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They say every day is a school day. I didn’t realize Francis Beaufort was from Navan. That’s amazing and just down the road from is here in Louth.
I love the idea of a collaborative art display. Lovely way to include the whole school into a topic.
I would teach the children about Peter Rice, an engineer from Dundalk who worked on famous structures around the world, including the Sydney Opera House, Pompidou Centre and Louvre Pyramid. Learning about a local engineer would make STEM more meaningful, as the children would discover that someone from their own area had made an important contribution to engineering. They would then have the opportunity to become engineers themselves through a series of practical investigations.
1. Introduction
I would begin by showing photographs of Peter Rice’s work and asking, “What makes a building or bridge strong?” The children would make predictions before carrying out their investigations.2. Which materials are strongest?
The children would test materials such as paper, card, lollipop sticks, straws and cardboard to see which could hold the most weight. They would record and compare their results, developing an understanding of fair testing and data collection.3. Can we make paper strong?
The children would investigate how changing the shape of paper affects its strength. They would test flat, folded, rolled and concertina shapes by adding weights and observing which design was strongest.4. What makes a strong bridge?
Using what they had learned, pupils would design and build bridges across a gap. They would predict, test and redesign their bridges based on their results.5. Can we build a tower?
Children would work together to build the tallest, most stable tower using limited materials, exploring balance, stability and weight distribution.6. The Peter Rice Challenge
To finish, groups would design and build a structure to solve a real-world problem, such as a bridge, shelter or tower. They would present their designs and explain what they had discovered about forces, materials and structures.That’s a lovely child friendly way to use the Three Billy Goats Gruff Picture books are great for exploring new topics in STEM!
<p style=”text-align: left;”>I like the idea of using maths in the lesson as well. It ties in nicely.</p>
I would use the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge as a real-life example of a suspension bridge. I chose this bridge because I have visited it several times and have my own photographs from these trips. I think using personal photographs will make the lesson more meaningful and encourage the children to engage with the topic. We will discuss why the bridge was built, how it is supported by strong cables and why it is safe to walk across, introducing the ideas of tension and gravity in a simple, child-friendly way.
The children will then take part in a whole-school STEM Bridge Challenge. Working in mixed-age teams, they will design and build a bridge that can span a 50 cm gap while supporting as much weight as possible. Before building, each group will sketch its design, choose suitable materials and predict how successful it will be. Materials will include lollipop sticks, string, card, paper, masking tape and recycled items.
Once the bridges are completed, we will test them using small weights and compare the results. The children will discuss what worked well, what they found challenging and how they could improve their designs. The activity will integrate Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Visual Arts and Oral Language while encouraging creativity, collaboration and problem-solving. We will finish with a “Bridge Exhibition”, where each team will present its bridge and explain the thinking behind its design. I hope this challenge will inspire the children to see that engineering is creative, practical and all around us. We could even organize a tour with one of our older classes to visit the bridge as a celebration of learning about the bridge.
I’ve Junior Infants too and this sounds like a lovely idea. To tie in with your polinator theme you could create bee cups with the senior and junior classes made out of clay to put around your flowers. If you google them, they will show you what they look like. They’re essentially just little dishes that safely collect rain water for the bees to drink out of. They are shallow so there is no worry of drowning. Think they would look cute in a garden!
This souns so lovely. Did the school reach out to the centre or did they approach the school. Would be a lovely activity to organise!
Outline how you would use some of the course resources to conduct a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the school year. What resources and recording sheets would you need? How often would you bring learning outdoors? How would you integrate other subject areas?
I think that a seasonal biodiversity project is a lovely way to help children connect with nature while watching it change throughout the year. In our school, we are lucky to have a mature hawthorn tree in the playground, so this would become the focus of our project. Starting in September, we would photograph the tree each season and chat about the changes we notice in its leaves, seeds, bark and the wildlife around it. This is normally something I do anyway with Junior Infants in their workbooks but this definitely makes it more memorable. It is a simple but meaningful way to introduce children to phenology and show how the seasons affect plants, insects and birds.
We would use a range of fun resources to support our learning, including the Tree Council of Ireland’s leaf identification challenge, BirdWatch Ireland’s Garden Bird Survey and the Irish Wildflowers guides. Magnifying glasses, clipboards, iPads and apps like Seek would make our outdoor investigations even more exciting. Each child would keep a simple nature journal where they could draw pictures, record observations and look back at how nature changed over the year.
I would aim to bring the class outdoors at least once a month, with shorter “noticing walks” whenever the opportunity arose. These regular visits would encourage children to slow down, observe carefully and become familiar with the wildlife in their own school grounds. We could even submit some of our findings to the National Biodiversity Data Centre so the children could become real citizen scientists.The project would link naturally with many other subjects. In Science, we would investigate habitats, plants and seasonal change. In Maths, we could count birds, tally insects and create simple graphs. English lessons would include nature stories, poetry and oral language, while Art would involve leaf printing, observational drawing and creating seasonal displays. STEM activities might include designing bird feeders or bug hotels for our school grounds.
This project would also fit perfectly with our Green Schools programme. The children could help create a pollinator-friendly area, plant native wildflowers, take part in No Mow May and monitor bird feeders during the winter months. By the end of the year, they would not only have learned about biodiversity but also developed a real sense of pride in caring for their local environment. I think projects like this help children realise that some of the most exciting science can be found just outside the classroom door.I like this idea of them looking at the school on the whiteboard but was also thinking how fun it might be to have a print out of the school and getting them to highlight bits they recognise in their groups. It’s very simple but would be affective to get them to engage and really try to figure out where locations are in the school!
I remember Rosie’s walk from college but I completely forgot about using it to explain journeys to children. I suppose you could also do something similar but use “We’re going on a bear hunt” either. Lovely idea!
I went with the 3rd task. Creating a plan on map making for younger classes. I actually did this last year and it worked out well. I started by integrating this map making lesson with our maths lesson on spatial awareness. This is where the concept of a birds eye view was introduced and discussed. I then began the geography lesson by gathering the children on the carpet and discussing what a map is and why we use maps. Using the GeoHive website on the interactive whiteboard, I zoomed in from a map of Ireland to our local area and then to the school. The children identified familiar places such as the school, playground, roads and nearby landmarks and discussed what they noticed.
After exploring the map, we took a short walk around the school grounds, where the children observed key features of the environment. Back in the classroom, the children created a simple map of the school using basic shapes, drawings and symbols. Together, we developed a class key using simple pictures to represent features such as a tree, gate and slide.
To conclude the lesson, the children shared their maps with a partner and explained the route from the classroom to another location in the school using positional language such as beside, behind, left and right. The lesson developed the children’s early mapping skills, observation, oral language and digital literacy and they really enjoyed the flow of the two lessons.
Love your lesson idea Louise. It seems especially relevant after the crazy weather that we had this Summer to do a “Climate detectives” lesson. Makes it current and relevant to the students which I feel is a big draw to encourage classroom engagement.
I agree I am also excited to start using the ESRO website to help with STEM lessons. With the new curriculum change its great to get resource suggestions like this that are practical and that you know will help with lesson planning.
One of the aspects of this module that I found most engaging was reinforcing the idea that STEM is about much more than learning scientific facts. It encourages curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving and can be combined with numerous subject areas. By connecting science lessons to places that are part of our own heritage, pupils are more likely to develop an interest in the subject and appreciate its relevance to everyday life.
In my own classroom, I would try to use Birr Castle as a stimulus for hands-on learning experiences. Before completing the module, I had not realised the important role it played in the development of astronomy and engineering. It highlighted for me how local history and heritage can be used to make science more meaningful and relevant for children. Pupils could investigate how telescopes work, explore the properties of light through simple experiments, or examine the biodiversity in their local environment to make meaningful connections with the natural world. I myself am an active learner and, maybe I am biased, but I believe children learn most effectively when they are actively involved in their learning and can relate new concepts to real places that they encounter daily.
