[Lorna Young]

For this module, I chose the assignment based on researching a famous scientist associated with our local area and how I could use that person for inspiration for classroom investigations. As I mentioned in previous forum posts, we are very lucky in my school to be located close to the Dunsink Observatory which has played host to a variety of wonderful scientists. One of the most important is Sir William Rowan Hamilton. Although the topics studied by Hamilton are very advanced for infant school pupils, there is great information about the famous scientist on the website askaboutireland.ie. This would be used as an introduction to his work and his home at the Observatory. The Dunsink Observatory has wonderful resources for children on their website to help teaching about the planets. The children could engage in investigations about our moon and its phases. This could be started during winter when it may be easier to see the sun during the day. Home school links could be made by asking children and parents to look at the nights sky such as using constellation charts available on Mayo dark sky’s website too. The topic could then be linked to play time as the children make their own observatory or space station and integrated into art activities to consolidate their learning.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Rachel,
That sounds like such an interesting lesson. The children would have so much fun with it and could be really nicely linked to other areas of the curriculum. We often used the song ‘The Yellow Submarine’ as inspiration for thematic learning during summer in senior infants in our school. You could integrate the arts through learning about the song and paining images through a porthole etc. I might borrow your lesson since I now know the engineer was Irish too! Thanks!

[Lorna Young]

For this module, I have chosen the make your own bridge activity and have adapted it for the infant classes. My school is very fortunately located close to Broombridge where Sir William Rowan Hamilton famously wrote his formula for quaternions. Although the concept is far beyond the infant class levels, they are aware of the famous mathematician, physicist and astronomer who lived up the road in Dunsink Observatory. As part of the lesson, the children would look at photos of local bridges, take a class trip to visit the famous Broombridge and investigate the shape and hypothesise why it was necessary to build. On returning to the classroom the children could design their own bridge on paper in groups. They will then try to recreate the bridge using classroom toys such as Lego, duplo, wooden blocks, mala and lollypop sticks or magnetic tiles. Maths skills could be incorporated into the lesson by looking at how many sticks were used or how tall is your bridge or how many Lego figures can walk across? The children could then have fun evaluating their bridge by using a lego figure or small car to test its durability and structure.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Anna,

This sounds like a really fun lesson for both the older and the younger classes. It would be a lovely activity to do during engineering week and its especially interesting for the children considering they live close to the wind farm. I never would have thought to use the little red hen as inspiration and an introduction for the infant classes.

[Lorna Young]

In this module, I chose to use the identification tools and resources to identify some species of plants and animals in our local school environment, record them with the national biodiversity data centre and to outline how I would get my infant class involved in a citizen science project. I would start this task by using ‘the wild connections flora trail’ activity guide from Birr castle to try identify flora in the local school environment and the tree council of Ireland to identify local trees. I would then take inspiration from the Birr flora trial and create a school flora trail for the children to use both this year and in the future. By creating a scavenger hunt style activity the children generally become more enthusiastic about a topic and engage more readily. We could then record some of the species we found as part of a science citizen project.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Yvonne,

I also really liked this idea. I think giving points for items found is a great way to make the activity a bit more competitive and they will actually really engage with the activity. Letting them know if you have added a few decoys would certainly help their critical thinking and observation skills.

[Lorna Young]

I decided to describe how I would plan and conduct a lesson on map making in the infant classroom for this assignment. As a precursor to the lesson on map making I would introduce the idea of using a map from two stories that are often used in the infant classroom. These are ‘What the ladybird heard’ which has a map of the farm and the story Spinderella in which the spider gives a birds eye view of a classroom, both of these books are written by Julia Donaldson. The heritage in schools 3D map making video could then be used before taking a walk around the school and to the local park. We could then use Google maps to identify the different areas we will visit before starting our walk or to decide the route we will take. It would also be useful to show the birds eye view concept with children as they view our school from above. The children could then gather materials on their walk to make a 3D map version of their walk on returning to the school garden. It would be lovely for the children to look at each others maps and have explanations by each small group.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Yvonne,

I really like the idea of using both the natural material map and also the LEGO version of the map. With some children that are exceptionally creative with LEGO in my class it would be a really interesting idea. It would also be lovely to make a giant map using other classroom materials such as duplo, straws and pegs etc. I think the children would sometimes be even better than us when it comes to being creative with designs and the resources they have to hand.

[Lorna Young]

I read the article by Dr. Maeve Liston for this module task. I thought it was a very interesting read and really made me think about activities that I have labelled as STEM in the past when teaching. These activities, even though I had the best intentions of completing a STEM lesson, were probably better labelled as Technology or Science lessons. I think the description she used to describe a STEM activity is something I will be much more aware of and I will definitely try to integrate more engineering into my lessons. As stated in the article ‘Engineering is the glue that integrates science, mathematics and technology and forces them towards a workable solution’ and gives the great example of how a pen is technology showing that technology doesn’t always have to mean involving online work or an iPad. I think this article would be a great intro for staff to read before the new curriculum is used in our schools.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Katie,
I totally agree, inquiry based learning is so important and it definitely does help encourage life long understanding and love of science. The resources on the curious minds website are fantastic. I am looking forward to trying the rainbow spinner activity in my classroom.

[Lorna Young]

There are a wealth of different songs/poems and some art pieces that could be incorporated into lessons to utilise integration of the subjects. As a school we teach the children about space and the nights sky thematically in November which is a great way to get all children interested in space and chatting about it in the yard etc. It would be great to have a working list of artistic pieces we can incorporate into lessons. Here are some I can think of.

Songs or poems – Twinkle, twinkle little star, fly me to the moon, star light star bright, I see the light, when you wish upon a star, all the story-bots space themed songs, Zoom, zoom, zoom, were going to the moon etc.
Art work – Starry, starry night and the Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh.

Although it is not a painting or star related specific song as such there is a beautiful video created by three astronauts from the international space station featuring the song ‘The sound of Silence’ that the children in my class have been obsessed with every year I show it. It features images and videos taken from the ISS and its just beautiful. We use it as inspiration every year https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgBKFEeXfww

[Lorna Young]

Hi Catriona,
These are all great ideas. I actually found it quite hard to think of artwork that might have space or stars as a main feature but that’s a great idea to include aboriginal artwork and would be a really nice relaxing activity to create their own artwork inspired by these gorgeous pieces. Also great idea linking it into the nativity, we generally use November to teach about space in school so that would be the perfect time to link into the next months theme of Christmas.

[Lorna Young]

Exploring the biodiversity of the local area would be a lovely activity to do with the pupils in my infant class. Although the school is in a very built up urban area, we are very lucky to have a wonderful park within a five minute walking distance from the school that we regularly use for nature walks and play time. The children could spend some time learning about the types of animals that may be found in the local areas from minibeasts to foxes and squirrels in the classroom before venturing out to investigate the local environment with a visual checklist. A nice home school link could be made by asking the pupils to bring their visual checklist home and investigate what minibeasts or nocturnal animals they might they find at night at home with their parents. When this is completed we could discuss the impact of light pollution on these animals seen linking back to the possible previous lesson discussed in module 3.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Catriona,

That is so lovely that you have so much access to nature in your city based school. I would love to try establish this in my own school. We have a small very underused garden but I think adding some flowers, a bug hotel and some bird feeders to this spot might be a nice start. It would make a great spot to do a minibeast hunt. Interviewing the caretaker is a great idea and something I think the children and the caretaker would probably really enjoy! This is something I think the children in my school would love to try too.

[Lorna Young]

Hi Laura,

I think you are totally right. Children have totally become accustomed to light pollution because it has always been a part of their life. That’s such a lovely idea to compare what the children see in the nights sky with what children might see in a different part of the country such as near a dark sky area. The stellarium website would also be great to look at to see what they actually should be able to see in the night sky without light pollution.

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