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What an inspiring way to celebrate Callan’s own James Hoban while giving pupils a hands‑on feel for engineering! Linking the White House’s longevity to concrete STEM concepts (forces, materials, shapes) really grounds the learning.
To connect my pupils with the natural and scientific heritage of our local area, I would develop a cross-curricular creative project titled “Echoes of the Past: Life in Ancient Ireland”, centred on Bunratty Castle and Craggaunowen. This project would weave together drama, creative writing, visual art, and music, allowing children to engage deeply with history, heritage, and the environment.
1. Drama and Creative Writing – “A Day in the Life”
We would begin by exploring the settings and historical significance of both sites—Bunratty’s medieval stronghold and Craggaunowen’s reconstructed Crannóg and Iron Age settlements. After learning about the daily life of people in these times, pupils would take on roles (e.g. a blacksmith, herbalist, chieftain’s child, or monk) and write first-person diary entries or short scripts based on their imagined experiences.We’d then develop short dramatic scenes or monologues to perform, perhaps as part of a school assembly or history week. These performances could include historical costumes, props, and even outdoor settings to recreate the atmosphere of life in the past.
hanks for sharing this—it sounds like such a well-thought-out and engaging project! Using the suspension bridge at Birr Castle as a real-life example is a brilliant way to make the challenge more meaningful for students, especially since you’re local to the area. I love how you’ve grounded the learning in something familiar but still full of engineering wonder!
Your integration of maths is really strong—especially the use of measurement, data recording, and calculating materials. It’s a great way to show students how maths is all around them and has real purpose beyond the textbook. Exploring symmetry and shape adds a lovely design element too, and helps reinforce spatial awareness.
The idea of working in small groups also supports so many key skills—collaboration, problem-solving, resilience—all while having fun and being creative. I can imagine your students being really motivated by the challenge, especially with the visual connection to Birr Castle.
Thanks for the inspiration—definitely taking a few ideas from this for my own class!
am very familiar with Birr Castle as I live in close proximity to it, and the suspension bridge in the Demesne offers a fantastic real-life structure to inspire a class or whole school bridge-building challenge. For Third Class, I would begin with a visit to the bridge or use photos and videos to explore its design, purpose, and structure. We would discuss how it stays up, the materials used, and the forces acting on it.
Back in the classroom, students would work in small groups to plan, design, and build their own model bridges using materials like lollipop sticks, string, paper, and recycled cardboard. The challenge could be to build a bridge that spans 30 cm and can support a small weight (like a toy car or block).
Mathematical thinking would be integrated throughout the project. Students would measure materials using rulers and tape measures (length, width), record data in tables (weights, spans), and use basic multiplication and addition to calculate total materials used. They could also explore symmetry and shape when designing their bridge.
This project combines hands-on STEM learning with real-life application, while supporting Maths skills development in a fun and engaging way, encouraging collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity. Reply to message on a forum
Inspired by the Club Bridge in Ennis—a key structure in our local area—and drawing on the dramatic design of the suspension bridge in Birr Castle Demesne, I would plan a whole school “Build a Bridge” Challenge Week that integrates STEM, project-based learning, and age-appropriate maths skills.
Project Overview:
The challenge would ask each class (or small groups within classes) to design and build a model bridge that:Can hold a specific weight (e.g., 500g – 1kg)
Spans a minimum distance (e.g., 30–50cm)
Uses limited or recycled materials (e.g., lollipop sticks, cardboard, string, paper, masking tape)
To start, we would explore local bridges like Club Bridge through photos, maps, and discussion, highlighting function, structure, and types (beam, arch, suspension, truss). We would compare this with images or videos of the suspension bridge at Birr Castle to inspire creativity and variation in designs.Integrating Mathematical Thinking:
Junior Classes:
Shape and Space: Identifying and naming 2D and 3D shapes used in their designs.
Measurement: Using rulers or non-standard units to measure materials and span length.
Sorting/Classifying: Sorting bridges by materials or shapes.
Middle/Senior Classes:Thank you for sharing this inspiring and practical approach to supporting pollinators—there are so many great ideas here! Registering both your garden and school grounds on the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan’s map is such a valuable step, not only for tracking actions nationally, but also for showing children how their efforts contribute to something bigger.
I particularly liked your inclusion of simple but effective actions like reducing mowing and planting herbs such as lavender and thyme. These are achievable steps that can make a real impact, especially when done collectively. The idea of creating bee and bug hotels with natural materials is also fantastic—it gives students hands-on experience while fostering curiosity and care for local wildlife.
Your plan really highlights the power of place-based learning. Involving children in monitoring pollinators and connecting this to lessons in science and geography is a great way to embed biodiversity education across the curriculum. It’s also a brilliant way to encourage critical thinking about human impact on ecosystems.
Thanks again for sharing—your post has given me a few new ideas to bring to my own class and school grounds!
sing some of the identification tools and resources from this module—particularly the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) species identification guides, the Irish Wildflowers website, and the Seek by iNaturalist app—I have begun recording local biodiversity in my area around Kilrush, Co. Clare. I recently visited the Vandeleur Walled Gardens and Woods, a fantastic local resource that provides both formal planting and semi-wild woodland habitats, ideal for biodiversity exploration.
Some species I was able to identify and log with the National Biodiversity Data Centre include:
Primrose (Primula vulgaris) – found along the woodland edges.
Wood anemone (Anemone nemorosa) – carpeting parts of the woodland floor.
Speckled wood butterfly (Pararge aegeria) – common in the dappled shade of the woodland paths.
Common frog (Rana temporaria) – spotted in a damp shaded area near a water feature.
Silver birch (Betula pendula) – several mature specimens around the woodland boundary.
I submitted these sightings via the NBDC’s recording portal and used the app version while on-site to streamline the process.Getting My Class Involved in Citizen Science
To bring this experience into the classroom, I would integrate a local citizen science project into a STEM and SESE-focused unit. Here’s how:1. Visit to Vandeleur Gardens and Woods
Organise a class visit where pupils can explore and identify species using field guides, tablets with Seek/iNaturalist, or printed ID sheets.
Students can work in small groups to record plants, insects, birds, and trees using drawings, photos, and notes.
2. Pre- and Post-Visit Activities
Teach identification skills and biodiversity concepts beforehand.
Post-visit, students upload their records (with teacher support) to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, developing digital literacy and contributing real data.
3. Inquiry and Project Work
Have students pose their own questions (e.g. “Which area of the woods has the most biodiversity?”) and collect data to answer them.
Encourage them to present their findings in posters, reports, or digital presentations.
4. Link with Curriculum and DEIS Goals
This ties directly into the SESE curriculum (Living Things; Environmental Awareness), and supports DEIS literacy, numeracy, and digital learning targets.
It also fosters a sense of place, pride, and stewardship in a local setting that many children may already know but haven’t seen through a scientific lens.
5. Build Ongoing Engagement
Create a “Biodiversity Watch” wall in the classroom to track what students observe over the seasons.
Encourage families to take part at home using the Seek app or through school-home biodiversity challenges.What a lovely and engaging idea! Using Teddy’s journey to teach sequencing, spatial awareness, and map skills is a brilliant way to make geography and maths meaningful for younger children. The integration of Google Maps adds a real-world connection, while the creative storytelling keeps it playful and accessible. A great example of cross-curricular, child-centred learning!
Using online datasets in teaching mathematics offers students authentic, real-world contexts to explore mathematical concepts and develop data literacy. For Gaelscoil Uí Choimín in Kilrush, this approach can be particularly powerful in making maths feel more relevant and engaging for students, especially when tied to local, national, or global issues.
Topic: Interpreting charts, measures of central tendency (mean, median, mode), data representation
Activity:
Explore population trends in County Clare or Kilrush over the last few censuses.
Students create bar charts or line graphs to show how the population has changed.
Calculate averages (e.g. household size, age).
Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful reflection. I really appreciate how you’ve connected Liston’s (2018) insights to your own classroom practice. Your example of students designing sustainable housing using maths, coding, and environmental science is a fantastic illustration of how STEM can be made meaningful and contextual. It’s encouraging to hear how you’re fostering real-world problem-solving and collaboration.
Like you, I also found Liston’s emphasis on the sociopolitical and ethical dimensions of STEM particularly eye-opening. It made me reflect on how often those conversations are treated as optional or extra, rather than integral. Your point about embedding critical thinking around who benefits from STEM innovations really resonated—especially in a DEIS setting like ours, where equity and inclusion are front and centre.
I’m also working to bring more diverse STEM role models into lessons and create more space for student voice, and it’s reassuring to hear others on the same path. Thanks again for your insights—they’ve definitely given me more to think about as I plan future STEM units with a greater focus on ethical inquiry and social connection.
eflecting on the ideas presented in Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths by Liston (2018), STEM education in my classroom at our small urban DEIS school in Kilrush—nestled on the Wild Atlantic Way—aims to be holistic, relevant, and deeply rooted in the lived experiences of our students.
Liston challenges us to move beyond a fragmented, content-heavy approach to STEM, urging educators to embed critical thinking, creativity, and real-world relevance into how STEM is delivered. This resonates deeply with the context of our school, where many of our pupils face socio-economic challenges, and where engagement and connection to content are key.
In our classroom, STEM education isn’t confined to isolated lessons or textbook exercises. Instead, it emerges through hands-on, project-based learning that reflects our local environment and the community’s needs. For example:
Science might involve exploring local biodiversity or investigating marine ecosystems unique to the Atlantic coast.
Technology is integrated through the use of tablets and coding apps to record data, create digital presentations, or even simple animations explaining a scientific process.
Engineering appears when students design solutions to real-life problems, like building bird feeders from recycled materials or creating windbreaks to understand structural stability.
Maths is no longer abstract but comes alive through measuring tides, calculating distances on maps, or collecting and graphing local weather data.
Liston also emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinarity. In Kilrush, we embrace cross-curricular links, such as tying in history (local shipwrecks or lighthouse stories) with science and technology, or using literature to prompt investigations (e.g., “Why does the ocean sound like that?” leading into a sound waves experiment).