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HI Una,
Thanks for sharing that with me. I’ve never heard of a Haymaker’s Bridge. That’s very interesting and I can imagine was a lot of fun.
This is a great extensive list of ideas. I especially like the human impact item. I could see how a discussion on cause and effect would be very interesting especially in the senior classes.
I agree it is great to highlight the successes of women in STEM. I plan to do some lessons on famous Irish women including Mary Parsons and Mary Ward. Truly inspirational woman of their time.
Hi Carmel,
We are fortunate to live very close to Birr Castle and have brought children there over the years. It is an amazing facility and children are always amazed at the sheer size of the telescope. I would highly recommend it for a class trip or even just a family day out.
Describe how you could apply some of the concepts and skills you have learned in this module to your own teaching practice in line with the STEM Education policy statement
I have learned so much in this first module that I will be taking into the classroom next year. The Curious Minds Roadmap tool is an excellent starting point for whole school planning. The wall planner would be a great visual reminder of the events on a month to month basis.
The SFI website outlines so well the 100 STEM lesson plans and divides them into the junior and senior end. I particularly liked the lesson on the importance of wearing a seatbelt. The design and make aspect to it with designing a moving vehicle and then the investigation to see what happens when passengers do not wear a seatbelt. This lesson would tie in well with road safety week.The use of an opening trigger is also something that I will integrate into my STEM lessons. I can imagine the excitement in the classroom with the who stole the jellies lesson.
Describe how you could apply some of the concepts and skills you have learned in this module to your own teaching practice in line with the STEM Education policy statement
I have learned so much in this first module that I will be taking into the classroom next year. The Curious Minds Roadmap tool is an excellent starting point for whole school planning. The wall planner would be a great visual reminder of the events on a month to month basis.
The SFI website outlines so well the 100 STEM lesson plans and divides them into the junior and senior end. I particularly liked the lesson on the importance of wearing a seatbelt. The design and make aspect to it with designing a moving vehicle and then the investigation to see what happens when passengers do not wear a seatbelt. This lesson would tie in well with road safety week.The use of an opening trigger is also something that I will integrate into my STEM lessons. I can imagine the excitement in the classroom with the who stole the jellies lesson.
Consider the hands-on mapping activity on creating map layers outdoors and describe a lesson plan for using this with your class and integrating it with the use of online tools and resources. What variables might you map and what questions might you ask?
Mapping in the middle room
Prompt: Look at birds eye view of the school on google maps. Discussion about the 2D aspect to it. Identifying easily recognisable features and zones from the map. Such as building, tarmac, astro, field and the carpark.
Activity: Design a birds eye view of the classroom in pairs. Share this design with the class and discuss the important elements that need to be included.Following on from this and linking in with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan for schools. The children will map with a purpose. Using the chrome books the children will do a photomap of the school environment. They will take photographs around the grounds identifying areas that are currently pollinator friendly areas.
Back in the classroom they will print and use these photographs to make a before/after log of our progress as a part of the pollinator plan.
This map could be added to as the plan progresses using the same methods.Extension- children could design an outdoor map with the natural materials as a plan on how to improve our school in terms of the pollinator plan.
Children could compare and contrast the maps over the seasons/years.
Register your garden with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and record your actions for pollinators, then outline how you would register your school and what actions you could take to help pollinators
Having registered my garden with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan here are a list of actions I will do for pollinators:
1. Plant a herb garden – I never really thought about herbs as being important for pollinators.
2. Manually remove weeds in necessary places.
3. Position small nesting/shelter for bees.
4. Drill small holes in unused areas of the garden for solitary bees.
5. Add some native Irish hedging to our existing hedging.
5. Leave the area under the washing line and around the perimeters unmoved.
6. Plant window boxes/planters seasonally to assist during times where food supplies are lower.Our school is not listed with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan, we are however doing a lot of things that would tie in with the pollinator plan.
Further actions I would do for the school would be to start with a pollinator team including members of the Green School Committee, the caretaker, teacher and Tidy Towns.
I would encourage each classroom to research pollinators and to devise a list of suggestions for our school. These suggestions would then be brought to the Pollinator Team.
The senior classes could map the school identifying areas that are currently in use for pollinators and identify possible areas for future use for pollinators.
We would link in with The Tidy Town’s Committee to update them on our plan and also to see what ideas/initiatives they offered to the school.
Some actions we could do:
We could leave the boundary surrounding the astro unmowed.
Add to our native Irish orchard.
Plant a native Irish hedging.
Plant a herb garden.
Add some more pollinator friendly plants to our flower beds.
Add hanging baskets to our building.
Plant some pollinator friendly blubs in Autumn such as snowdrops for spring.It would be a work in progress year on year and something that the children would share with their own family which would have a knock on positive effect.
Research engineering in your local area and describe how you would use a local building, structure or other engineering feature as inspiration for a classroom or outdoor design and make project
As we are located in the midlands we have many examples of wind turbines around us. I think examining a modern engineering structure would be an excellent topic to explore.
I would start the lesson with a discussion on renewable energy. I would then direct the discussion towards wind turbines using a photograph for further stimulus for the discussion. The children would use their chrome books in groups to research the necessary elements of a wind turbine. Follow that we would revert to a whole class discussion on what they learned. At this point I would allow the groups to gather what items they feel would be necessary to design and make a wind turbine.
Further investigations would involve suitable anchors/foundations to support the turbines.
Testing the turbine outside and reporting back on the suitability of their turbine.
This lesson could be done in isolation of as part of a larger topic of renewable energy and global warming.Research a famous scientist or engineer associated with your local area and describe how you would use that person as inspiration for classroom science investigations.
Portumna Swing Bridge was designed in 1909 by the London engineer, C. E. Stanier.
The children in our school would be very familiar with the bridge and I remember as a child myself being both mesmerized and terrified at the pivoting bridge.
It is the largest 20th century example of its kind in Europe.
I would start by introducing the topic of bridges and use investigate materials as a stimulus. I would leave a variety of materials for groups to explore with the challenge of design and make a bridge.
Following that we would discuss the various merits of the various bridges that the children constructed. I would then introduce the idea to think about bridges near us and brainstorm the answers. I would then show a photograph of Portumna Bridge as the basis for our discussion and investigations.
Some topics for exploration of this bridge would be:
History – examine various bridges over The Shannon at Portumna (Pre Famine)
Geography – role of bridges in linking counties of Ireland (trade)
Science – design and make a bridge that pivots
English – write interview questions for a role play activity
Drama – interview the scientist Stanier. Thought tracking various people that would have had a role in the construction of the bridge (engineer, construction workers, locals,John Ousley Moynan the surveyor of Tipperary North Riding of the time etc)
Extension idea: Examine other works of the same engineer
