Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Research question – How has rainfall changed in Ballinasloe during the summer months from 1974 to 2024?
From teaching in a small country school as well as growing up on a farm myself, I know the importance of a dry summer to people in agriculture. It is widely said that the summers were drier in the 1970′ and 1980’s. I think that this would be interesting for the whole school to take part in as the children can find out from their parents and grandparents about how summertime weather compares from then vs now.
Activity 1: Introduce the children to the research question. Familiarise the children with the new terminology. Discuss the seasons and what the weather is typically like in each season. Check to see what is the average rainfall per month in the area. The children could record this data on posters or recording sheets. The children could use met.ie to find out this data.
Activity 2: Gather data. Groups of children will be given a year or period of time that they will gather rainfall data from. Children can also speak with their parents and grandparents. This would help them relate to the data. Children will then record the data using recording sheets and graphs/charts. The children could also set up a weather station as a hands on activity to record the rainfall for the months of May and June themselves.
Activity 3: Discussion- Children can discuss their findings with eachother and form opinions as to why these trends have happened and the effects they are having on the local area. If the children have a parent or grandparent that is a farmer, they could be invited in to take part in a Q&A with the class.
Activity 4: Presentation- To wrap up the activity and pull all of the findings together, the children could use ICT to put together slides on the topic and present it if they feel comfortable doing so.
Using the local environment as the area to research is a great idea for the children as they will be able to link the activity to the real world and make coonnections to their own lives. Great idea!
Hi Emma,
I was quite surprised about the amount of space junk that isn’t retrieved and how there may be future complications for newer satellites in the future if this isn’t sorted. I hadn’t thought of this being a problem before now. Thanks for the link on space junk also. Very informative!
Assignment 3 ‘Nose High Up in The Sky’.
I was drawn to the teacher guide and pupil activities on the ESA Resource ‘Nose High Up in The Sky’. I carried out the three pupil activities and found the first activity on the old proverbs to be very interesting and I think the pupils will enjoy this one as they can learn about how people predicted the weather forecast before modern technology was available to them.
The second activity allows the children opportunity to compare and contrast a picture taken from earth and a picture taken from space of the same thing and this will create conversation among the children as they complete it. This lesson could to be very exciting for the students in the older classes and could lead to further discussion on how things look from the International Space Station.
Activity three – Creating a weather station and weather forecasts would be a fun and interesting activity that could be used effectively as group work. Groups could be given the chance to design a weather station and then rehearse with their group how they would go about carrying out a weather forecast. We could use ICT then as a means of recording the groups carrying out the forecast.
This film ‘Home’ documented the effects that climate change is having on our planet very well. The production team of this evidently took great care in capturing beautiful aerial photos and then to put it together so well is also remarkable. I think that this video would be beneficial to show to middle and older classes as they could appreciate the the points being made in relation to their own lives and personal interests. The film would also be a good stimulus to spark a discussion afterwards. The children can discuss what parts they are happy/not happy with and from the re come up with ideas on how they can reduce their climate impact on a more personal and local level. This can be recorded on the interactive whiteboard and then possibly into a project using ICT for a school display.
From taking part in module 3, I enjoyed completing the questionnaire that calculated my carbon footprint. I was quite shocked to see the results and it has made me reflect and reassess my own approach to reducing my impact on climate change. I think that this would be hugely beneficial for the students in my class to take part in so that they too can to check their carbon footprint.I agree with your point that while this video is excellent at showing the effects of climate change to our students, but that we must be careful in the way we go about it to make sure we don’t cause “eco-anxiety”.
I completely agree with your idea of carrying out the experiment with the class. It will help the children to really understand the effects of greenhouse gases from the Paxi video they watched.
Activity 3 on predicting temperature change seems a very engaging and worthwhile activity for students. In my class, I would begin by eliciting the children’s prior knowledge of the topic through a class discussion and recording our knowledge through brainstorming. I would then use the Paxi video as a stimulus. This video is easy to understand and enjoyable. It would be important to spend time explaining the new terminology to the children after watching. The children will hopefully be able to see the link between our everyday actions and climate change. It might be both interesting and useful for the children to use chromebooks to do some further research with the class on weather trends in different countries in recent years.
The TEAL tool is very suited to this topic and provides interesting insights into various climate data. It would make for a very engaging activity for the children in my classroom. It would be perfect for middle and older classes in particular.Dr. Liston’s article casts a critical eye on STEM education in schools, spotlighting an issue that’s often overlooked. STEM, while its widely embraced, sometimes doesn’t get the attention it needs. This paper has got me thinking about how I approach STEM and integrate the principles in the classroom. Activity 1 focused on distinguishing weather from climate. Starting with the fundamental differences sets a solid foundation for deeper exploration. The climate zone video serves as an excellent introduction, making a complex topic accessible and engaging. Activity 2 promises to be a hit among students. The hands on approach of measuring and creating graphs is something my class would enjoy, while also fostering a deeper connection to the material and enhancing their analytical skills. I would also love for a weather station to be built in our school for the coming academic year. I think it could help massively with bringing some new life and interest to science in the school.