Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Brona, I agree, some children struggle with explaining weather and it’s vocabulary. Apart of sunny, rainy and cold we need to foster more variety into the daily weather readings.
I think it is very important to be aware of eco-anxiety in young learners. Too much drastic information can be an overload.
Hi Ann, I love your idea on how to tackle climate change individually, as a family and as a school community. I will use this for sure.
Hi Patrick, I loved the weather proverbs too. I think it would be a great homework activity and allow children to speak to parents or grandparents to see if they understood them or had their own.
That’s a great topic, Alan. Very interesting with a great use of maps and atlas. The children enjoy learning about animals, so I’m sure this would be popular.
Research Question : Can a cycle to school approach help reduce air pollution caused by cars in our school?
I think this is a very realistic problem and issue in many schools, including my own. It has a simple research questions and pitched appropriately. There is a lot of scope to make the research as easy or difficult as needed.
The children who arrive to school early would monitor the traffic in the morning time for 5 days before the bell. We would collect this quantitative data by counting the number of vehicles entering our school gates. These results can be displayed on a pictogram, bar chart, pie chart etc. This will link in nicely with maths. We can also do a school survey on children’s mode of transport to school
The second part of collecting data would he to analyse the air pollution. In conjunction with Globe Ireland, we could set up yep test tubes at the entrance and exit of the school yard. These tubes would monitor nitrogen dioxide levels. They can be sent away for analysis.
Once we gather and analyse our data, we should see a heavy traffic congestion in our school. Currently there are close to 1500 pupils on campus between junior and senior schools .
Our plan would be to set up a cycle initiative among the children and staff. This can be aided by the actice flag Committee and the green schools committe. Our school luckily has two bicycle huts and cycle paths leading from the town. Laois sports partnership might be in a position to bring spin bikes into the halla and allow children to cycle their distance from home to school to test their ability to do so without being on the roads first.
We could also set up a car pool initiative to reduce emissions and clear traffic. We could re test our findings in a months time and see if there is a reduction.
The activity I selected was Nose High up in the sky. I carried out the activities.
Activity 1: Examined the Earth seen from the ISS. It looks at the international space centre, in class the pupils would discuss what we think Earth would look like from space. We would watch videos and gather new information on the ISS. We would look at how they eat, drink, where they sleep, brush their hair, gravity and how they exercise. in space. The child could draw their view from ISS of Earth.
Activity 2: Match the photos
We would look at photographs of space taken by astronauts on the international space station. We will match pictures taken on the ground of landscapes and attempt to match them with the pictures taken from space. In pairs the children would djscuss the similarities and differences of both pictures and what can and cannot be seen.
Activity 3:
Photos taken from Satellites orbiting the earth. The children will again match photos and we can use some of the apps listed to look at the satellites that are passing earth recently.
I loved these activities. They were user friendly, the photos were clear and inviting. I think it would be valuable resource for the senior end of the school.
The video ‘Home’ by Yann Arthus Bertrand was very impactful. I didn’t know only 1% of the oceans floor accounts for coral which is so important for our sea life.
In class, I would take clips from this video as I think if played from start to end it could lose the children’s attention. This video is aimed at more senior classes in my opinion and it could induce a little bit of fear or anxiety around climate change.
Once the clips were watched, we would re cap and discuss what we saw. What are the implications of climate change and what can we do to help.
I would set up stations, 1st would be a serious of critical thinking questions with ipads and copybook to allow children to research their answers in relation to climate change. The second station would watch the Greta Thunberg Ted Talk which was excellent and v child friendly, the group would discuss their thoughts on this afterwards. The 3rd station would be a simple experiment to showcase rising sea levels or climate change. The final station would be a science experiment worksheet to complete following the experiment.
Finally, once the stations were complete, we could have a spokesperson from each group discuss their findings in relation to climate change.
An added addition would be an art display to stop climate change
I really enjoyed this module. I would begin the lesson by quickly doing a look back on vocab that we learned in the last lesson. I would have these written on the whiteboard, I would then introduce the word green house gas and gather the children’s knowledge on this. We could then look up the definition and discuss. I would show the Paxi video to the class. I think this is v well suited towards senior end and I also think the David A video was brilliant. We would then look at Act 3 and climate change, the tool would be very useful here. I never came across this and I know the children would love to work on this in pairs on their ipads. For the next lesson I would maybe do the green house gas and temperate change experiment where two glass boxes with soil and thermometers are left outside in sunlight, one covered in clingfilm to show how significant it can be with the rise in temp.
Really practical ideas, thanks.
I really enjoyed the introduction to this course via Module one. Both Activities 1 and 2 – Weather v Climate and Weather Detectives are very engaging and interactive. They will lend well to class learning and I think they will lead to a deeper discussion within the class.
I liked the proverbs lesson as it is interesting and cross curricular. I will used this.
I did make a rain gauge before with the class but looking at a number of Weather systems going forward and creating a Weather station within the school grounds is an excellent concept and one which I will put into practice this year. We are a senior school starting from 3rd and are lucky enough to have lovely land around our school. I think I will create a Weather station with the children up on a height near the polytunnels as while we are watering and weeding we can check in on the weather.
Creating the instruments together will be fun and a great way to incorporate STEM into the classroom. I loved the videos and songs about Weather at the start of this module. I will purchase one piece of equipment for the station as that what funds would probably allow for and then the children csn get creative in groups, make our own instruments and become weather detectives. There’s a lot of learning with this.