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Yes, I agree with you Rebecca, STEM lessons always brings an atmosphere of excitement to the classroom, it encourages curiosity and exploration about the world we live in.
In Module 1, I learned about the Framework for Inquiry, which has four steps: Engage, Investigate, Next Steps, and Reflect.
I can use this in my First Class teaching by letting children explore light and sound through hands-on activities, instead of just telling them facts. For example, children could use mirrors and lenses to find out how light bounces and bends, and even try to make their own simple periscope or spinning colour wheel.
This fits with the STEM Policy, which wants children to be curious, ask questions, and solve problems themselves rather than just listening to the teacher.
I can also connect this to maths, by getting children to measure and record what they find, and to oral language, by teaching new words like “reflection” and “refraction.” I could even link it to art, by having children draw pictures of stars or galaxies, and to history, by talking about the Great Telescope at Birr Castle.
For my 1st class project I would use the trees in the Birr Castle demesne as our inspiration, linking art with the seasons.
Each term, pupils would visit or look at pictures of one tree and make a leaf or bark rubbing, noticing how it changes through the year.
We would talk about Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse, who used photography at Birr Castle long ago to record what she saw around her. Following her example, pupils would draw or take a photo of their tree each season, building up a simple seasonal art display. We would look at the pictures together and talk about what changed and why.
This links Visual Arts with SESE Science, as pupils observe living things and seasonal change while creating and recording their own artwork, just like the artists and scientists who once explored and recorded the natural world at Birr Castle.
This is a lovely project, sharing it with the whole school and even having parents come and visit would be lovely too.
Super idea Mary, the children would have so much fun while learning.. I have often planned the bridges lessons with paper and card but never thought to introduce water, can’t wait to try it out!
As we are lucky enough to be in walking distance of Birr Castle we could visit the suspension bridge there and give my first class children a real, memorable starting point for a design-and-make bridge challenge.
After the visit, we could discuss what a bridge is, where bridges are found, and what shapes keep them strong. In groups, children can build paper bridges spanning a “river” made from books, using the same amount of paper each time, then predict and test which shape — flat, folded, arched — holds the most coins without collapsing. This links directly to First Class maths: comparing and ordering length and height, sorting 2D shapes, counting, simple estimation, and non-standard measurement, using blocks or hand-spans to measure the river’s width and each bridge’s height. Children could compare their model to the Birr suspension bridge, talking about longer/shorter and higher/lower. Evaluating which design worked best then builds early data-handling and reasoning skills, all anchored in a real local structure.
Good to hear you have tried out the leaf identifier app, i will definitely give this a go in September with my class. I will use it myself to re jig my memory too!!
Using Birr Castle’s Wild Connections resources, I’d run a phenology-based project tracking seasonal change. Each term, my first class children could use a simple picture recording sheet (tally boxes, draw-and-label) to log observations outdoors for 15–20 minutes weekly, with a longer nature walk each half-term.
**Autumn:** Minibeast Safari and Tree/Leaf Identification challenges; children tally minibeasts found and sketch changing leaf colours.
**Winter:** BirdWatch Ireland’s Garden Bird Survey; children complete a class bird-count sheet and discuss migration.
**Spring:** Flora Trail cards to spot 20 native plants; pond dipping recording sheets for young pond life.
**Summer:** All-Ireland Pollinator Plan FIT Count sheets and simple butterfly monitoring, uploading class sightings to the National Biodiversity Data Centre.
Integration: Maths (tallying, graphing counts), Literacy (nature diary sentences, oral recount), Art (observational drawing), and SESE (seasons, habitats), building a whole-school biodiversity calendar by June.
I teach First Class and I would begin with a “Wondering” discussion on the mat: What is a map? What might we see on a walk around our school? We would then explore the school grounds, noting natural and human-made features. As our school has very little natural features to it, I would explore the park beside our school. Back inside, groups plan which area to map and what materials to use, before building simple 3D maps using natural and loose-part materials like twigs, stones and gravel. Each group presents their map, comparing it to the real school grounds. To finish, I’d show the class an aerial view of the school on Google Maps, letting them compare their model with a real satellite image, and briefly explore the OS Geohive viewer to see the wider local area. This links hands-on making with digital map literacy.