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In teaching the children in my class about stars, I would begin with the marbles activity in the Lots and Lots of Stars resource. This would be my introductory discussion with the class. The children would then create their starry sky pieces of art, using A4 paper painted to look like the night sky, and then splatter painting with white or yellow paint to represent the stars. I love the idea of representing the Plough in 3D to show perspective. However, I agree with the narrator of the Module that infant classes would be too young to do it as described in the video. I would use precut straws to help the children create the 3D models. I would also incorporate and integrate the topic of stars into several subjects and lessons. In English, I would use Wishing Upon a Star as a creative writing prompt for the children to discuss what they would wish for. We would also learn and recite “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”. In Maths, stars can be used for counting, simple addition and subtraction, shapes, comparing (bigger or smaller), and several other topics. In P.E., I would incorporate stars into a warm up game, where the children would carry out different actions according to my instruction (star jumps, fast as a shooting star, etc.). Thematic learning is a fantastic way to embed and reinforce learning across a range of subjects.
Learning about the moon is a great introductory point to exploring space with younger classes. Children will already be aware of its existence and the fact that it goes through a cycle every month allows the children to observe frequent changes in its shape as well as its position in the sky. I would use several resources from this Module in a unit of learning about the moon. I would start with a general class discussion on the moon to ascertain what the children can tell me about it. I would use a mind map with pictures to show this. We would then recite and learn the Man in the Moon poem. In the next lesson, we would watch an appropriate video on the moon landing to prompt further discussion and imagination on being an astronaut. This would be used as the theme for our Aistear activities for the week, including Role-play as Astronauts, Small World play using astronauts, and construction activities building rockets/ spaceships. The main body of this lesson would be the Make your Own Moon project in the activity set. The third lesson would introduce the phases of the moon. There would be some direct teaching here but this would hopefully be heavily influenced by the children’s questioning. I would introduce the worksheets tracking the phases of the moon each week, and the children would complete the first week’s entry. This would continue in discretionary learning time throughout the month. The final lesson I would do with the children would be part of a PE lesson. The children will do the |”Dance the Phases of the Moon” activity from the activity set. This unit of work would provide a great introduction to exploring space while keeping the lessons fun, active, and child- centred.
Hi Gwen, I really like your inquiry- based lesson idea. It is visual, uses concrete materials, and encourages the children’s imaginations.
A relatively simple inquiry- based activity that I have done with several classes involves predicting and then observing the comparative speed with which ice melts. In younger classes, I tend to keep the predictions fairly simple. The children will predict which will melt the ice more quickly, warm or cold water. With older classes (usually 3rd class and up), I have added some complexity. With this activity, we have four bowls of ice (usually I colour the ice with food dye and use molds to make the ice into interesting shapes). One bowl is left alone completely and the second bowl of ice has salt added to it. The third bowl has the ice in fresh water and the fourth bowl has the ice in salt water. The children are then asked to predict the order in which the ice in the bowls will melt. Usually, there is a mix of predictions, with some children believing the water will make the ice melt more quickly, while others predict it will make the ice melt more slowly. However, nearly always the general consensus is that salt will make the ice melt more quickly. This is true for the first and second bowls, as the salt will melt the ice in the second bowl more quickly than the ice in the first bowl. However, interestingly, the ice will melt more slowly in salt water than in fresh water. This realisation makes the class discussion on our conclusions very interesting, as the children develop an understanding of how different properties and circumstances can affect how materials react to their environment.
Hi my name is Mark and I will be teaching 5th class this year, however, I have recently moved from a senior school (3rd to 6th) to one that has junior infants right up to 6th. Therefore a course specifically dealing with teaching junior classes appealed to me.
My favourite space fact is one popularised by Carl Sagan. It is that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on all of Earth’s beaches. While I have since heard that this may not be true, I still love it and use it to try to contextualise the vastness of space to the children in my class.
Hi Emma, I really like that you have found a way to use your stimulus in multiple curricular areas. The idea to use it as a basis for a creative writing piece is very interesting.
John Tyndall was a famous scientist from Carlow, whose various discoveries, inventions and innovations have been incredibly influential. One particularly noteworthy discovery that was made by Tyndall was that water vapor and carbon dioxide absorb and radiate heat, and that different gases absorb different levels of heat. His experiments in this area (along with those of Eunice Foote) effectively proved the Greenhouse Effect, which set the foundation for our modern understanding of not only this, but also climate change, meteorology, and weather. With climate change being such an important topic in all schools, John Tyndall’s scientific contributions provide an amazing starting point to any units of work or lessons on the Greenhouse Effect, sustainability, and maintaining biodiversity.
John Tyndall’s work also involved significant study and experimentation involving clean air (or “optically pure” air). He invented what came to be known as “Tyndallisation”, which was a way to effectively eradicate bacterial spores. He also invented a much improved respirator for firefighters. His work on clean air would provide an excellent introduction to lessons on air pollution.
Tyndall is also renowned for his work on diamagnetism. This is the study of properties that are repelled by a magnetic field. Therefore studying his work would influence a unit of work on magnets and magnetism.
Amongst his many achievements, he is also known for the explanation of why the sky is blue – the scattering of light by small particles suspended in the atmosphere. This colour is known as Tyndall Blue. This information can be used in art or science lessons.
There are many more inventions, discoveries and innovations that John Tyndall contributed to the worlds of science and physics. There’s even a crater on the moon named after him.
This sounds like a fantastic and detailed lesson on bridges. I especially like the idea in the extension activity of having an engineer and/ or architect come to the school to discuss how what the students are learning will apply to real life outside the classroom.
In two different fifth classes in different years, I have conducted design and make projects on building bridges. We used the study of several famous bridges for inspiration. These included the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco, the Ha’Penny Bridge in Dublin, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia. I selected bridges that I felt the most of the students would recognise and that were visually somewhat different. In future projects/ challenges I will incorporate the bridge in Birr Castle Demesne. We began with a whole class discussion on bridges: what they are used for, how they are designed, what sort of properties and materials are required for a bridge to be effective and safe, etc. The children were then divided into groups of four or five, and tasked with designing a bridge on paper, deciding which materials will be most suitable, and ultimately constructing a bridge that will be able to hold up various weights. The children had relatively free reign to choose materials from around the classroom, the art cabinet, and the assortment of “junk art” materials that we had been gathering over the previous months. Initially , we used coins as weights, but the bridges were so effectively built that the children wanted to try their copies and some groups were even able to balance their school books and dictionaries on their bridges. The projects effectively reinforced maths that the children had learned in several topics, including shape and space (labelling the shapes and angles used), length (measuring the length/ width/ height of the bridge), and weight (weighing the coins and other materials that were placed on the bridge).
Hi Catherine, it sounds like you have some fantastic natural resources for outdoor learning in biodiversity in close proximity to your school.
Using the 5 Senses approach and conducting a scavenger hunt are great ideas.
Conducting a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the whole school year would be an interesting and rewarding way to educate the children in my class on biodiversity. In the past, biodiversity has been covered in a unit of work at a particular stage in the year (usually Autumn). This has meant that the children have had firsthand experience of biodiversity in only one stage of the year, and would have to imagine/ predict changes through the seasons. Committing to an entire school year plan would allow for the children to see biodiversity in the local environment in all its forms throughout the year and in the different seasons.
The primary and, in my opinion, most important resource in biodiversity is the outdoors and nature itself. Finding a location for outdoor learning that is safe for the students to regularly visit, and is unlikely to be disturbed by humans throughout the year, is essential to effectively completing a biodiversity project. Bringing the children out on a weekly or fortnightly basis to observe and compile reports on the area would be fantastically beneficial to the class. I would use checklists and resources such as Birdwatch Ireland’s Garden Birds Survey, the Irish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, and the Trees in Different Seasons information booklet. Another resource that I would refer to frequently would be the Curious Minds lesson plan on Biodiversity Through the Seasons. Investigations from this resource such as designing and making a bird feeder, and recording pollinators would ensure that interest and enthusiasm was maintained throughout the year.Hi Jane,
I wholeheartedly agree that map making and map reading are overlooked, particularly in junior classes. This is such a pity as they are important skills that can be beneficial throughout their time in school. I like the idea of using a treasure map as a prompt for a lesson such as this.
Conducting a lesson on map making with junior classes is something that would involve some significant planning and several materials. Initially, I would have the class working as one with me to design a map of the classroom on the interactive whiteboard or on an A1 sheet of paper. We would discuss what furniture is in the classroom and where it is located in relation to other pieces of furniture. This would extend to the children working in groups to construct a 3D map of the classroom using a variety of concrete materials, such as Lego, Stickle bricks, small world sets, art supplies, blocks, etc. They will use the image on the whiteboard/ sheet of paper as a reference point if needed, but I will encourage the students to observe and explore their surroundings themselves. I would follow this up in a subsequent lesson by taking the children on a Nature Walk, during which the children will be encouraged to observe the route. Following this, we would use Google Maps to find the school, and then try to plot out the route that we took during the Nature Walk.
STEM is something that I have tried to engage with in my classroom quite frequently over the past few years. I have been an advocate for greater engagement with and embracing of STEM in many staff meetings and have on occasion found myself swept up in “STEMMania” as Maeve Liston’s paper calls it. However, this article has shown me that quite often my lessons have not fully encapsulated all the characteristics of STEM and could have been more accurately described as science or technology lessons, with some elements of other subjects integrated almost as an afterthought. Very often, my class will conduct experiments at the end of a unit of learning, almost as a fun conclusion to the learning and work that has been covered on the topic. While this has been a beneficial and enjoyable practice, I wonder if the prescriptive learning that the children have undertaken prior to the experiment has impacted their freedom to think critically and use their own initiative and innovation. In future STEM activities, I will aim to introduce experimentation and problem- solving at an earlier stage. One thing that I really liked in the article is the Engineering Design Process chart. I will utilise this in future activities and lessons.
