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I really like the simplicity of your research question Karen and the fact that it can be carried out in most school yards! I would like to do this with my pupils next year!
I would start with a discussion about the tornado in Leitrim earlier this year. All the children will have had some experience of this freak weather event as many of them live in or close to the village.
Brainstorming would provide a good opportunity to organise the data already known to the children. They could differentiate between information from media sources and what the children actually observed on the day in question. Working in groups or pairs, the children could interview local people who were eye witnesses on the day in question. Perhaps a local eye witness could come to the school to talk to the children about their experience of the tornado. The children could also interview business owners and locals whose homes were severely damaged by the tornado.
Working in groups the children could analyse photos and screenshots from the tornado and they could compare them with photos and images of the village before and after the event. They could also analyse satellite imagery from before and after the tornado. The children could analyse and report their findings by writing an article for the local newspaper and showcasing their results to the wider school community.
I am confident that this would be an excellent topic for the children to explore as Climate Detectives. It would help them to develop their stem skills by giving them the opportunity to collaborate, communicate and to critically think.
I like your idea of observing unusual behaviours of animals and birds before weather events Pat! I can imagine that this would make for great discussion in class.
The ‘Nose high in the Sky’ is an excellent resource and a fun way to teach children about our weather. Talking about weather is something we do a lot of in Ireland so it is little wonder that we have many old proverbs about weather. I think it would be a great idea to ask the children to discuss these old proverbs with their parents and grandparents and find out which proverbs they would have heard as children. It is a fun way to start a lesson and as a follow on the children could compose their own proverbs. This lesson would also provide the teacher with the opportunity to create cross curricular links with Gaeilge and folklore.
This resource also allows children to think critically and to analyse the weather for themselves. It allows them to imagine what it would have been like for our ancestors who didn’t have the benefit of technology to analyse the weather. Instead they had to infer from the signs around them such as red sky at night.
The lessons in this resource give the children the opportunity to become meteorologists and to measure air temperature, wind speed and rainfall. They provide a springboard to help them learn that satellites provide us with invaluable data to help us predict the weather.
I think Greta Thunberg is an admirable person and she certainly was ahead of her time as a teenager. I would however think twice about showing her Ted Talk to primary school pupils. She is indeed a true activist and I am sure that her young age alone and her passion in wanting to help do her bit for the planet should inspire the children. However her questions about whether the human race is evil or why are we continuing to eat meat and dairy is a little too much for young children. I do not believe that by becoming vegetarian we will save the planet.
I really enjoyed the film ‘Home’. Our world is breathtakingly beautiful and powerful and a treasure to protect. There is a lot of information to digest and of some of it is emotive. I think it might be a good idea to show the film in segments and perhaps from a different perspective to climate change. As the children’s knowledge of climate change grows, we could approach it from the climate change perspective. The beginning of the film offers possibilities for charting a time line in History and the carbon footprint calculator is a super activity that would interest both the teacher and the class!
I agree with you Aisling in that the ‘Home’ film is more suited to second level students. The images are amazing and could provide a framework with which to work with 5th and 6th class. I would show sections of the film over a two week period and there are endless possibilities for integration with history and even artwork.
I agree with you Alan in that the issue of Climate Change has become very emotive. As teachers, I am of the opinion that we can make or break the topic of Climate Change with the children we teach. We can either alarm them and make them fearful for the future or we can help them to develop a healthy sense of responsibility, arming them with useful everyday things they can do to help the planet.
Module 2 provided a good insight into the Greenhouse effect. The Paxi video is a good way to introduce the topic and it would certainly appeal to younger pupils with it colourful animation and alien character. I would use this video as a springboard to launch the topic and would ask middle and senior classes to brainstorm introducing all the vocabulary associated with The greenhouse gas effect and to elicit their prior knowledge. Comparing the planets Venus and Mars and the difference in their greenhouse gas levels could be used as a point of interest for pupils. Children are exposed to so much information from television, media, phones etc and they are bombarded with the different voices. I am conscious of how important it is not to alarm children or make them feel guilty for their actions. Many of the resources in this module were excellent and provide teachers and children with practical ways to be proactive in lowering greenhouse emissions.
Hi Linda. I agree with your statement that effective STEM education goes beyond rote learning and focuses on real life applications. One of the vital elements of effective STEM education is communication and as such it must be collaborative. Children working in groups and pairs and finding the need to critically think, investigate and problem solve is where real learning takes place.
I enjoyed the paper ‘Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics’. This paper really highlights the importance of allowing children to use and develop STEM skills such as learning to think critically, to problem solve and essentially to think outside the box. Module 1 offered a great insight into the difference between climate and weather. The ESA resources, “Nose Up High in the Sky” are excellent and there is plenty of scope and opportunities to use literacy and numeracy with different class levels. I like the idea of setting up a weather station and I feel that it would be a real winner with the children. This programme of work is something that could be taken on by the whole school, fostering and growing stem skills in the whole school community. It is active learning at its best and it provides a wonderful opportunity for the children to take their learning outside. The Weather or Climate and Weather Detectives activities and worksheets are very good could be adapted for small group work.