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Hi Michelle,
I think this question is a great way in introduce being a climate detective to a class. It is basing their enquiry directly within the school and this will help to keep them interested and motivated. It also touches their every day lives and is a great way to get the class and whole school aware of their responsibility when it comes to reducing waste and being more conscious of the impact we all have on our environment.
My research question would be ‘Has there been an increase in the number of vehicles on the road in the past 10 years and what effect could this be having on our climate’.
I would begin by using the ESA lessons such as ‘Nose High up in the Sky’ ‘The ice is melting’ and ‘Earth under the Lid’ to teach about weather and climate. This set of lessons also teaches about the greenhouse effect. We would with questioning and discussion around the topic of human involvement in green house gases and I would elicit what the know by questioning and asking them to draw a mind map. I would then explain that we will be doing a study where we will all become climate detectives. I would put the children in groups and we would each have a job for the purpose of the project. We would start by doing a survey within class to see how many households have a car. I would ask the children to survey their parents and find out if they had a car growing up. We would use this as a starting point to show that there are more cars on the road than when our parents were growing up. Next we would take a survey of the vehicles passing by our school over a 5 day period. The children would count each vehicle that passes by in a certain time frame. We would record this data and create bar charts and graphs to present this. The children could then go online and do research to find evidence of increased car sales, purchase of cars and other vehicles and use this to compare to numbers today. We would then use the c3s edu demo to look at emissions in Ireland historically, today and into the future. We would discuss the possible outcome if our emissions continue to rise and the children can think of ways to we could contribute to lessening this number, paying particular attention to the emissions from vehicles. From here we will analyse our data, organise our data and draw our conclusions. We would make a presentation to the school at an assembly and try to raise awareness of how we can help. Hopefully, the children will come up with ideas like walk to school, take the bus, cycle, car pool etc. We could create a campaign where we encourage the children to walk to school on Wednesdays.
I have to agree Catherine, I often find worksheets that accompany some lesson packs to be overwhelming and try to do too much at once. The lessons and resources in this activity are well thought out and practical for use within the classroom and the worksheets are clear and straightforward.
I think its great when there is an opportunity for integration in a topic. This aligns nicely wit the new primary maths curriculum and the fact that the children are learning maths in a real life meaningful setting. It is also a very enjoyable and fun learning experience for the children.
5 satellites that has passed over Ireland recently:
1-Starlink Satellite constellation. This is owned by Space X and its purpose is to provide internet access.
2-Meteosat-11 This satellite scans Ireland every 15 minutes to take infrared images for weather forecasting.
3-Eirsat-1 This satellite conducts scientific experiments and educational outreach.
4-International Space Station (ISS). This habitable space station conducts research, hosts astronauts on board and orbits earth collecting data. It passed by Ireland today.
5- Cooper 00065. This satellite is owned by Amazon and provides global broadband internet access.This was a really interesting task and I was amazed to see the sheer volume of satellites in space all at once. I think that this would be a fantastic classroom activity. The children could monitor the course of satellites over a duration of time. Its important for them to recognise the diverse work they are doing up in space, providing services, collecting data and ultimately keeping a watchful eye over our planet.
I have to agree with you, I dont think this is a topic that can be covered in a couple of lessons and then move on. It would be much more effective to revisit this topic often, keep an open dialogue about it and monitor the news for events that are happening in the world that can be lined with the topic.
I found this module to be very thought provoking and at times worrying. The first video Climate Aid 2020 was harrowing. It was definitely delivering a clear message about the effects of climate change on our planet and it evoked a strong emotional response in me. I think for this reason it is not suitable for the classroom, a bit too stark and upsetting for children. I do think its a great video for teachers to watch before teaching this topic, for their own information. The Home movie was powerful. It brought us from the beginning to the here and now in a simple and visually powerful way. It really showed the connection humans have had since the beginning to our planet and how over time our greed has affected our landscape. This is a very long video but could be worthwhile showing a class over a period of time. I think I would start with the Greta Thunberg video for introducing the topic to the children. Hearing the facts from a child’s mouth would be more engaging for them. Greta is very powerful in her convictions and gets her point across in a clear way. I think this video would open the conversation about the effects of climate change on our planet and with the aid of some suitable videos and images this could be further explored. I would draw the children’s attention to all the changes we are already making by showing them Irelands Climate action plan and we can discuss the changes we can make in our daily lives to contribute to saving our planet. The key message is that we are all responsible and we all need to take action.
I think that is a great idea, to use recent events to engage the children in the topic. I’m sure they will all have seen news and footage of the fires in California recently and this would be a very relatable way to teach the topic.
Activity 3 is a very interesting topic to cover in the classroom. It is a complex lesson, you would need to have done a lot of background work on weather and climate before beginning. I would check for understanding of concepts about weather, climate, weather zones etc before beginning. The Paxi video is excellent for introducing the greenhouse effect and green house gases to the children in a very simple child friendly manner. It is important to check for understanding with the children after watching. Recap on what is a greenhouse gas, what effect can they have on the climate and also the other negative effects that can happen when we produce too much. When the children are confident in their knowledge, I would move to the next teaching point. I would ask them how scientists make predictions about our climate in the future. In groups the children could come up with ideas and share with the class. I would then explain to them that scientists use observations from the ground, air and space along with computer programs to make these predictions. I would introduce the tool for predicting future temperatures and model and explain how to use this as a whole class. Then I would put the children in groups with different scenarios to explore using the tool to predict future temperatures. I think the use of ipads would be fantastic here and I would give each group one to work with. The data can be downloaded from the website in advance so this would be another option if ipads are not available. The conclusion of the lesson is for each group to come up with ways to reduce our temperature by reducing our emissions. The need to think of ways this could be done. Explore this at a local level and a global level. Ideas can be shared by groups making a short presentation to their class mates.
All classrooms are a melting pot of cultures and I really like your idea to include this in your study of weather and climate in the classroom. It fosters a meaningful interest in the different climates and zones in the world and fosters inclusion in a really positive way.
I found this module to be very clear and informative. The ESA resources are very engaging and child centered and present the topic of weather and climate in a fun, hands on manner. The first set of lessons Nose Up in the Sky, are a great way to teach children about weather in a way that engages all of their senses. I liked the use of weather proverbs to open a lesson but as I teach first class, I would adapt this to include some YouTube videos and songs also to open the discussion. Setting up a weather station with the children is a wonderful idea. It has always seemed like a big undertaking for me with limited time for covering the curriculum but I feel it would be a very worthwhile activity the children get to use STEM strategies such as problem solving, predicting, data gathering and analysis and communication to work together to complete this project. I think that building their own anemometer and letting them take charge of their learning is very important. Keeping a journal or log of their findings allows them to notice weather patterns first hand.
The second set of lessons are also very well presented and the resources provided look to be practical and easy to use. The whole school could get involved in monitoring daily temperatures and this could be communicated daily by intercom. The student council could get involved and make a presentation about climate and weather and the findings from our observations at a school assembly.
I definitely agree that this lesson is more suited to the upper end of primary school. I liked the way you planned to integrate the drama and art into the STEM core of the lesson. It has great scope for engaging the kids and great cross curricular links can be made.
Describe how you could implement a version of ‘Design your own Dark Skies Place’ in your school/classroom.
I would begin by revising topics previously visited regarding light pollution and biodiversity. I would ask the child to tell me what a dark sky is and have they ever seen one. We would then look at various online resources such as Dark sky reserves such as Kerry international dark sky reserve, Mayo and Davagh Forest Park. We would together brainstorm reasons why these areas make good dark sky areas. We would then consider light pollution and the effects it has on our night sky. We would discuss the factors affecting light pollution and ways we could combat this such as using warm light, angle light downwards, use only when needed and direct light to be used only when needed. I would then use the worksheet guidelines from ‘The Dark Skies Assessment Guide'(module 3) to help direct our plan. We would choose an area of the school by surveying and mapping the area around the school and doing an inventory of how many street light, lights from the school building, outside sensor lights, cars etc are around. We would then choose a space that we think has the least amount of lighting. We could then brainstorm ways to improve this area so it creates a more dark sky friendly approach. We could look at things such as wattage of bulbs, quality of fixtures, turning off lights when not needed. When we have our research complete and have decided on a plan of action we would set about putting it into place. The children could be divided into groups and have responsibility for things like making posters and sharing awareness, speaking to the school and getting everyone on board, involving parents and the wider community. A night time camera could be used to test the results of our work and we could use it to monitor the sky at various times of the year.
I think bringing a guest speaker in to talk to the children is a great idea. It nice for them to learn from the experts and it gives the children a deeper understanding of these topics.
How would you engage learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity?
This is a vast topic to teach in a classroom. Firstly the children would need an understanding of light pollution and what that it and its negative effects. This should be done by watching videos, discussion and surveys that the children can do at home when it is dark. I would then introduce the theme of biodiversity. We would discuss what this means and watch some videos to explain the concept. We are lucky in our school, although it is located in Dublin, we have lots of green areas on the school grounds and we are near to parks and in particular the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. In order to engage the pupils, we would do a study of the different bird, animal and insect species we have around the school and local areas. I would give the children ipads to take photos of creatures/animals we find, they can make drawings and we would collect some specimens of minibeasts to look at and examine. We would then discuss what nocturnal animals are and I would use the ESERO lesson 30 to assist my teaching of this. Using native irish creatures such as bats, we would explore the impact that light pollution could have on these creatures and we could come up with ideas on how we could help to reduce light pollution in our home/school environment. There is a multitude of resources available online and at local level to support the children discovery of this theme. We could also try to include ways to encourage biodiversity around our school by creating a wildflower area, bug hotel, bat boxes and bird boxes to name just a few.
