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Yes, I also thought the carbon footprint questionnaire is really interesting and something my students would really enjoying using and comparing with each other. It’s a great prompt for reflection and connecting how our actions all have an impact on the future of our planet. Its a nice tool for promoting ideas of social responsibility.
Yes, I think showing the Paxi video to younger classes would be a great start to introducing the topic and fostering understanding. I would definitely then just show short age appropriate parts of HOME, being conscious not to overwhelm children. I think discussion prompts like “how did you feel?” etc will be important to allow children to identify and address concerns and fears that the film brings up. Seeing that they aren’t the only ones anxious or worried by the issues raised will help reinforce that this is an issue for everyone.
Yes it’s great that this activity provides lot’s of opportunities for our pupils to explore real-world consequences and connections with how climate change affects their own lives. The climate report is a great idea. To build on this idea, pupils could role play being meteorologists or news reporters when reporting their findings.
I agree, the Paxi video was a really clear, simple and child friendly introduction to the the issue of climate change and the role of greenhouse gases. The TEAL temperature prediction tool is a great visual aid in reinforcing the impacts caused by rising temperatures.
This will be a fun and engaging lesson to complete with my class next year to help them to understand and develop awareness that global issues like climate change are a relevant and pertinent issue to them. This will act as a stimulus to open up discuss around what actions could help lessen or raise awareness of the impacts caused by an increase in temperatures and encourage my pupils to be more environmentally conscious. It will highlight to students that their behaviours and actions can contribute to solutions. This activity provides a learning experience whereby pupils can utilise their critical thinking skills in order to analyse future scenarios. I would make the lesson relatable to my class by encouraging them to consider questions such as: “What might summers look like here in 2050?”, “What do you think the world will look like when you’re grown up?” and “What would you like the world to look like when you grow up?”.
I agree I think asking parents or grandparents for traditional weather proverbs would be a great stimulus to spark discussion on how people predicted weather in the past and how this has changed over time. It could be a nice comparison activity if linking it with other schools around the country or around the world. It would be an interesting activity to see which proverbs have travelled from one area to another and would open discussion on why some areas report similar weather proverbs.
Hi,
I love the idea of students collaborating across year levels and making it a whole school activity. Sharing findings in assemblies and making comparisons across seasons would be a lovely whole school activity that every child could get involved with and access at some level. Setting up a school weather station, with each class level responsible for observing and monitoring a different aspect of the weather presents a rich, hands-on opportunity to explore the natural world while developing essential STEM skills.
I would like to give children the opportunity to make their own weather recording devices i.e. thermometer, rain gauge, wind gauge, hygrometer and anemometer. I think this would help the children gain greater insight and understanding of how the devices actually work and how to use them, rather than just giving them premade instruments. It will provide great opportunities for collaborative learning experiences for the children to engage in problem solving activities regarding how to design and build the best devices. It will open discussion on what works well and what doesn’t and why. This will give the children the opportunity to take ownership and pride in creating their own school based weather station.
Children can use their weather recording devices to monitor and observe weather conditions each day. This could be integrated with data in maths and recording their daily weather station observations. This could then be further extended to explore climate by identifying average weather patterns over a longer period – i.e. 30 years or more. By comparing their findings to historical data, children can begin to understand how patterns emerge over time and the concept of climate zones (e.g., Ireland’s temperate maritime climate).
With knowledge gained from this module I feel I could lead the School Community in Studying Weather and Climate and facilitate collective practice through:
-Creating a Weather Club i.e. Involve students in taking daily readings, leading school assemblies with weather updates, or have children lead a daily weather report on the school intercom and maintaining a weather board in a central location.
-Engaging with the Wider Community: i.e. Link with local environmental groups or meteorologists. Share findings with parents through newsletters or school exhibitions. Collaborate with colleagues in schools around the country or abroad to compare weather patterns.
-Use Digital Platforms for Communication: i.e. Set up a class blog or Seesaw account where students post weekly weather updates or charts. Encourage students to make simple videos explaining what they’ve learned about weather and climate.
Some of the STEM skills fostered would be: Science- Forming hypotheses (e.g., “Does it rain more in October than in June?”). Technology- Using digital thermometers, tablets or weather apps to log and track data. Engineering- Designing and building simple weather instruments with classroom materials. Planning the layout and structure of the weather station. Problem-solving when instruments need maintenance or adjustment. Mathematics- Recording measurements (temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind speed) using units. Creating graphs and charts to show patterns over time. Interpreting averages and comparing monthly/seasonal/yearly data.