the tidy towns in clean up projects , and I see the impact it has on them as they bring the lessons home and into their everyday lives.
Sustainability is something I feel people are becoming more and more aware of, and choose more often nowadays, a great move forward. On a recent trip to visit family, my children were amazed at how many more wind turbines they could see along the way. Solar panels are also becoming very common, we are in the process of having them installed on our own home and farm, and almost every car friends and family have replaced in recent times has seen them switch to electric. This move towards renewable energy is a great sustainability move, as it benefits not just the broader world but the individuals themselves – which is obviously very motivating.
A great initiative I’ve seen in my local area recently too is the introduction of water bottle refill stations, and signs in shops and cafes inviting people to ask for refills. I hope the days of the disposable waterbottle will soon be behind us.
My local area has a fantastic tidy towns group, who regularly involve the local school in clean-ups and wild planting projects – not just taking the steps to be more sustainable but including our students and teaching the next generation sustainable habits.
In my school, the green flag has had a great impact on our students, on their awareness and their actions in every day lives. Some particularly effective initiatives have been WOW! Walk on Wednesdays, where children are encouraged to walk all, or if that’s not possible, even some of the way to school, reducing congestion around the school and its polluting effects. Another has been an effort to reduce packaging in lunchboxes, encouraging children not to use plastic wrap and tinfoil, lots of education on recycling, and daily practise on disposing of our rubbish responsibly and sustainably. We also have clean ups within the school, with classes taking it in turns to be on duty – a job they actually fight for. All of this has resulted in children who are much more aware of their environment, and the impact they have on it, and their responsibility to take care of their environment and live a more sustainable life.
I think this is a great idea Diarmuid, I always incorporate food into my teaching as its something I have a strong interest in anyway – and have always been surprised at the sheer amount of foods children didn’t recognise, couldn’t name, and had never tasted. I’d imagine I could put all of your sample ideas on that list! Tasting foods demystifies them, and I think children are much braver and enthusiastic about trying new things when their peers are involved.
In this module I learned about the various micro and macro nutrients found in fish and shellfish. I was very interested to learn that fish is not just an excellent source of protein and omega 3, but also vitamin d, which we are lacking in Ireland, and that mussels and other shellfish are a source of iron comparable to red meat.
Teaching nutrition and the food pyramid is a yearly lesson in most classrooms, but I don’t think I have ever realised, let alone taught the value of seafood and its nutritional benefits. This knowledge also lends itself very well to a crosscurricular approach. I always do lessons about food from other cultures, and prepare and taste food with my class as part of this – I am now so shocked at myself for neglecting our own culture when doing this – In future I will certainly be including a seafood recipe, and using it to approach STEM and SEE, looking at both the living things at the source and the nutrition it provides to us, but also extending this – the ARC has a wonderful video of the Salmon of Knowledge, in geography we can look at the people behind the aquaculture industry, and many more.
Hi Claire, Your answer is so well thought out!
I particularly like your idea to examine how often students experience integrated STEM learning rather than isolated subject teaching, something we could definitely benefit from looking at in our school as part of our SSE process going forward. It’s so easy pull a lesson from a book or online resource without looking at how it could be approached differently, but so valuable to take your approach.
The Arc online lessons are resources are a great tool to have in introducing and teaching aquaculture to your class or school. In an area fairly new to me I would have a lot of learning to do before I could teach it in any great detail, but the Arc lessons are full of up to date and accurate information, on a very broad scale. The study of aquaculture lends itself very obviously to the study of living things, but from the arc education resources we can see that it actually applies right across all the strands, from engineering and technology, to materials. Oysters are grown on ropes – isn’t that fascinating? I also love the focus on people throughout the resources – as the STEM education policy reminds us “All learners will have access to high-quality information on STEM careers” is an integral part of STEM education, and these resources emphasize this.
The STEM education policy also emphasises the cross curricular place STEM should hold in our schools, and these resources lend themselves well to cross curricular planning, providing a straightforward way to reinforce cross curricular planning as part of the SSE process around STEM targets.Hi Jessica, it is interesting to see a similar reaction from someone living in a completely different area to me on this topic. I too am realising there is a lot about aquaculture I hadn’t previously thought about, and I’m glad I’m not the only one. I’m finding aquaculture so interesting to learn about – and I have a sudden strong urge to book a few days away to the irish coast!
Most of Ireland is well suited to agriculture due to its ideal ‘Goldilocks climate’. However, coastal areas of the west coast and mountainous terrain are not suited for traditional agricultural practices. It is in these areas Aquaculture is prevalent. The differences in coastal features means a variety of aquaculture is supported.
I live in an area where agriculture is common. From a socio-economic view, farming shaped the history and development of much of what makes up the area where I live, with not just the farmers who work on the farms being dependant on it, but the many other industries and professions that come about indirectly. With this not being an accessible option in many coastal and mountainous areas, I find it fascinating that a parallel industry grew up in these areas that I knew so little about – being so different from what I know I am looking forward to learning about comparable socio – economic impact aquaculture has had in these areas in the next module.
Lesson plan for a map plotting activity
Living in a landlocked area, I would begin with a lesson first on identifying different parts of the coast. I would start with a KWL chart to determine the vocabulary and knowledge the children already have. I would then write the relevant vocabulary such as sea shore, estuary, bay harbour, and islands, and have the class discuss which ones they know, which ones sound familiar, and what is new. I would put pictures of example locations on the interactive white board for each new word. I’d imagine the students in my area would not have much prior knowledge about this!
Next I would divide the children into groups, and provide each group with a part featuring a section of Ireland’s coast. I would ask them to affix labels to their parts of the map using their new vocabulary and knowledge. I would leave the vocabulary and pictures on the board for a reference, and circulate to differentiate as needed.Finally I would have each group present their findings to the class, drawing comparisons and discussing what impact the children think this might have on different areas. I would then return to our KWL chart, fill in our new knowledge, and identify any areas we need to explore further.
I would do this lesson before a lesson on the different types of aquaculture, displaying the map sections in the classroom so we could refer back to it as we move through the different types of aquaculture, what is required, and have the children pick out areas on their own maps most suited to each type.
I think that learning about aquaculture, especially in the midlands, in an area with a strong agricultural background, is a great way to get students using critical thinking skills. Looking at an industry that has many parallels but at the same time is completely different from their norm would really open my students eyes and engage their interest. I think there is a lot of value in learning about social license, examining it as it applies to aquaculture, and then looking at the ways it applies to the agriculture they are more familiar with. This would foster some passionate discussion and debate!
Living in the midlands means visiting the coast is a challenging prospect; I think the ARC is such an exciting, and motivating way to bring aquaculture to the classroom and making it seem a lot more relevant to the students. I feel like it is an area I have a lot to learn about myself, but I am finding it fascinating so far – I am realising my knowledge about farming as I understand it in Ireland is very narrow, and I think that my students would feel the same.Hi Niamh, I agree completely – I am quickly realising there is a lot about aquaculture I don’t know myself, let alone our students, and living on an island where it is not just an important industry but a part of our culture, it is definitely something we should be teaching our next generations and improving our own knowledge about.
With so many amazing applications of AI into teaching outlines across this entire course, I am excited to start using it, but I think I will be taking the suggestion of Kate up above and choosing a smaller selection to incorporate into my teaching, and add more as I become more familiar with them expanding the ones I use. One I know I will begin to use immediately is Microsoft reading coach, I will be introducing it in our ICT time straight away, with the intention of it becoming something the children can use in many ways. I also will be using co-pilot – having explored it throughout the course, I find it easy to use and the results are usually very accurate for their intentions. I will be using it as an image creator, quiz generator, to draft lesson plans, and to take some admin tasks – such as creating timetables, something I hate doing, off my hands and save me time. I will use quizizz alongside it to make quick and easy assessments – children will enjoy the online versions of assessment too.
I also hope to make use of Diffit and Gamma to help in preparing my resources, I’ve created a couple of powerpoints on Gamma just to see how it works and its so quick and easy, and I think the variety Diffit will lend to my teaching will be very beneficial and time saving.
When I am comfortable with these I hope to expand to using any of the other applications I’ve learned about – Magic school is one I am interested in but is so broad it will take time to explore and find what I will use most. I’d also like to make use of One note for students using ICT, teachable machine and Twee. I think students would really enjoy exploring and learning to use scratch too.
For my lesson integrating AI I will use an idea from module 4 that I thought was very clever and that the children would respond well to.
Objectives:
Become familiar with the concept of AI and recognize its presence in everyday technology, and understand that it can learn and make decisions.
Learn what prompts are and how specific and detailed prompts impact the outcome.
Actively participate in generating AI images and explore the importance of clear detailed prompts.
Introduction
Use the interactive whiteboard to introduce the concept of AI to the students, using simple language and relatable examples. Talk about types of AI the children have encountered.
Discuss internet safety and recap on information that should not be shared online.
Introduce the children to the concept of prompts. I will explain that prompts are the instructions we give the AI. Give examples such as ‘draw a cat’.
Show how clear and detailed prompts give more specific prompts. Divide the class into groups to allow them to make the prompt more specific and compare results together.
Show the class a picture created earlier by AI, using a detailed prompt.
Set the class an individual challenge to write the prompt they think describes the image.
Hold a ‘contest’ to see who can generate the most similar image. Offer a prize for the winner.
Conclusion
Discuss what the class have learned about writing prompts, and what they found made their prompts more/less effective.
Recap on internet safety and remind the class of what information they should not give to an AI app, such as personal information or names.
The Application from this module that I would like to introduce to my class this year is scratch programming. It encourages the children to us problem solving skills, emphasises the importance of steps in procedural writing, encourages creativity and of course introduces coding as a concept to young children.
I would use my interactive whiteboard to introduce the children to scratch, during our classes ICT time when each child will have access to a device. I will begin by showing the children how to choose their ‘sprite’ then allowing them a few minutes to experiment with it.
Next I would demonstrate how to add blocks to the script area to give the sprite directions, such as moving left or right. I would show them how to add control blocks, such as ‘when space bar is pressed’. I would show the class how to add a repeat block, and a final block to stop the sprite disappearing off the screen. I would allow them time to experiment with this again, while moving around the room, giving assistance and observing.
Finally I would issue a challenge, such as a series of instructions using new sprites, and give them time to see if they can adapt what they have learned to the new sprites and new instructions.
Depending on the class and their ability levels, I would most likely assign pairs for this challenge, to allow collaboration.
This lesson could be following up with a task to create an animation of their choosing, to be presented to classmates, where children are free to explore different backgrounds, sprites, instructions and steps.There was so much useful information on AI applications in this module, I will be using many of them this year.
One I could immediately see being very useful is the Microsoft reading coach – I teach in a large and diverse school, and we often have several children in the class who do not participate in religion lessons. I can see Microsoft reading coach being a fantastic tool for this time, it will be so easy to set children work that is productive, and easily differentiated, many of the children are EAL students and this would set work at an appropriate level and allow them to advance their fluency. I love how Microsoft reader will also allow the children a sense of independence over their learning, as they choose topics, see their own progress, and how words they struggle with are seamlessly included in the next passage, so they can revisit them without it denting their confidence. It is something I will be able to begin using immediately in September.
Diffit is another tool I am excited to explore and implement – in creating lessons on a topic I could never produce such variety and fun in my lessons as Diffit offers, my imagination cannot compete with AI! I feel it will make my teaching so much more engaging, not to mention leave me with more time and energy to dedicate to the children themselves, having saved it making the resources etc.
I feel like there are so many possible uses for AI in the classroom, in all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment but it is going to take time and a lot of exploration to find what works best for me, how best to use prompts, or edit the results, and to find ways to incorporate it into my teaching.
I have used social stories often in the past with students, but I always find writing them time consuming as I start and restart, the social story generator will be invaluable to my teaching in the future. Copilot image generator is a tool I have spent far too much time exploring today, it is really fascinating – I love the idea of using it for descriptive writing lessons, and I cannot wait to find more uses for it. And I’m sure the school debating team will get great use out of the speaker coach.
And I may never write a word problem again!
One way I feel AI could transform my teaching is by increasing my efficiency when it comes to administration tasks, I will certainly be using it going forward to help draft my lesson plans, however, I can see from the examples shown that it may take me some time and practice to make sure my prompts are worded properly and with sufficient detail before I can have AI generate lesson plans that don’t need significant tweaking from me!
I love the idea of using applications such as Microsoft or google forms to generate assessments, then have them corrected, returned and the data organised for me. I imagine that I can use it for IT time with my class as a very quick way to assess and inform learning, but again, it is something I will need to to work on and figure out how best to use it.
I think immersive reader is a fantastic app and would benefit students with reading difficulties or EAL students, particularly in subjects such as SESE or maths where reading might not be the focus of the lesson but may still be presenting a challenge – this would be a great way to give a sense of independence to these learners and allow them to engage in the lesson, boosting their confidence and self esteem. However many of my students might also find using immersive reader itself difficult, and I would need to spend significant time making sure each student using it is comfortable and competent – something the SET teacher may be able to help with.
In recent years I have had students with dyslexia and visual impairments use a laptop day to day in the classroom, and organisation is something that they have all found challenging – I think the use of an app such as OneNote would be a great way to counter this.
Of course access to IT equipment is always going to present another challenge, but in our school we have a great system of sharing the equipment which means every class gets regular ICT time.
The potential uses for AI in the classroom are innumerable.
Using generative AI can make a teacher more efficient, by cutting down the time spent on tasks such as drafting emails, make them more productive, by using them to create lesson plans, analyse documents and data, summarise large volumes of information, and creative – by using it to generate new ideas.
One of my favourite suggestion from this module is a way in which it can prompt learners with ‘blank page syndrome’, a learner who is struggling to get started on something can use AI to generate ideas and give themselves a jumping off point, something I would find invaluable myself.
It would also be a very useful tool in helping to prepare and deliver assessments – When trying out the various bots we were introduced to to see how they work, I found that assessment was easily and readily included in the lesson plans and ideas presented – and while I realise that I will need a lot of practise in correctly wording my prompts to get to what I need, I feel that this is something that will become a second nature part of teaching, just like internet use or interactive whiteboards have been throughout the years.
As long as teachers are careful to guard the privacy of students, and AI is used in a way that is ‘reliable, fair, safe and trustworthy’, it will become an integral part of teaching and learning going forward.
