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Hi Irene, I think your question is really great because it is so relatable to the pupils in your school and it makes them more motivated to find out more and get involved. The activities you suggest are very interactive and hands on, and would be suitable for all ages to get involved. Its great then that once your investigation has been complete that you then extend it out to other parts of the county. Pupils are able to use what they have learned locally and apply that then to a much larger area.
The research question I have chosen is: How can we reduce the amount of food wastage in our school and how can this help climate change and the environment?
We have a school canteen that provides hot meals and snacks at small break and lunch for the pupils. However, there is a lot of food leftover at the end of the day and goes to waste. So this question would be of interest to the pupils because they use the canteen daily and see for themselves food wastage and making sure they choose food that they will eat.
Activities that could be done to investigate the questions would include:
Surveys could be done with all the year groups to see who does and does not go to the canteen. Surveys could also be done on the most popular and least popular foods for pupils.
Short questionaries could be given to the canteen staff on food that is popular/least popular and what foods come in a lot of packaging?
Pupils could investigate what types of food are sources locally and what food comes from further afield? Could some steps be made to order food from local shops rather than coming from larger supermarkets that are further from the school?
Brainstorming the importance of not wasting food-how it impacts on rubbish, using electricity and gas to cook the food etc.
Class discussion on climate change and the environment, and how small change that we make in the canteen and the food we do and do not eat will help that.
Small group discussions using some prompt questions such as should there be a set menu in the canteen daily? Do we need so much choice every day or should there only be 2/3 options?
Findings could be brought to the student council and they could make it a school wide initiative to promote making sure pupils try to reduce the amount of food wastage in the school.Having a variety of activities that the pupils can get involved in ensures that all learners can participate to the best of their abilities and learn more about the topic in a fun and hands on way.
These are the satellites I found that have passed over Ireland in the last while:
1. STARLINK-36843 is used to provide broadband internet to residential, business and mobile operations around the world.
2. International Space Station is used to monitor Earth, conduct microgravity research and has a human spaceflight lab. It has four main goals-to conduct scientific research that cannot be done on Earth, carry our deep space exploration, observe space and Earth and ensures international cooperation as space agencies from all around the world are involved with it.
3. Sentinel 1A has radar imaging to monitor land, floods, ice and natural disasters.
4. Aqua is used to monitor waster cycles, atmosphere and climate observations
5. MetOp-C is the European operational weather satellite. It also monitors the oceans and ice, as well as monitoring climate and atmospheric chemistryIt’s amazing to see the amount of satellites that pass over Ireland each day and their roles up in space.
I had no idea that many satellites were passing over Ireland. I know that class would absolutely love monitoring them and seeing what each one does. I’m hooked myself. It’s shown me how very little I know about space and what is going on above us. I think using the websites mentioned above to track various satellites would be a great activity for the pupils. Each group could be given a different satellite to track and monitor what they see daily/weekly.
I think the movie ‘Home’ would be a great resource to have when dealing with the topic of climate change. I think it would suit the older classes more but even with the younger classes some images from the movie could be used and then discussed rather than showing them the movie itself. The pictures themselves help show pupils the real impact of climate change on people and animals around the world and how the environment, people and animals all rely on one another and are interlinked. After watching the movie or looking at some of the images, pupils could discuss in groups some small ways they can help reduce their carbon footprint and help look after the environment more, for example recycling, turning off the tap when brushing teeth, walking to school if they can. While these are small steps to take, if they all commit to it, it can help this problem that little bit more.
Yes I do agree that the movie would suit the older classes, and even then, it would depend on the class and whether they would be able for it. Yes it is very important that they see the effects of climate change on the environment and how bad it is, but at the same time, we do not want to scare them too much. I think some snippets from the movie could be used, it would just take some prep to find does parts before hand.
The PAX video would be very useful as a way of getting the pupils engaged in the lesson. Some vocabulary would have to be taught to them beforehand to help them better understand the video. My aim for the lesson would be for pupils to be able to describe what greenhouse gases are and their contributions to global warming. In groups, they will discuss and come up with some simple ways they can help raise awareness of temperature increases and present their ideas to some of the other classes in the school or out student council.
We are fortunate to have access to the iPads once a week so we could use that time to have a look at the tool for predicting future temperatures as a class on the board and then in small groups on the iPads. Pupils could choose a country and examine the temperature changes for that country over the years. They could then create bar graphs to compare average decades for example. They could also use the website tool to predict what they think temperature changes will be like when they are older etc.Hi Rachel, I also agree that vocabulary needs to be pre taught in order for the pupils to understand the video better and to get the most out of it. I also agree for the need for the lesson to be differentiated to ensure everyone could take part. Even having someone to be a time keeper for the activity or distributor for the worksheets ensures everyone can take part. Mixed ability grouping would be the best option for this activity in my opinion.
Having read the paper by Liston (2018) STEM is about the children being active learners across the curriculum, that STEM is interlinked with all subjects. It is important to link STEM with real world concepts and problems as it makes it more understandable for them. It is about trial and error with engaging in STEM and allowing for the children to test their theories and ideas, and learning from mistakes also. In my class, if pupils are given a task to do, we usually begin with a discussion on the topic, use some open-ended questions to elicit prior knowledge and build some vocabulary. If carrying out a task, some basic instructions may be given but children are the leaders when it comes to the procedures. It allows them to work together to figure it out, developing communication skills and when reflecting after the task, allows for everyone to see different ways of thinking.
For both activities from the Weather and Climate resource, I think it is very easy to use. There is little preparation and resources needed. For activity two, I think it would involve and bit of trial and error when identifying a location for the thermometer but we could have a class discussion on this.Katie, I really like your idea of adding on an engineering aspect to the lesson. It makes the lesson more hands on and you would not require too many resources to build the rain gauge. Pupils could easily gather a bottle and bring in to school and this will allow for more than one gauge to be made. Linking in with maths, pupils can link it to averages, capacity etc. Doing this will also highlight the importance of using maths in the real world and linking it to their own lives.