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I like your ideas for sharing your findings. The digital story telling, posters and short videos are very engaging methods to help the children deliver and share their project. I completely agree that seeing their findings presented in such a professional manner will help them realise the importance of their work and the value of their contribution, at local level, to global issues. What a great sense of achievement they would experience.
We are a small 2 teacher rural school located on the beautiful coast of West Cork. All of our school community have a close connection and a deep respect for the sea. It is a wonderful location to investigate a climate change topic.
Research Question:
“How has the sea level changed near our coast, and what clues can we find to show this?”
Activities/Focus of project:
We would definitely be in a position to reach out to older family members and neighbours to gather evidence and oral reports of coastal life ‘long ago’. The children are familiar also with a local historian and fisherman who has plenty of knowledge to willingly share with the children. This would be our first steps to engage the class and get some interest also from the wider school community.
Find old photographs or postcards of our local beach and bay. Compare them to recent ones (from Google Earth, local archives, or personal photos). Spot differences in the coastline — is the water closer to buildings, paths, or the road now? Is there evidence of changes on the landscape?
Measure High Tide Mark -Visit the coast and record where the high tide reaches now (mark with a stick, chalk, or GPS). Repeat this over weeks or compare with past records, if available, to observe any patterns. This would have to be managed at a time when the tide times align with the school day. If not, the activity could be carried out with the help of parents and family members.
Use Maps and Satellite Images
Compare historical and current maps/satellite images of your coastal area. Observe if the coastline has moved inland over time.
Keep a log of tide levels, rainfall, or storm events over a month/season to identify patterns that might affect sea levels short-term.
These activities help children observe, collect evidence, and reflect on real-world environmental changes right on their door step. I know it would spark interest from the local community also and it would present many learning opportunities outside of the classroom.
I love the idea of the weather station being a whole school collaboration, especially taking into account wellbeing and the green school programme. This year we embraced a corner of our outdoor space as an outdoor classroom (just some old logs, drifwood and a sail shade between some trees). The enthusiasm and engagement from the kids was superb. A weather station would fit in perfectly near to this new outdoor space.
1. Starlink satellites – SpaceX’s internet constellation
2. EIRSAT‑1
This is Ireland’s first home‑built CubeSat from UCD . It’s in a sun‑synchronous orbit doing tech demos like gamma‑ray detection (GMOD)
3. Argos constellation satellites – Polar‑orbiting satellites collecting environmental and tracking data globally
4 Astra 2-series geostationary satellites
These relay broadcast TV and broadband services to Ireland and the UK, though they appear stationary in the sky
Amateur radio CubeSats – Small craft like ZACube‑1, TIGRISAT, Cute‑I, AO‑7, UNISAT 6, etc., frequently fly over Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland—often tracked by hobbyists via their radio downlinks
heavens-above.com
.Summary (≈95 words):
Starlink shows up as dazzling satellite trains right after launch.
EIRSAT‑1, Ireland’s own CubeSat, is conducting internal tech experiments in sun‑synchronous orbit.
Argos satellites circle the poles, gathering environmental and asset‑tracking data.
The Astra 2 series provide geostationary TV and internet services to Ireland.
I loved exploring these apps, I ended up using the web versions on my laptop, as well as one my husband has on his phone called, Stellarium. Our kids love using this on a clear night, it is user friendly and shows live positions of stars planets and movements of satellites overhead. You also have an option in this app to overlay depictions of constellations over the stars. Not ideal for school as it is best used at night, but definitely one you could encourage kids to use at home. I also needed Wikipedia to help explain each satellite’s purpose. I think this would be a great extension activity for some of the more able and enthusiastic star gazing pupils!
I agree Renee, the film could not be used alone in order to deliver the message to primary school children. I love the idea of Drama activities exploring the children’s reporting and sharing what they have learned.
We have written letters to local companies and local politicians through our green school initiatives, and I find this is a very useful tool to get full engagement and investment from the pupils on different environmental issues.
I would not feel comfortable showing ‘Home’ in my primary school classroom. I found it difficult and heartbreaking myself as an adult, and I think it would be very difficult for many children to watch, even in the senior end. However, there are some amazing parts that could be shown as short clips, that highlight the beauty and the fragility of our planet.
There are better ways to instill this knowledge in our young children. Helping them and guiding them to love and respect their own locality and its biodiversity is very important and can be a very enjoyable experience. Taking part in the Green School initiative is another great way to develop the children’s knowledge of our planet’s strife, as well as developing a sense of global citizenship and a positive approach.
I also feel that an optimistic message without a fear factor is much more appropriate for our primary school children. While the stark reality of the climate change crisis needs to be shared and shown to our children, I believe there are better more positive and hands-on approaches that work far better than showing a 90 minute movie, despite the amazing cinematography.
I agree, there are lots of ways we could explore the TEAL tool focusing on the historical element. Using a timeline from our classroom the children could explore the changes in data over the past few decades, leading to wonderful discussions and observations.
My class would love the Paxi video. We are very passionate about the environment (on our 10th Green Flag) and we have quite a few activists in the making. This video is brilliant, and I will definitely be sharing it with all staff.
I also like it because it focuses on the positives and instills hope in the audience. I have one pupil who suffers from anxiety and has become quite fixated on the traumas of the earth and often experiences anxiety in relation to Climate change. I think this video is a good option for exploring the issue and avoiding the ‘Doom and Gloom’ attitude.
Like a previous participant said, designing posters is a great strategy for exploring the Green house effect and climate change. This is particularly useful for those who excel in artistic and design skills.
The TEAL resource was great, I loved using the slider bar and I think this is an activity I would use with a buddy system (6th class pupils in group with 3rd class pupils for example). Some of my senior pupils would be able to understand the data and explore predictions, but I feel this would be best used as an early finisher/extension activity for the ore able pupils in my classroom.
I like the idea of comparing Ireland’s climate to another country. We have penpal links with a school in Madrid, Spain, and this is an ideal opportunity for a discussion topic between the two classes.
I enjoyed this module, it really made very clear definitions between weather and climate and some of the videos were perfectly balanced and at an ideal level for the primary school classroom.
I have a few ideas as to how I would use the Nose High Up In The Sky resource.
I often start new SESE topics with a KWL chart and I think that would be perfect to use to introduce this topic, and firstly figure out what the children already know.
Our Autism Support Class pupils integrate at regular intervals during the day, and I think setting up a weather station and recording the daily weather (temp/rain guage/anemometer) are ideal opportunities for integration.
We always use our daily calendar to record the weather, and this is a perfect opportunity to link the topic with Gaeilge also.
“Is it Weather or Climate?” This video would be used to inspire a number of projects, also to update the KWL chart.
As I have a multigrade senior room, I think the senior children would be able to work in groups to develop a fact file on each climate- the younger pupils could also respond by drawing the different landscapes associated with each/preparing a report on a typical animal in each climate.
Of course, in true STEM fashion, maths will play a vital role here and the STEM skills of gathering data, questioning, experimenting, making predictions and drawing conclusions will all be developed in these lessons. I would see fantastic opportunities in data representation with each group presenting the data in a chart.
I would also keep a record of all new vocabulary on a wordwall.
Activity 3: Climate Reporters. I think this lesson is better suited to the more senior pupils. Once the lesson is complete they could share the results and present their predictions in a fun ‘future weather forecast’ scenario for the younger pupils.