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How does the amount of plastic waste in our local area affect the health of nearby rivers and streams, and what steps can we take to reduce it?
Reflection:
So let’s get the students excited about this by starting with a simple question: Have they ever noticed rubbish, like plastic bottles or bags, around their neighborhood or by a stream? Most of them probably have, and that’s a great starting point to hook them in. We can talk about how that plastic waste doesn’t just disappear but ends up affecting our local water sources and the animals that live there.I’d suggest we turn this into a bit of a scavenger hunt, where students go out in small groups to identify and record the types of plastic waste they see in different areas around the school or their homes. We could even do a little clean-up, which not only helps the environment but gives them a sense of immediate accomplishment.
Once we’ve got some data, we’d bring it back to the classroom and discuss how all this plastic waste might be impacting our local rivers and streams. We could look at how it breaks down (or doesn’t) and what kind of pollutants it releases. And then, here’s where it gets fun—we brainstorm solutions. Maybe they come up with ideas like starting a recycling program at school, creating posters to raise awareness, or even designing their own reusable bags.
By giving them ownership of both the problem and the solution, they’re more likely to be engaged and motivated. Plus, sharing their ideas with the school or local community could really make them feel like they’re making a difference. It’s all about making the learning process interactive, relatable, and most importantly, fun!
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I have chosen Activity 3 as my assignment. I really enjoyed the vibrant colours in the pupil activities, you would definitely need to print this document off with colour. One of the activities I enjoyed was the picture matching one, pupils needed to match images from satellite and one from ground levels. This requires a lot of scientific skills such as observing and analysing. It also would be a great paired activity and a group activity.
I would definitely use this document in the classroom because it asks a lot of open-ended questions such as do you think the satelitte images from space are useful. I really like the question of what are the advantages of taking an image from the ground and above. Pupils need to evaluate and justify their answers. I also think the resource is very good because it shows that images can look very different depending on where they are taken from. It also illustrates what satelittes do in Space and that ESA and NASA do a lot of things in space.
I really enjoyed the video Home and the narrator was very good. The video really shows the global scale of climate change and how it impacts our biodiversity. It also illustrates the influence humans have had since the industrial revolution and that our planet not only belongs to us but everyone. The only thing about the video is the length of it and pupils would find it hard to sit and watch it in 1 sitting. I would use it over a week and get pupils to watch while eating their lunches.
I love Greta’s Thunberg’s speech about the school strike for climate change. I would definitely show this to my pupils and I would show them this when doing persuasive writing and debate. She uses lots of emotive language and provides a lot of facts which really pulls on the heart strings on the audience.
Ireland’s climate action plan 2019 and video is very good and gives us a snapshot of the goals we have. This video is 5 years old and I would ask pupils investigate whether we are on course to achieving these targets.
Very good point Cian about the importance of the Paris Agreement. I would also do the same and explore the goals Ireland have to combat climate change. These goals could provide talk and discussion particularly about our agriculture goals.
I found this module excellent and very informative. The resource weather vs climate is super and it explains through questioning and co-operative discussion what weather and climate is. The teacher will have to explain what weather and climate is before doing the worksheet. The worksheet is a very good reinforcement for the lesson and has could lead to some interesting discussions. Activity 2 is brilliant and I believe it could lead to lots of self-directed learners in the class. Pupils can take charge of the learning and results and measure the weather using various weather instruments. The teacher will need to explain how to record and use the weather instruments and facilitate the recording. Through good recording of the weather the pupils can then predict what the weather will be like.
I really enjoyed how these 2 worksheets were laid out but this on its own is not sufficient learning. The teacher still needs to explain key vocabulary and content. I liked the video about the greenhouse effect. This module did provide some great videos about weather and climate.
I really enjoyed this module and particularly enjoyed David Attenborough’s narration on what we can do for the climate. Students are very engaged with the topic of climate change and we can link it to the SPHE stand of developing citizenship. I would also show the Paxi video to introduce the concept of greenhouse gases. I really like the idea of predicting temperature and I would question the pupils on how we could reduce temperatures globally. What small things are they doing. The video of how to implement the curious mind programme was very informative. I particularly liked the fingerprint lesson and seeing it used in the Autism class. I teach in the autism class and I was delighted to see a practical and fun way of teaching the curious mind lessons.