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Lesson Plan: The Water Cycle – Our Planet’s Smart Water Journey
Subject: Science (Environmental Awareness and Care)
Learning Objectives:
Identify and describe the four main stages of the water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection.
Understand that water moves continuously through these stages.Introduction – explaining how we are going to be scientists today to find out where rain comes from and where puddles disappear to. Set up the physical demonstration with water in a bowl.
2. PowerPoint Presentation Outline: “The Water Cycle: Our Planet’s Smart Water Journey” (Generated by Gemini)
3. Water cycle song with actions to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle generated by Magic school AI music app
4. Play AI Game: “Weather Predictor Bot” This will be a simple web-based game where students click to predict the next stage.
5. Physical Demo: Using the water bowl and cling film.
Worksheet/Drawing: Hand out the water cycle worksheet or ask students to draw their own water cycle.
6. Review new vocabulary – Condensation, evaporation, precipitation, collection using a quizziz multiple choice quiz and their whiteboards.I included AI tools such as gemini, magic school AI, Quizziz to help put together this lesson. There are differentiated worksheets available through various websites including twinkl.
There is a lot of scope given in this course, I plan to select a few one to be magic school as I feel it contains alot of what I’m looking for as a teacher but I would also like my 1st class to begin their AI education and I’m doing my research on Robogarden and Khan academy and I plan to consult with staff and our AUP before proceeding with anything. Hopefully setting the class up on the ipads wont be too much of a challenge and I know the children will see this activity as a fun rewarding activity.
What a fun and engaging lesson and a great starting point for introducing children to AI. I have a younger class and did this course with the view of how AI can help me as a teacher, I didn’t think I could use it with younger children but they need a starting point and they are growing up with this so its not as daunting to them. I now see how important it is to introduce AI to the younger classes.
I was instantly attracted to robogarden playground as I have 1st class and it seems like a fun way to experience AI as it begins with the very basics in a fun way and progresses with various STEM adventures that earn rewards. I have watched a few videos about it but am finding it difficult to sign up to it to explore more, so I thought I would put what I have learned so far in the course into action and I asked Gemini how I could use Robogarden to introduce AI to 7 year olds. The reply I got was informative but long winded for this assignment so I decided to ask notebook LM to summarize the main points and these are the results:
Key Points Summary:
Understanding RoboGarden Playground:
Uses game-based learning with missions and interactive graphics to engage 7-year-olds.
Introduces coding through visual programming (Blockly) with drag-and-drop blocks.
Gradual progression from basic concepts to advanced coding languages.
Self-paced learning with immediate feedback and hints.
Aligns with STEM curricula. Classroom Implementation Strategies:
Pre-teach coding concepts and vocabulary using real-world examples.
Use storytelling to connect missions to relatable problems.
Start with guided exploration (whole-class introduction, pair work, small groups).
Focus on computational thinking (sequencing, debugging, pattern recognition, problem decomposition).
Subject Integration:
Connect coding missions to math, literacy, and science concepts.
Monitoring Progress:
Use teacher dashboards (if available) to track progress and provide targeted support.
Regular check-ins and celebrate student achievements. Classroom Logistics:
Manage devices, headphones, and set clear rules for app usage.
Limit screen time to 1 hour per week for optimal learning. Differentiation:
Advanced learners: Encourage efficient solutions and exploration of challenging missions.
Struggling learners: Provide scaffolding and break missions into smaller steps.
These strategies help introduce coding to 7-year-olds in a fun, engaging, and educational way. Yes good reminder to check the Aup and GDPR policies to ensure everything is above board and also to check in with the principal and teaching staff to find out peoples opinions and experiences.
I use youtube and powerpoint a lot to support teaching in SESE, I will use Gamma and Twee to improve the presentation and student activities to assess these topics. I am looking forward to exploring them more. Diffit seems like a game changer being able to differentiate texts within seconds. I have an emerging reader within the house this summer so I’m going to play around with Microsoft reading coach to see how I can incorporate it into the classroom for next year.
Magic school looks like a great platform for the whole school to use to create pupil portfolios, last year I had a class who loved to sing and I just used it to generate a song about robins using a song they are already familiar with – Green Green Grass. There is plenty of scope in the one place there to help improve lessons and increase engagement and to assess. There is also a helpful lesson planner and a report comment generator. Out of all the tools I might chose this one to focus on first.
Yes personalising the maths stories will definitely improve engagement and make their learning more meaningful. It always creates a buzz in the classroom when someone’s name is mentioned in a text. I will use this across the subjects/
My hope is to use AI more for assessment, there seems to be a big emphasis on that lately and traditional methods are very time consuming especially if they are to be tailormade to each student. I am looking forward to having a system that allows for a more tailormade learning experience for each child. A challenge I face with this is for each student to have access to IT to make it more personal especially in the younger classes. I also think choosing a specific platform for the school to use will be a long process as there is a good few to choose from all which need to be researched to ensure they comply and also that all teachers and parents are on board.
While the research experiment in the Chinese classroom was fascinating it certainly put my mind at ease as to whether AI is going to replace teachers. It can’t, apart from teaching, assessing, grading, planning – teachers are usually kind and compassionate, they notice when a student is struggling in areas other than academics, be it friendship issues, something happened at home, teachers are quick to pick up on this and offer support and guidance in ways a computer cannot. I’d love to see AI deal with some of the tales that come in from the yard.
I also felt bothered when watching those children in the Chinese classroom. It highlighted the lack of human emotion, empathy in AI, which is scary. I wondered what the teacher does when the headband flashes red to show they are not focused. One boy said his parents punish him when they see he is not focusing. They are able to see all the classes results subjecting weaker students to embarrassment. Awful!
Stacey mentions training for staff, this would be so helpful in all schools. The possibilities seem endless and could result in more efficient schools, not just in helping teachers to plan and assess but in the running of the school. AI has changed so dramatically and quickly over the past few years and I’m sure will continue to grow and so training is important.
Until now, I have only been using chatgpt to inspire some lessons, I never thought to use it for assessment or to even personalise a child’s learning. Sometimes I found chatgpt good and others times I haven’t been completely satisfied by the results (given all the hype) but I have seen now how it works as building blocks. You begin with one thing and can enhance this through AI and comparing the different apps like co-pilot, chatgpt and Gemini was an eye opener, I enjoyed the planning a weekend in Kilkenny task and was fascinated at how Gemini thought to provide weather details, accommodation recommendations and pictures.
I want to spend plenty more time exploring the tools on the generative AI in education page at a glance its very impressive and will definitely enhance both learning and assessment in my classroom.
I think the 5 rules of thumb are very important, especially the fact checking, it’s our responsibility to ensure students get the correct information.