Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Michelle. Sounds like a great lesson. Connecting it back to everyday experiences like ketchup bottles and paper planes is a brilliant way to solidify the concept of force in their world.
I have chosen to focus on the Rockets Activity Set, specifically incorporating the Rocket Mouse and Balloon Rockets investigations.
In the classroom, I would structure this unit using the Curious Minds/ESERO Framework for Inquiry:
• Engage & Wonder: I will begin by showing the video clip of the Vega rocket launch to prompt curiosity about propulsion and movement. We will explore picture books like The Way Back Home by Oliver Jeffers to link science with literacy.
• Investigate & Fair Testing: Pupils will construct Balloon Rockets using string, straws, and pegs. To embed fair testing, pupils will form predictions on how changing variables—such as balloon size, string length, or straw angle -impacts the distance travelled. We will then test the Rocket Mouse launcher using milk cartons to explore air pressure and force.
• Take the Next Step: Pupils will work in pairs to refine their designs to maximize launch distance, linking their learning to real-world applications of push/pull forces, air resistance, and trajectory in everyday sports.
Supporting STEM SSE
Implementing this activity set provides rich qualitative evidence for our STEM School Self-Evaluation (SSE). It actively engages pupils in core scientific inquiry skills -specifically observing, predicting, recording data, and conducting fair tests. Photos of student designs and their reflection logs will directly inform our school’s ongoing STEM development goals.Weather Activity Set
Overview & Activity Selection
I selected the Weather Activity Set, integrating Animals in the Cold (ESERO 07), Investigating Children’s Coats (Curious Minds), and Hot and Cold (ESERO 12).Classroom Implementation
Using the Curious Minds/ESERO Framework for Inquiry:Engage & Wonder: Pupils examine their own coats, classifying materials, textures, and fastenings to predict which provide the best warmth and rain protection.
Investigate & Fair Testing: Children test ice cube melting rates in sunny versus shaded spots (Hot and Cold). We link this to Animals in the Cold by exploring how natural insulation, like blubber or fur, retains warmth.
Take the Next Step: In small groups, pupils design a seasonal coat based on material suitability, warmth, and waterproofing.
Contribution to STEM SSE
This active inquiry supports our STEM School Self-Evaluation (SSE) by fostering key scientific skills: questioning, predicting, observing, and fair testing. Pupil designs and reflection sheets provide qualitative evidence for our ongoing STEM Improvement Plan.Thank you for sharing such a clear and well-structured plan for your STEM curriculum enactment. Your baseline observations are so relatable – resource access and teacher confidence are common hurdles across many schools, but your targets address them brilliantly.
Establishing a skill progression framework from Junior Infants to 6th Class will ensure real continuity for the children as they grow. Setting a goal of monthly STEM investigations is both realistic and manageable, guaranteeing regular hands-on learning without overwhelming staff. Additionally, creating a shared resource bank removes the practical barriers that often make inquiry-based teaching difficult to adopt.
Your focus on hands-on prediction and pupil enthusiasm aligns perfectly with the new curriculum goalsActivity Set: Stars
Activities Chosen: Draw Your Own Constellation and Constellation Shapes & Stories
In my classroom, I would implement this activity set by using a playful, story-led approach that integrates early STEM skills with hands-on creative play. To begin, I would gather the children on the rug for a whole-class discussion about the night sky. We would look at simple pictures of recognisable star patterns like The Plough and discuss how people long ago saw picture “connect-the-dots” shapes in the sky. For the main hands-on task, pupils will create their own constellations on black card. I will give each child a small sheet of star stickers and white chalk. To support fine motor development and early counting, the children will count out a set number of star stickers (e.g. 5 or 6) and press them onto their paper. They will then use white chalk to connect the dots between their stars. We will integrate early primary maths concepts by hunting for basic 2D shapes hidden within their lines (such as triangles or simple squares) and talking about straight versus curved lines. Afterwards, through guided oral language, each child will give their constellation a name -such as a favourite animal, toy, or character – and share a simple story about how it got into the sky. To finish, we will display their star creations on a low wall board under an “Our Night Sky” banner so the children can share their stories and point out their shapes to peers.Great idea, Cormac! Connecting the space theme to 2D shapes is a clever cross-curricular link that really grounds the math in a creative context. Starting with a hands-on discussion about aliens is guaranteed to get the kids excited and thinking creatively right away. Showing how shapes like rectangles can be stretched into long, thin arms or short, wide torsos is a great way to reinforce properties of shapes and spatial awareness without it feeling like a standard drill. Demonstrating your thought process on the board gives them a clear scaffold, and letting them exhibit their designs at the end provides a lovely sense of ownership and pride in their work. If you wanted to extend it even further, you could have them tally up the total number of circles, triangles, and rectangles they used to create their alien for an extra layer of data handling or counting practice. Thanks for sharing. This is a brilliant, practical activity to try out!
I love how seamlessly you’ve tailored the concepts for early years. Using playdough or biscuits to recreate the phases of the Moon is such an ideal, tactile way for four- and five-year-olds to grasp abstract ideas like changing shapes. Linking oral language development – building that rich space vocabulary – alongside visual aids and stories makes it completely age-appropriate and accessible.
Extending the investigation into the home by asking families to observe and draw the night sky together is brilliant. It bridges school and home learning naturally and gives the children a real sense of ownership over their “scientific findings” when they bring their drawings back to share with the class.
It hits all the right notes of the Curious Minds Framework – especially through playful inquiry, communication, and hands-on exploration across Science, Art, and Language. Well planned!
I selected the Activity Set: The Sun and Shadows to explore fundamental space science concepts with primary pupils through engaging, hands-on inquiry. To launch this learning sequence, I would begin with a guided discussion on heat and light sources, while strongly emphasizing safety guidelines regarding never looking directly at the sun.
To investigate shadow formation, pupils will participate in outdoor learning by using chalk to trace their shadows at different intervals throughout the school day. Recording these changes in shadow length and direction offers a visual, tactile way for children to understand light blockage and Earth’s rotation relative to the sun. To extend their inquiry, pupils can construct simple paper sundials or test various everyday materials to observe how opaque, translucent, and transparent objects interact with light.
This activity set effectively integrates STEM concepts, active movement, and critical thinking. Capturing photographs of their outdoor chalk outlines provides clear digital evidence, allowing pupils to analyse, discuss, and reflect on shifting daylight patterns across the whole school day together in the classroom.Hi Abby,
That’s really interesting and madly I had never even noticed Jupiter’s red spot before or heard about it. Just looked it up, will definitely be passing that fact onto the children in school.
Thanks!
To implement inquiry-based learning in my classroom, I would use the hands-on activity testing material absorption to clean up a “space spill.” This activity provides an engaging, concrete context that captures children’s natural curiosity while introducing fundamental scientific principles.
I would structure the lesson around the four-step inquiry framework:
Engage: I will begin by presenting a scenario where astronauts have accidentally spilled liquid on a space station console. I will ask the children open-ended questions about what might happen if liquid damages equipment and prompt them to think about what properties make a material suitable for absorbing a liquid quickly.
Investigate: Working in small groups, pupils will formulate predictions about different materials, such as paper towels, sponge, cotton cloth, and plastic wrap. They will test each material by measuring how much liquid it absorbs and recording their observations. This allows them to lead their own discovery, observe real-time cause and effect, and build critical thinking skills through trial and error.
Take the Next Step: Pupils will apply their findings by selecting the best material for the job and discussing how absorption properties are useful in daily life, connecting space exploration to real-world context.
Reflect: Finally, we will gather as a class to discuss what surprised them, compare group results, and evaluate why certain materials performed better than others.
Icebreaker activity.
My name is Ciara I am currently a HSCL but will be returning to the junior classes in September 2027. My favourite space fact is that sunsets in Mars are blue.
Your focus on Learner’s Experiences is fantastic! It’s clear your passion for digital tools already makes learning highly engaging and clear for your pupils.
Targeting digital feedback and assessment is a brilliant next step. It is completely normal to want to build confidence here. Using Microsoft Forms is a highly practical choice; its ability to provide instant data will make monitoring student understanding much more manageable.
As a school leader, you’ve made a great link to the SSE and DEIS planning processes. Using Forms for surveys will streamline how you gather school-community voice, giving you clean, visual data that cuts down on paperwork.
Ultimately, using digital tools to gather evidence and analyse progress won’t just support your students—it will beautifully guide your own planning and reflective practice.
Best of luck with implementing this when you return to school!
Hi Linda,
I really enjoyed reading your plan for 4th Class. Integrating AI literacy into a concrete curriculum area like Maths Problem Solving is a brilliant approach.
One major strength of your design is the “Obair Bheirte” active debugging task. Instead of just telling the children that AI can make mistakes, you are giving them the agency to act as the experts who hunt for and correct the error.
This supports age-appropriate AI literacy perfectly. At nine and ten years old, pupils are developing strong concrete logical reasoning, yet they still tend to view digital devices as infallible sources of truth. By showing them that the AI’s step-by-step logic can break down on a basic word problem, you are fostering a healthy, necessary scepticism. It demystifies the technology and teaches them that human oversight is always the final safeguard.
Regarding accuracy and responsible use, I have one question for us to consider: AI is designed to sound extremely polite, helpful, and confident, even when it is completely wrong. How can we help pupils navigate that false confidence so they do not get tricked by a highly polished but incorrect answer?
As a practical suggestion for assessment, you could have the pairs write a brief “bug report” back to the AI. They could type a prompt explaining exactly where the math went wrong and ask the AI to correct it. Watching the AI acknowledge the mistake and adjust its working is a fantastic way to assess if the children truly understand the mathematical reasoning, while showing them how humans and AI can work in a collaborative feedback loop.
Class Stage
5th & 6th Class
Curriculum Integration & Learning Intention
• Curriculum Area: SPHE integrated with English (Oral Language & Literacy).
• Learning Intention: Pupils will identify how stereotypes and human biases are mirrored and reinforced by digital media, specifically generative AI.
AI Concept: Training Data & Algorithmic Bias
We want pupils to understand that AI doesn’t “think” on its own. It learns patterns from training data (huge collections of existing images and text from the internet). If the training data contains human biases, the AI will repeat them.
Activity Outline: “Draw a Scientist vs. Prompt a Scientist”
• Step 1 (The Human Drawing): Hand out blank sticky notes. Give pupils exactly 2 minutes to draw a quick sketch of “a scientist working in a lab.” No pressure on artistic skill—just simple stick figures are fine.
• Step 2 (The Reveal): Have everyone stick their drawings on the whiteboard. As a class, spot the common themes. Are they mostly men? Do they have wild, messy hair? Are they wearing lab coats?
• Step 3 (The AI Prompt): Open up a child-friendly generative image tool (like Adobe Firefly) on the interactive whiteboard. Type in: “A scientist working in a laboratory.” Let it generate 4 images.
• Step 4 (The Comparison): Compare the AI’s images to the pupils’ drawings. Typically, the AI will also generate images of older, white men with wild hair or lab coats.
Supporting Critical Thinking & Key Questions
To bridge the gap between “seeing” the bias and “understanding” it, we use the “Lunchbox Analogy”:
“If you only put apples into your lunchbox every single day, can you ever open it and expect to find a banana? AI is just a lunchbox. It can only show us what humans have fed it.”
The Critical Question:
“If the AI only looks at pictures that are already on the internet to learn what a scientist is, how does that affect what it thinks a scientist can look like? What does that mean for real-life people who don’t fit that picture?”
Responsible-Use Consideration:
Pupils must realize that AI is a mirror of our past, not a guide for our future. When using AI for projects, they must practice “deliberate prompting”—actively telling the AI to include diverse representations (e.g., prompting for “a female young scientist from Ireland”) rather than accepting the default, biased output.
Gathering Evidence of Learning
To wrap up, pupils complete a quick Exit Ticket with these two prompts:
1. “AI image generators make assumptions because…” (Looking for answers like: “they learn from biased training data” or “what is already on the internet”).
2. “When I use AI in the future, I will…” (Looking for answers like: “critically check the results”, “prompt for diversity”, or “not trust it as 100% true”).It is great to hear from someone else who is new to Minecraft but can already see its massive potential for classroom engagement.
One feature of your lesson idea that I really liked was how naturally you integrated Mathematics through measuring, budgeting, and planning, alongside Visual Arts for designing the attractions. This beautifully supports your learning objective of collaborative problem-solving. For 3rd class pupils, having a practical limit like a “budget” or spatial measurements means they cannot just build randomly. It forces them to negotiate, make creative compromises, and use logical thinking to get the most out of their fairground design.
As a practical suggestion for the budgeting aspect, you could give each group a set number of “tokens” or block limits for different materials (such as wood, redstone, or wool) so they have to physically calculate their costs before they start building in the world. How do you think you will structure the group roles within Minecraft to make sure every pupil gets a fair turn at building versus planning? Thanks for sharing such an inspiring and well-rounded lesson plan!