[Ellen Stack]

I love the idea of building the bird boxes and a pollinator and I can see how you could use them across a range of different classes, maybe even using them with 6th class students and their infant buddies.

[Ellen Stack]

My research question is “What is the solution to climate change?”. I think the simplicity of this question would allow the students to examine our current efforts being undertaken in the combat of climate change. They could also look back at changes that have been made over the years and critically examine what and where we have gone wrong and what is proving to be effective to date. I think Greta’s Ted talk and speeches could be a great provocation for this activity. The students could also look at the school as a point of investigation for its carbon footprint and analyse the school day in terms of energy consumption. This could be done through whole class learning and also small group research using ICT. The children could start to brainstorm action or solutions at a class level and a school level, tying into our school’s Green Schools initiative at the same time. I think it would be very engaging and great that it could be an ongoing project.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by Ellen Stack.

[Ellen Stack]

I was thinking the same thing, I didn’t realise the different things satellites are used for and just how many purposes they had.

[Ellen Stack]

I struggled a bit navigating the app but I got on better with the website version. It makes me think that this activity would be better suited to senior classes and would be a great opportunity for utilising ICT.

1. International Space Station: Scientific research and technology demonstrations
2. Sentinel-2A European Union / ESA:Land imaging and environmental monitoring
3. Sentinel-3A European Union / ESA Ocean: land and atmospheric monitoring
4. NOAA-2 NOAA / NASA:Weather forecasting and environmental monitoring
5. Starlink satellite SpaceX :Global satellite internet service

 

I did also look at the EO browser and I think my 6th class next year would definitely enjoy experimenting with this. Although I found this task the most difficult to navigate so far on this course, I can see how and why satellite gathering is so important. Children would find this fascinating to navigate and investigate which satellites were passing, however I’m not sure if I would be in my comfort zone using these resources and would need to spend more time using them myself.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by Ellen Stack.

[Ellen Stack]

I like the idea of discussion prompts for a debate, I can see this working really well in the senior classes.

[Ellen Stack]

The Home documentary was very powerful and insightful. The scenery is beautiful and the way the film is made, makes you really think about the stark reality of this scenery and the extensive damage being done to it. I think that it would be a good teaching resource because the impact of human actions are shown very clearly. If you were teaching a younger class, you could use screenshots or still images from the film as a stimulus. I do think the film could be very engaging in older classes. I think Greta Thunburg’s Ted talk is probably the most useful resource of all. I agree with other participants that there is something very powerful about children recognising the activist as their peer. While students may be familiar with her and her cause, they may not have heard her speak in this capacity. It’s a great example of how social media can have a positive effect and also supports Autism awareness. I really liked the tool to rate your carbon footprint also and I think this could be an excellent resource for my 6th class next year.

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by Ellen Stack.

[Ellen Stack]

I agree Lauren, a great opportunity for empathy and the learning around it. It can challenging sometimes to teach about others perspectives and this would be a great resource to do so.

[Ellen Stack]

The Paxi video is an excellent resource, I can definitely see myself using this in the classroom next year, along with the other resources in activity three. I found the video was probably the best pitched part of this activity, in terms of being suitable for all class levels. However I agree with other participants that some of this activity may be more suitable for older classes, or need simplification in the junior end of the school. The Teal tool is fantastic but I did have to rewatch parts to fully get to grips with the task.

I think when teaching the content of this activity, I would definitely focus on Ireland as a basis for learning and then students could investigate or make comparisons between Ireland and the rest of the world. There is a good opportunity for integrating this learning across the curriculum, particularly with maths as well as some links with the Green Schools Programme.

[Ellen Stack]

I was thinking along the same lines for our Eco team or a responsibility for Student Council.

[Ellen Stack]

Activity 1:

I think I would use a school activity or an outdoor event as a good hook for maximum engagement. This would work particularly well in terms of older children, as I was working through the activity myself, I was starting to think of how I could tweak it to suit a diverse sixth class next year. I would also try to integrate the different climate zones with the heritage of the students in the class and the places that they visit and travel to.

Activity 2:

I think there are great learning opportunities in activity two and love the integration of maths also. I always love when there is a chance to get outside and get involved in hands-on learning and I think Weather Detectives would be great for this. It would be important to discuss the different variables that allow for accurate readings and maybe have a variety of different sized temperatures depending on the age of students and or differentiation.

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