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Living and teaching in Rush, I have noticed our night skies getting much brighter. The council recently changed our streetlights to energy-saving LEDs. While this helps save energy, these bright lights cause light pollution. They hide the stars over the Irish Sea and upset local coastal wildlife.
To help my fifth class understand this, I would give them a nighttime science project. For homework, the children will look at the sky from their back gardens to find a famous group of stars, like Orion. They will use a simple chart to count how many stars they can actually see through the glare.
The next day in school, we will combine everyone’s findings to make a map of the brightest and darkest spots in Rush. This gives them a real-world look at how our choices affect our local environment.
Observing the Moon: Predict and Prep (In Class for 15 mins): Explain that the Moon is visible during the day. Teach them the “fist” method: holding a fist at arm’s length equals roughly degrees of altitude. Identify South and West using a compass or local landmarks.
2. Observe & Measure (In Yard for 15 mins): Go outside between 9:15 AM and 10:30 AM during a Third Quarter week. Face South/South-West. Once students spot the Moon, have them stack their fists vertically from the horizon to measure its height (e.g., “4 fists high”).
3. Record & Reflect (In Class for 20 mins): In their SESE science journals, students sketch the Moon, ensuring the left side is lit and the right is shaded. Use a lamp (Sun) and a white ball (Moon) to model why they only see a half-moon, linking the outdoor observation to orbital patterns.
I would explain to the children that through the tube activity, the students will experience how the force of gravity varies around the solar system by feeling how the weight of a familiar object, a tube of crisps, would change on different planets.
I would give the list of materials needed to the children:
• One full 200 g crisp tube (or similar)
• Seven empty crisp tubes (of the same size)
• Sand or rice
• Scales (for measuring in grams)
• Tape
• Labels
• Newton meterAfter a demonstration of how to construct the tube, the children are put in pairs to start making the tubes themselves. The children then hold and feel the weight of the tubes representing other planets made by other groups and compare their own to them. They discuss what this means in relation to planets as a class discussion. The children write in their investigation booklets about their observations and results.
Coastal erosion is a major scientific and natural process that has occurred in Rush over time. The children see this continuously through the jagged coastline, weathered rocks, collapsing cliffs, and shells and stones left on the beach. I would discuss with the children that this is due to the force of the waves hitting the rocks but also through chemical reactions.
I would connect this topic to the arts in multiple ways. I could explore this topic through art as the children could create a diorama of the north or south beach incorporating different stones and materials they collect at the beach to display the jagged coastline created by the waves. The children could paint the inside of the boxes before adding in the outdoor materials and afterwards do a walking gallery of each other’s dioramas. There could then be a class discussion on the similarities and differences between them.
It could also be linked to music as the children could discuss how waves sound and times when they might sound louder than others (e.g storms etc). The children could discuss what impact this has on erosion. The children could then use musical instruments in groups to create a piece that best describes the sounds of the waves and surroundings on a beach at different times. They could incorporate louder noises on drums for example to symbolise a cliff falling etc to display the erosion taking place.
I really enjoyed your take on the policy statement. I also found the mirror writing activity interesting and will be incorporating it into my teaching in the coming year.
There are many concepts and skills you have learned in this module that I can apply to my own teaching practice that are in line with the STEM Education policy statement. One concept highlighted in the statement is the importance of integration across the subjects, This is to broaden and strengthen the child’s understanding. I must demonstrate and embody the skills of creativity and innovation to the children as this is an integral part of partaking in STEM and problem solving activities. By displaying these traits, the children will begin applying this to their work. Maths is a major component across the other subjects in the area and so it is important as teachers that we continue to look at things differently and model our maths theories and how to test them. STEM builds on children’s prior knowledge and understanding. As teachers we will find out about children’s ideas through discussion, conferencing, pair and group work, hands on activities and many other ways. This will take patience as a teacher and also scaffolding.
A treasure hunt is a great way to motivate the children in a fun and engaging way to use and assess their knowledge of the school map.
I like that idea of ‘No Mow May’ as I observed many wild flowers on the grass area outside my prefab that would not be in use by the children so I feel like a month of no mowing would make a big difference to the amount of bees we would see.
What an interesting idea that ties into your local area and structures that the children would observe each day. Using recyclable materials is also a great link to caring for the environment which was touched on in the previous module.
Near my school, there is a martello tower. It has very thick walls that are made of bricks, roughly 2 to 4 meters thick. This made them nearly impossible for enemy cannonballs to break. It also has walls that slant inward which helped to bounce enemy cannonballs away. Another engineering feature was a machicolation which is located above the high door. If enemies tried to climb up, soldiers could throw rocks down on them. Another engineering aspect of the martello tower is the layout. The bottom floor stored food and gunpowder and the soldiers lived on the middle floor.
Using this knowledge, the children could design and make their own martello tower incorporating the original aspects but also adding on other engineering tweaks to improve the tower. This could be structurally, adding on building supports, added security, weapons, materials etc. The children could share their projects in the form of an engineering fair where they explain their tower adaptations.
Using the Leaf Identification Challenge tool from Nature at Your Doorstep, I have iedentified some species of plants in my own local environment, more specifically my back garden. I identified alder, beech, oak sycamore, ash, holly and field maple. The tool was clear and easy to use as it had visuals along with the names. I was also able to record these down on my sheet and research them with the National Biodiversity Data Centre. This was a well laid out and informative website where I could find out more information about each type of tree. I would get my class involved in citizen science projects by taking them on walks around the school grounds and local area to identify flora and fauna that are native to the area using scavenger hunt sheets that I saw during the module. The children would then brainstorm some threats to these living things such as littering, weather etc. The children would then break into groups and come up with an action project. They could use ICT to help them with this. The children then put their plans into action and observe and reflect on the differences they make.
For the hands on mapping activity I would firstly ask the children to brainstorm the monuments, buildings etc they know in their area, where they are, what they look like etc. We would share this in a class discussion. I would then demonstrate how to use google maps and Geohive to see the different layers of maps of our locality. I would also bring the children on a walking tour of our locality and allow them to point out the key monuments , buildings etc they spoke about and about their location in the town. Back at the school, the children would be put in groups and using tracing paper and chromebooks, would create maps of different layers of the locality. The children share their maps, how they made them and the layers they used for inspiration on Google Maps and Geohive. The children share what they had in common with some groups and what was different. The children revisit the sites on a walk in the locality, this time with the maps to see how accurate they are to use.