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I love the idea of focing on your native River Shannon and its habitat and teh wildlife that visit or live there.
Module 5: Research a famous scientist associated with your local area and describe how you could use that person as inspiration for classroom Science investigations.
Dr. Niamh Shaw does a lot of work and talks and experiments in our local area.
Who is Dr. Niamh Shaw? Dr Niamh Shaw is an Irish explorer, science communicator and keynote speaker. Reporting from Antarctica, the Arctic and space , helping people see the planet differently. From family rocket launches to keynote stages, from Antarctic fieldwork to broadcast studios, a science communicator and space explorer helping people of all ages see the planet and their own potential differently. She is based in Ireland and worldwide. We as a staff have attended some of her Science workshops and educational talks. She would be an inspiration to both students and staff in the classroom for science investigations due to her vast experience and knowledge. She has also worked in eth performing Arts field and this experience would tie in to other curricular areas in school. She could do a lot of Science experiments in relation to Space, the Antartica and she has read life experience as she was there and have lived the tale. She is also actively working currently with NASA, Space station.
Hi Mary, the historic Grattan Aqueduct sounds very interesting. That is very interesting the way it was designed to carry water from the canal over the Glasha river, without disturbing either course of water. It will definitely be worth a visit in the future.
Describe how you would plan a class or whole school challenge to design and make a bridge. Describe how would you integrate mathematical thinking and Investigate how materials may be used in construction a incorporate maths skills appropriate to your class level.
In the planning stage, I would look up Curious Minds booklets and info on building bridges from the Engineer week booklet.
Firstly, I would do a KWL chart with the children to explore their prior knowledge and existing knowledge of bridges. We would talk about local bridges, the bridges at Birr castle and also famous landmark bridges e.g. bridge of peace, Drogheda, The Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco.
In small groups we would go through the idea of the process and the journey as opposed to focusing on the end product.
We would undertake the steps of prompting, wondering, exploring, planning, making and evaluating.
Whole class would then come together from their small groups and work on investigating properties of materials.
The class would draw up their plans and collect recyclable material at home for making their bridges in class, and also promote our ‘green’ recycling ethos throughout the school.
The children are given a brief and work on their project both in school and at home and help always available.
Children research different bridges and bring this back to our discussion at the start of the challenge as we did our KWL chart.
Some children may choose, lego, polydrons, wooden blocks, cardboard to construct their bridges, other children use Minecraft software to create theirs.
We would investigate how materials to build bridges may be used in construction and their different properties. We will focus on mathematical skills of reasoning, questioning, logical reasoning, problem solving, number sense, pattern recognition to name a few.
There will be a Special Bridge day where the children display their creations and the school community will be invited in, we will self reflect and self evaluate.
Hi Anna, great idea.
I think that it is a great idea doing the FIT count once a term. Iam going to update our current Biodiversity Action plan to include this. Thank you.
Register your garden with the All Ireland Pollinator Group and record your actions for pollinators, then outline how you would register your school and what actions you could take to help pollinators.
We at Rathcor N.S., in the Cooley Peninsula are already registered with the All Ireland Pollinator Group and it is a group that we are very passionate about as we are currently going in to our second year in Sept on the wonderful journey of the Green School, Biodiversity flag.
Our Actions for pollinators are: During the month of May we take part in ‘No Mow May’ and we encourage them right across the Community and school families. We promote this via posters in school and via email and on our school website http://www.rathcorschool.com, under the Biodiversity section of the Green School tab. Don’t Mow, let it Grow, which creates a natural wildflower meadow. We plant pollen rich native species, we provide safe nesting spots, we have bird boxes, bat boxes, log and bug hotels. We eliminate chemical pesticide use. We record this throughout the year. And we will be compared our results this school year coming with the previous years recordings.
We also download posters and identification guides to build on our existing knowledge and communicate this to the students and staff.
We as a staff will learn how to carry out a FIT count to record pollinators, this will be very useful and I am grateful to have learned about this.
Other actions, some members of the staff will take part in the Upcoming webinar on August 19<sup>th</sup>: The All-Ireland Pollinator Plan.
Great ideas CJ, the children using the tablets and downloading the apps to to learn about mapping. It’s very hands-on learning and a skill taht tehy will never forget and making wonderful memories also.
For younger classes, describe how you would plan and conduct a lesson on map making and explain how you might incorporate some online tools such as Google maps or Geohive.
Firstlym we would start the lesson by brainstorming what do the children think the word map is or what we use a map for? The children would be put in to small groups for this, differentiated groups and one person would report the findings back. We would discuss what a birds eye view in elation gto a piece of land built by lego in the classroom which was part of a previous STEM and Maths lesson. We would then goon a walk around our school as this is what we are going to draw a map of. We will talk about the directions and cardinal points and observe key features e.g. school garden, shrubs at the front of the school, school gate, water butt at the rear of the school. This will be important for creating a key for the maps. When we return inside to the classroom I will illustrate to the children how to draw a map but ask many probing questions and encourage the children to examine and problem solve. We would then go on google earth , type in the school eircode and locate our school . I would show the children the man/woman part of the google mapos where you can see street view. We would discuss the benefits and negatives of this. After the maps have been draw we would do a self- reflection e.g. what went well, what we would have done differently. All of the above will involve prompting, wondering, exploring, problem-solving, making and evualating.WE will also use Geohive to download official government mapping and spatial date of our school and surrounding area.
I agree Yvonne, the Curious mindss and ESERO website are very valuable resources. Thank you for teh reminder re: Discover Science, I used to use this years ago and it was great.
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
STEM education in my classroom not only involves the teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths subjects but also involves a cross-disciplinary approach. It is also linked with Art education which encourages design, creativity and innovation. Stem education in my classroom encourages natural investigating, problem-solving skills, connecting with children’s questions, experiences and interests. We focus on real-world learning skills and STEM integration across many subjects. STEM education in my classroom looks like child-led inquiry, hands-on investigations, a great emphasis on the process over the product. In Dr. Maeve Liston’s piece she states: in order for us to embrace an integrated approach to STEM which is meaningful and effective in our classrooms and as part of STEM outreach activities high quality STEM teaching and learning materials and resources are needed along with well-informed professional development. This is so true and I continue to keep up my continual professional development when it comes to STEM and integration in right across the other curricular areas.
Hi Irene,
I think this is genius hoe you incorporated Design your own Dark place with Biodiversity. I will definitely be using your ideas. Thank you!
Consider how many Songs / Poems /Art can you think of to connect us with the Night Sky? For example: Look up President Michael D Higgins’ “Stardust”
Songs that are connected to the night Sky are: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, Fly me to the Moon, Songs about the Planets, Sky full of Stars.
Poems: Acrostic poems, Stardust by Former President Michael D Higgins, lui na greine, In the SkyWeather, The Wound at th eside of the House by John O’ Donoghue
Art connected to the night sky: Starry night by Van Gogh, The Scream by Evard Munch, The Northern Lights, The Moon by William Morris, Paintings done by kids inspired byth ebook Room on the broom,
Hi Emer,
Thank you for your fantastic ideas.
Iove the way you have incorporated Evening primrose, honeysuckle and jasmine in to the plan for your established school garden. These are great examples of plants that release their fragrance after dark.
Question 1 : How would you engage your learners to explore Biodiversity in your local area and the possible impact of Light pollution on local biodiversity.
Firstly, to explain Biodiversity in simple term it is the variety of life on Earth. This year and teh coming year in school we are actively working on the Green Schools Biodiversity flag. We engage our learners by conducting a survey of their prior knowlege of Biodiversity, the positiv eimpact it has to our school environment and teh threats that it is faced with. This is alos done by the Green Schoools Community. Actively , we note and record plants and animlas in teh school community and create new habitats like bug hotels. This can be seen on our school website http://www.rathcorschool.com.
Whilst, all this great work is ongoing there are many threats to Biodiverrsity and one that came from the survey and whuch I have learned about in this course is Light pollution. Light pollution is the excessive artificial light shining into the night sky. It disrupts the natural day and night cycle, harms human sleep disorients wildlight pollution and biodiversity to name a few negative impacts. Bright lights can confuse migration in birds and birds feed on insects that are affected by light pollution. It was fascinating to watch the video about moths in may dark sky. Light pollution is the key bringer of insect apocalypse. Britain’s moths decline by a third in fifty years study has found due to Light pollution.
Light pollution plays a very negative impact on outr local and far and wide Biodiversity.