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Hi Hollie, this is such a practical question. Transport is something every pupil experiences twice a day, so it should get great engagement. I like that you’re running a school-wide survey rather than just your own class, as it gives a much bigger dataset for comparing car, walking, cycling and carpooling patterns. Linking it to a Walk to School Day as a concrete outcome is a great way to turn the data into action. Would you consider repeating the survey after the initiative to see if the travel patterns actually shifted?
Research Question: Has the amount of green space near our school changed in recent years, and how might this affect local temperatures in our area?
I chose this question because it links nicely back to the satellite and Earth Observation work from Module 4. Students could compare satellite images of our school grounds and surrounding area over time to spot changes in tree cover, green space or paved areas, alongside looking at local temperature data.
My class is a 5th class in a DEIS school with a wide mix of languages and abilities, so I’d keep the entry point very visual and hands-on rather than text-heavy. We’d start with a walk around the school and local streets to observe green space firsthand, then compare it with satellite images from a few years back — a strong way to include pupils who find reading dense text challenging.
Groups would take on different roles (observers, data-recorders, presenters) so everyone can contribute regardless of language level. To conclude, groups could propose one small action such as a planting project or a green corner in the yard. Students can present it to the class using posters or photos rather than relying solely on written reports.
Hi Patrick, great to see you had similar experiences with Orbitrack being a bit tricky to navigate. I found switching to a tracking website easier too. It’s interesting how many of the satellites overlap with mine (NOAA and ISS especially), which really shows how much weather/climate monitoring is going on above us at any given time.
I liked that you’d already discussed the ISS with your 6th class and that they knew a good bit about it. Did that prior knowledge come from a specific lesson, or just general interest?Using a satellite tracking website, I looked at some of the satellites that have recently passed over Ireland;
International Space Station (ISS): A crewed orbiting laboratory where astronauts carry out experiments in biology, physics and Earth observation, and one of the easiest satellites to spot with the naked eye.
Sentinel-2A: Part of the EU’s Copernicus programme, this satellite captures high-resolution images of land, forests and coastlines, supporting agriculture, water quality monitoring and climate change tracking.
NOAA-20: A weather satellite that collects data on clouds, storms and ocean/land temperatures to improve forecasting and monitor long-term climate trends.
Starlink-30845: One of thousands of satellites in SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, providing high-speed internet access, particularly valuable for remote and rural areas.
CryoSat-2: An ESA mission measuring the thickness of polar sea ice and ice sheets, giving scientists key data on how climate change is affecting the poles.It struck me how many of these tie directly back to the climate monitoring theme running through this course.
Hi Eimear, I really like the idea of pairing the HOME excerpts with something local like the Liffey. Using a river running right through your town makes the pollution issue tangible in a way global imagery can’t. It also sets up a nice link between the film’s contrast of pristine vs. industrialised landscapes and something students pass by regularly.
Did you find any local pollution reports or data pupils could actually look at, or would this be more of a walk-and-observe type investigation before moving into action steps?HOME is a striking video, and the aerial photography really does capture both the beauty of the planet and the scale of the damage human activity has caused. Like others have said, I think showing the full film would be far too long and, frankly, too bleak for primary aged students. The pacing and some of the more advanced content on the origins of life would go over their heads and risk overwhelming them rather than informing them. I’d select two or three short, carefully chosen clips instead, tied to themes we’ve already built up through the weather and climate activities (deforestation, fossil fuels, water use), rather than showing it as one sitting.
For my DEIS 5th class, I’d anchor the video clips in prior learning from Activities 1–3 so pupils already have the vocabulary (greenhouse gases, emissions) to make sense of what they’re seeing. Given the mix of backgrounds in my class, I’d also make sure discussion connects to pupils’ own experience of their local area rather than only global imagery, so it feels relevant rather than distant.
I’d finish with something practical and positive, for example a class pledge or a link to our Green Schools work. This would leave students with a sense of agency rather than helplessness.
Hi Leanne, your point about local context is spot on. Global averages can feel quite abstract for pupils, so tying the projections to things they’d notice themselves (local flooding, hotter summers) would make the data land much better. I also like the record sheet for best-case vs worst-case scenarios; it gives you a tangible artefact for comparison and discussion afterwards. Ending with the eco-idea task is a great call too, it keeps the lesson action-focused rather than leaving pupils feeling like there’s nothing they can do. Did you find the tablets easy for pairs to share, or did some groups need more device support?
Activity 3 is a strong follow-on from Activities 1 and 2, moving pupils from observing weather to reasoning about long-term climate change. The Paxi video gives an accessible entry point into the greenhouse effect, which is important for my 5th class given the range of English proficiency and prior knowledge in the room. The visuals and simple language mean pupils who might struggle with the vocabulary alone can still access the science.
The prediction tool is where the real learning happens. Letting pupils compare low and high emissions scenarios turns an abstract idea into something concrete and numerical, which fits well with the data-handling skills built in Activity 2. I’d run this in small mixed-ability groups so stronger readers can support others with the graphs and terminology.
Given my school’s DEIS context, I’d be conscious that climate change can feel like an overwhelming topic, so I’d make sure the lesson ends with a concrete, achievable action in the form of something the class agrees to do together (litter picking, an energy-saving pledge) rather than leaving pupils with just the data.
Improvements: a simplified glossary of key terms (emissions, greenhouse gas, scenario) for pupils with weaker English, and a paper-based version of the tool’s outputs for anyone with limited device access, since not all children may have used similar tools at home.
Hi Hollie, I really like the whole-school weather station idea, it’s a great way to scale Weather Detectives beyond one classroom and get real cross-class collaboration going. Splitting responsibilities by age (younger classes observing/drawing, older classes measuring rainfall, wind, cloud cover) is smart differentiation and ties in nicely with Liston’s point about STEM as integration rather than isolated subjects. Sharing findings through displays or assembly also adds a genuine communication/audience element that’s often missing from classroom-only data projects. Would you build in a rotation so pupils experience different measurement roles over the year?
Reading Liston (2018) reminded me how easy it is to reduce STEM to “S” and “M” in practice, especially in a busy DEIS classroom where time and resources are tight. Engineering and Technology often get squeezed out unless I deliberately build them in.
Activity 1, “Is it weather or climate?”, worked well as a discussion starter. Sorting the statements gave pupils a concrete way into an abstract distinction, and linking it to their own experience (birthday weather, local climate) made it accessible even for children with weaker English or background knowledge – useful in a multicultural classroom where “climate” back home might look very different to Dublin’s.
Activity 2, “Weather Detectives”, was the stronger STEM task: real data collection, graphing, and calculating averages gave genuine purpose to the maths, and pupils had to reason about anomalies rather than just record numbers.
For my class I’d stretch Activity 2 over a full month rather than a week to get more meaningful data, and pair mixed-ability groups so language and maths skills support each other. I’d also add a simple engineering angle – designing and testing a shelter for the thermometer – to bring in the “E” that Liston argues is missing, and a picture-based recording option for pupils who need less text-heavy worksheets.