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Hi Kevin, I like the idea of reading the story Aliens love underpants as a stimulus. They would find that really engaging at that age and it would get them thinking about what they already know about aliens
I would begin my singing the 3D shapes song to recap on the different 3D shapes covered in infants.
I would then play a guessing game- which 3D shape do you think we are going to talk about today? I might give them a hint- it can roll, it can’t stack, it starts with the letter ‘s’.
I would then gather the children’s previous knowledge on planets, see what planets they can already name. Then I would play the planet song from this module and let the children sing along.
The children would then be probed on the idea that the Earth is round, or spherical, how can we stand on it if it is round? I would use the teddies, as suggested in the module, stuck to the globe with tape. This would prompt the children to question the ‘up’ and ‘down’ fixation with the shape of the Earth.
The class would then complete the Earth mosaic activity, and we would assemble in the middle of the classroom. After walking around the circle, the children would notice that there is no real ‘up and down’ when it comes to the Earth. It is a great activity to teach all about how the Earth is round
That does look like a great activity Nicola, thanks for sharing. I will definitely try this shadow activity with my infants next year!
The inquiry-based activity I would use in my infant classroom would be an activity I used before called -umbrella for teddy-. The prompt was that teddy forgot to bring his umbrella to school that day and it was raining so now he needs to find a material to use to keep him dry. This created a lot of interesting discussion within my classroom. The children gathered materials found around the classroom that they thought would be a good choice to keep teddy dry. I had also gathered some materials from home such as kitchen paper, tin foil, cling film and cardboard. The children had to predict which materials would work best and then carry out the investigation in groups. I gave each group a pipette to use to drop the water on their chosen material. They then recorded through picture, the material that they thought worked best to keep him dry. They really enjoyed this activity and using the class teddy as a prompt worked well to engage their interest.
Hi Fionnuala, I like your idea of using a rocket as a stimulus. Children at that age would find that very engaging and I’m sure it would prompt many questions. I also think the flying the rocket activity would create a great sense of excitement and competition which is fun!
Good morning,
My name is Laura and I will be teaching junior infants in September. My favourite fact about space is that there are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on the beaches on Earth. Looking forward to the course!
There are lots of great initiatives in my local community to promote sustainability such as the Tidy Towns initiative. It is brilliant to see lots of members within the local community out on a Saturday morning helping keep our area clean.
Within my school, our Green Schools committee plays an important role in our whole school community. We have worked hard over the past number of years to earn our Green school flags for all of the various themes- our latest being the Global Energy theme. To earn this flag, the children and staff made a conscious effort to minimise our energy consumption. To link in with sustainability, we reached out to a local engineering company who specialise in solar and wind energy. A member of their team kindly came into the school to educate our students on the importance of sustainable and renewable energy. We felt very lucky to be part of a close knit community where people were willing to give up their time to educate our students.
We also use the PickerPal programme in our school. It is a great initiave and the children are always very enthusiastic about litter picking as a result!
I remember growing up learning about the food pyramid in school and I vividly remember the importance of fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat but I don’t remember seafood being mentioned. After completing the slides in module 4, it is evident that there is a lot more research on the benefits of seafood now then there would have been in the past. I found it interesting that Portugal, also on the coast, consumes so much more seafood than Irish people.
Reflecting on my own teaching, I can see lots of opportunities to integrate this learning into my lessons. Nutrition in science, graphs on food preferences in Maths, and the importance of sustainability in the fishing and aquaculture building industry in SPHE.
Hand-on activities are always an engaging way of learning, especially in the younger classes that I teach. One activity that worked well for me this year was making healthy food plates using fabric and fibre. The children really enjoyed using their creative thinking skills to come up with the different kinds of food they could make using old fabric, felt and string. I don’t remember seeing much fish, but this could be something I could get the children to make next year.
Hi Rachel,
I like the idea of children getting to taste the different kinds of seafood in school- with parental consent of course. I feel that a lot of children are not exposed to seafood at home so this would be a great opportunity for them to taste it.
The ARC online lessons and resources are a powerful tool to use in the classroom. They highlight the importance of inquiry-based and collaborative learning in STEM. Reflecting on my own teaching practice, I can see how these approaches would encourage greater student engagement by encouraging children to investigate and ask questions. Although probably mainly focused towards the senior end of the school (I teach junior infants), I can see how they could be adapted to use in younger classes too. I can imagine my class from this year being very intrigued by the topics as they enjoyed STEM and investigating. The resources align well with the STEM Education Policy Statement as they promote creativity, thinking, problem solving and collaboration.
On a whole-school level, STEM education can form an important part of the SSE progress and an area that my school will be looking into soon. Some ideas for review might be gathering evidence through student and teacher voice, classroom observations, teacher reflections. A lot can be learned and shared through teacher discussion.
Hi Jessica,
Completely agree with your points here. The resources strongly support and encourage the children’s sense of curiousity and probes them in questioning and investigating. This is significant because these skills are promoted in the new STEM curriculum. We recently had a science inspection from the department and they were really looking for children’s engagement and sense of questioning. These resources therefore would support the new curriculum strongly.
Module two outlined the location of aquaculture farms in Ireland. I knew that they were primarily on western coastlines but I hadn’t thought about the significance of the location in bays and inlets as there is more shelter there from the Atlantic ocean.
These aquaculture farms support local communities both directly and indirectly. In direct ways, these farms create so many opportunities for work. Surveying is one role that is very significant in these locations. From underwater and seabed surveys to surveys focusing on conservation efforts in the area, lots of research is needed. Other jobs such as skippers to drive the boats and workers to pack and sell the fish are also very important. Some interesting roles include workers to turn the oyster nets at high tide and workers to feed the salmon daily. Aquamarine farms are evidently a big operation and very important in local communities.
Indirectly the businesses can collaborate with Irish colleges and universities on marine science and aquaculture research.This can lead to universities offering apprenticeships and internships to students. They can also indirectly lead to the government investing in roads and infrastructure in the area which benefits the local communities. It also brings in tourism to the area which is always a benefit economically.
Hi Paula,
I agree that you made some very valid points here. I also live on the coast but never considered the huge effect aquaculture has on local communities. I found the content in module 2 very interesting, especially the content highlighting the different roles involved in aquaculture in Ireland, specifically on the west coast.
This module opened my eyes to the significance of BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mara) and informed me about the different projects that it hosts- such as the ARC. I was not aware that BIM hosted programmes for primary schools. I’m sure bringing the Aqua Culture Remote Classroom (ARC) to any school would bring lots of enthusiasm and excitement for learning. The cinematic feel to it would be very engaging for students and I’m sure very educational. The workshops, while suitable mainly for older classes, integrate so many areas of the curriculum such as Geography and SPHE. Aquaculture is not something I have personally taught too much in the classroom yet, hence why this course interested me. We are so lucky to be close to the sea in Ireland and through bringing in workshops such as the ARC, helps children appreciate their surroundings more. With BIM being just a few minutes drive from my school, it is definitely an experience I will look into trying in the future.