[John Duignan]

Such an interesting and socially valuable study Paul, with great linkage to the wider community.

[John Duignan]

I chose the question, Are climatic conditions changing dramatically in our area, as climate science would suggest?

I ran it through the Question Planner to see if it would prove suitable and considered how best to ensure high participation levels from pupils. While the immediacy of weather makes its study possible in real time, the time horizon on climate is longer and so we must draw on data, collected by ourselves and by external agencies.

The closest weather station to our school is in the Phoenix Park where the following parameters are measured:

Air Temperature
Soil Temperatures
Earth Temperatures
Grass Temperature
Rainfall
Atmospheric Pressure
Relative Humidity
Global Radiation

At this point I would ask the children to choose a feature that we could accurately measure in our school environment, using relatively rudimentary apparatus, to make a study feasible
Given the limitations of our site, I would direct them towards the Rainfall parameter, although I would retain an open mind as to what was possible.
I would make the children aware that this was a long-form project and to ensure enduring participation and interest, we would split the year into months, and assign teams to the various months, to lead data collection, analysis and reporting.

[John Duignan]

I wasn’t entirely sure whether we were supposed to look at the Nose High Up In The Sky resource or From The Ground And From The Sky, which pertained more closely to Earth Observation. Regardless, I completed activities from both and, as was the case with all of ESA materials encountered, found them beautifully designed and resourced.
The very premise of the Nose High Up In The Sky resource, using our senses to describe weather conditions, links wonderfully with the approaches to mindfulness that are fast becoming features of every school day. In creative writing, we ask the children to describe things they can see, hear, touch, taste and smell, to add depth and colour to their descriptions. It is fitting that we tap into our sensory toolkit when engaging with the weather and climate conditions that so heavily impact our everyday experience.
“I can smell rain,” is an expression I heard a lot when growing up. Coming from a rural area, the impending weather was of paramount importance and a lot of prediction was done through observation, intuition and tuning into the cues and clues felt through the senses. This resonated with me when completing Activity 1 in Nose High Up In The Sky, which centred around analysing proverbs pertaining to the weather. I can imagine the various suggestions my students might have for the provenance of these expressions, both accurate and otherwise!
Activity 2 in For The Ground And From The Sky forges a crucial connection between what astronauts see from space and how that is represented on the ground. This can an abstract task in some cases, so a matching task where the children have to think critically about colour and contour with an almost cubist sensibility will deepen their appreciation of satellite imagery and the wider idea of observing the earth from space.

[John Duignan]

Caroline, such a great suggestion to use the HOME film to link agrarian approaches from now and then and open up the conversation on sustainability.

[John Duignan]

HOME is such a beautiful piece of film that exalts the viewer into a panoptical, God’s-eye view of our beautiful planet. In the same way that micro-photography illuminates the beauty in the minutiae of creation, looking down on the earth provides a new and jarring perspective on the intricacy of the systems, habitats and settlements within which we exist.

Extracts from this film would make wonderful leaping-off points for unpacking climate facts and how they relate to climate change. For example, a study of the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island would make for a wonderful analogue to modern civilization and the fate that will await if we do not change our ways. Like the Rapa Nui, we are overpopulating our ‘island’ and expending its resources at an untenable rate. Linking this to a geographical/cultural study of the wider Polynesian area could deepen the children’s empathy for this lost people and give them to pause to consider what lessons their story may hold for us.

CLIMATE AID video 2020 is accompanied by the song Mad World and the musical choice could scarcely be more fitting. It’s perhaps a piece better suited to the older classes, given the graphic nature of some sections but certainly contains vignettes that will resonate deeply with the children’s sense of justice. It’s sad that we spend so much of a child’s infancy reading stories, playing games and creating and appreciating art that features the earth’s most beloved creatures, only to pull the rug on them some years later by revealing that we have pushed these creatures and their habitats to the limits of their existence.

 

 

[John Duignan]

A recent academic study has revealed that anxiety is among the most commonly diagnosed mental health disorders in children and teenagers, so it is with some trepidation that I approach all work on Climate Change. As a ten year old. I remember finding a government designed pamphlet sent out to schools on what to do in the case of a nuclear event, which was the primary existential threat of the day. The stomach-twisting sense of catastrophizing it triggered is almost palpable to this day and while there are many children that will focus on the positive conclusion of the Pax video on what we can do to affect change, I’m always aware of the cohort that will ruminate negatively on the concerned scientists studying the cataclysmic trend graph.

The key phrase in the video is ‘The Good News’ and this will form the fulcrum of the development, as giving the children agency in shaping their future is elemental in alleviating any anxiety that might stem from this work. I will preload a Google Slides presentation entitled ‘Climate Change Good News’ with spaces in which we can enter the actions we can do, e.g walk, cycle, conserve water, turn off appliances, etc.

I have found that setting a home based challenge, e.g Climate Crisis Side Quest, where we list the actions and the children can tick them off at home as they complete them, allows for further reinforcement of the message, as the children are tasked with carrying their learning home and communicating it to family members, where further conversation can take place, in so doing deepening their understanding.

The tool for predicting future temperatures will be conducted in tandem with a numeracy study of data and averages. Data can be a wonderfully rich strand when the children choose the topics and are charged with corralling the information before sculpting into a graphical representation. In my experience, it is also one of most successful crucibles for group work, with component tasks that play into everyone’s strengths, including social/interpersonal, mathematical art, visual, etc. It’s a joy to furnish the groups with the tools to create their own study and then let them off, acting as a sounding board and facilitator when the need arises.

I thought Activity 3 was wonderfully structured and resourced. For maximal impact, I always believe the local is the universal and I would use Met Office Data from our locality to incorporate ground and air temperatures over the past decades to make the study more personalised and relevant.

 

 

[John Duignan]

I love teaching the simple machines, Conor, because it reminds me of the distance we have come as innovators and technologists. Great stuff!

[John Duignan]

The choice of words in the title of the paper seems apt, since the experience of pulling a STEM-associated thread during class can often result in the entire lesson unravelling, such is the endless inherent potential for discussion, enquiry and investigation within the area.
I was struck by the resonances between developing a STEM lesson, as sketched out in the paper, and the analogous practice of planning for creative writing, the germ of both being a problem that requires resolution and this reminds me that the more we can elucidate on the crossover and connections between two seemingly disparate areas, the more we can help our learners think with more acuity and agility.

Ruminating on what STEM looks like in my classroom, I would reflect that, most importantly, it is highly visible. I remember a friend telling me about his fondest memory from Primary School – one particular teacher, who was an avid mechanic, had placed a full car engine at the back of the classroom and in early finisher time, pupils would be allowed to go down and tinker with it. My friend’s eyes lit up when he recounted this and, not only made the learning memory of a lifetime, but provided a platform for the development of concrete, practical and transferable skills. I resolved to incorporate comparable elements into my classroom and, while our safety statement does not allow for a car engine at the back of the room, I endeavour to create retreat areas in the classroom with STEM challenges, brain-teasers, extra reading material and practical tasks, adjacent to the relevant learning objectives.

The ESA resources provide very useful practical classroom content and crucial taxonomic information, divining the oft-mistaken delineation between weather and climate. These resources could be used as a starting point to engage staff, student council and wider student body, with a view to making weather and climate a vibrant, visible component of the school environment. As with so many school wide initiatives, the role of leading can often be as simple as selling an idea through energy, depth of knowledge and awareness-making of why an issue is important to our school and I would see many of the resources and ideas presented in Module 1 as valuable assets in the pursuit of this.

[Author]

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