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Hi Siobhan,
I really liked your point about making climate change relevant to Ireland and our local area. I agree that this would help make what can be quite an abstract topic more meaningful for children. I also liked your idea of finishing with a climate action project as it gives pupils something practical they can work towards rather than focusing only on the problem.
I found Activity 3: Climate Reporters an engaging way to introduce children to climate change using real‑world data. The Paxi video gives a clear, child‑friendly explanation of greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect. The temperature prediction tool is also very effective, as it allows pupils to explore different emissions scenarios and compare how temperatures might change in the future. I think children would enjoy looking at different parts of the world and seeing how climate change could affect their own area.
With my 4th class, I would organise pupils into small groups to explore different climate scenarios and investigate how changes in temperature could affect our local area. I would give them a choice in how they present their findings for example, posters, graphs, digital slides or short presentations. Some of the vocabulary and data may be challenging. I would provide a simple glossary with child‑friendly definitions to scaffold my pupils. To finish, I would have the pupils work together to create a whole school climate action plan, identifying practical steps we could take to reduce emissions and care for our environment. This would help them connect the climate data with meaningful actions and deepen their understanding of climate change.
Hi Nessa, I really liked your idea of repeating the weather observations over four Mondays. I think this would be a great, simple way for children to start noticing patterns/changes in the weather. I also agree with your points on STEM. I would also like to develop this integrated approach in my classroom.
Having read Liston (2018), I realised that STEM is about integrating Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to solve meaningful, real world problems, rather than teaching the subjects separately. This made me reflect on how I currently use STEM in my own classroom.
I enjoyed the resources Nose Up High in the Sky and Weather vs Climate and think they would work well with my class. I particularly liked Is it Weather or Climate? as it encourages children to discuss examples and understand the difference between weather and climate. I think Weather Detectives would be a good ongoing activity as children can collect daily weather data, record it, calculate averages and create graphs.
I would like to build on these activities by developing a whole school weather station, with different classes investigating different aspects of the weather. Younger classes could observe and draw the weather and take simple measurements, while other classes could focus on rainfall, wind speed or cloud cover. The children could collect and analyse the data, calculate averages and look for patterns. They could then share their findings through corridor displays or during assembly. This would bring the four areas of STEM together through a practical, real world activity while encouraging collaboration, problem solving and communication across the school.
