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That is a fabulous idea of a living wall. Students could also observe the effects of it over the course of the year to see seasonal changes. However, be very careful of foxglove as I’ve seen the effects of rashes and blisters from touching it!!
I really like your idea of the younger classes measuring, comparing and identifying shapes, it shows it can be adapted to all classes.
We are so fortunate that our local heritage centre is right beside our school. The garden of this heritage centre has a beautiful statue depicting the legendary local story of Midir and Étáin. This would be a wonderful inspiration for students to partake in an art or drama lesson. For drama, students could listen to the story (which is on a sign in the garden), and reenact the story or else they could make an alternative ending to the story. For art, there could be many lovely lessons which you could do. As the story involves butterflies, students could make butterflies using materials from the neighbourhood park beside it or else use resources from school. Another art lesson could be of sketching their version of the statue to see the beauty in it through their eyes. This story also relates to a bog trackway nearby and also the local mountain which could also be used in a lesson to do with drama/music on their journey to the bog up the mountain and the sounds they would hear.
I would first start by showing students pictures of different bridges with some famous ones too. We would then discuss what bridges are for and what materials they are made from. I would use the Curious Minds design a bridge resource for guidance. I would show students pictures of a poorly made bridge and a structurally strong one to open them to discussion. I would then ask students to sketch what they think would be an appropriate bridge and why. Students would compare their bridges. Students would then be given resources from our STEM box in school to try to recreate their bridges. This box contains multiple boxes of different materials to support STEM such as straws, blocks, sticks, stickle bricks, etc. Once students have created their bridges they must see how many cubes can the bridge support, in order to see if it is sufficient in holding weight. The students will take note of how many it can hold, then modify their bridge and try again with counting the cubes. This would incorporate Maths into their lesson. They would take note of the amount of cubes it could hold with each attempt/modification and then make a graph to see their success rate. It also is a great way of showing students the effort, time and detail of planning that goes into being an engineer.
You’re right Yvonne, the Wildflowers book is such a lovely idea that would definitely gain students interest. Also the students teaching the other students about the different types of flowers is a great idea as students love to ‘teach the teacher!’
To conduct a seasonal biodiversity project in school all year round would involve making observations regularly, recording your findings and also supporting biodiversity. I would first select an area of the school/local area like the neighbourhood park which is beside our school and easy accessible, while also being full of flora and fauna. I would establish a routine with the students so that they know we are going there once a fortnight at a certain time. I would have students each have a nature journal in which at the start I would stick in checklists, mini beast hunts and flora scavenger hunts to gain interest. The mini beast hunt from Carlow Sports is a great starter for showing students an example of what to look for and how to record their date and where they saw it. This nature journal would also contain pages that students record what observations they saw each visit. Students can then draw pictures of their observations like for example how the trees look in December will be very different to May, so you can integrate art into it too. This would be a great inspiration point for a painting art lesson too in which students could get ideas from their journal. Students would also keep a record of how many of each flora/fauna they saw and this could then be made in to a graph. The data could then be interpreted in a maths lessons where students compare the levels of biodiversity in the area over the months. I feel like the students would love this and they would feel like little David Attenboroughs!
First when planning a lesson on map making for younger classes, I would set out what I want my learning objectives to be such as recognising that maps represent real places. I would then start by an introduction of showing my students a picture of a treasure map to gain interest. I would use the online tool ‘Pathyn’ to create a treasure map of our yard. I would then show students a different version of our yard using google maps and where exactly it is located. Students would be questioned on why we use maps and what can we see on a map.
Next I would have students walk around the classroom to see where things are. I would then draw a simple picture on the board of the classroom from an above view and ask students what each thing is and from that create a symbol key for students.
After this students would then draw their own classroom map, using their symbols as a key. They could then walk around to clarify their map. Finally, I would give students Lego to try replicate their drawing of their map using Lego bricks. This will really give the students a sense of a map representing a real place.This is a great idea. I love how you have combined Green Schools with it to make it more meaningful for the students.
That is very insightful Mary. I think all schools could benefit from following your advice of students learning best when they can touch, experiment and see for themselves.
As Liston, (2018) puts engineering as the foundation of STEM projects in order for them to truly be considered STEM and not just separate subjects, my classroom activities would revolve around this. They would involve real world ideas of engineering. Vasque, 2015 explained the concept of STEM in a simple pen and it is eye opening that you don’t usually look at everyday items like that as technology and the process it went through to get to what it is used for. This concept inspires me to have my students look at items that are ‘simple’ everyday items and to really see the process it would have taken to get to where it is now.
STEM education in my classroom would look like students first researching the topic on which we are doing for example a lesson that we did before the Summer break was on creating boats that float. Students first tested materials on which either float or sink and materials that were waterproof/resistant (Science strand). Next students selected materials and researched different designs of a simple boat that would float (Technology strand). Then the students created their boats using different materials and modifying their boat where needed when testing it in water (Engineering strand). Finally students then put their boat to the test by placing counters on their boats and counting them and seeing how much it could carry before it would sink (Maths strand).