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I have read “Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics” and discovered that there are multiple components required to teach STEM to a high standard. The work must allow children to discover and work collaboratively, use technology, and connect with all subjects to allow children to learn through various learning methods and link their work with real life. The resources outlined in this module are extremely beneficial to me as a teacher as I believe I can incorporate them into my teaching to enhance my lessons on Climate and Weather. This will allow the children to gain a deeper, more holistic learning experience. I would seriously consider setting up a weather station in my school. There’s a side yard that is rarely used, which is perfect to set the station up as it wouldn’t be interfered with and out of the way from being hit by footballs on the yard. I would order a number of proper weather instruments, such as a rain gauge, thermometer, and anemometer for the children in my class to use and encourage other classes to make use of the equipment also. I would push for this to be a whole school activity in which each class is given a day in order to visit the weather station and record the weather on their day.
Describe how you could implement a version of “Design Your own
Dark Sky place” in your school/classroom?There is massive potential to undertake a design your own sky place project within the classroom environment. When undertaking this project, it is important to follow a number of steps to ensure the children reach their full learning potential. It is important to go through the relevant terminology with the children associated with dark sky places. This is important to ensure the children have a good understanding and will all be able to contribute to their group projects. The children will be divided into mixed ability groups where they will choose dark sky places from different locations across the world. They will pick one and conduct research on their chosen place using iPads, books, news articles, images, videos and reports. Each group will then choose a suitable location to reconstruct into a Dark Sky Place. The children would make online presentations and explanational artwork displays to accompany their presentations. The groups will present to their peers before presenting to the other classes in the school. If possible I would invite the school officials for the children to explain the advantages of reducing light pollution in our local environment. The children will have come up with various practical ways on how to apply their ideas which the school officials will hopefully consider implementing.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.
To begin, I would facilitate a class discussion about biodiversity to elicit the children’s prior knowledge on this topic. I would then delve into this topic through the use of factual videos, I.T., and presentations to inform the children of the various definitions, flowers and fauna that they will be engaging with over the course of this topic. There is a park with a river running through it within walking distance of the school. I would print out/ask the children to draw a map of the park and mark where they spot animals/insects/flowers on their maps. They would also record the names of the animals, insects and flowers separately. Apps such as iNaturalist and Seek can be used if children are unsure of names. Using separate maps, the children could mark street lamps and lights in the park, and return later on in the evenings and record their observations under the supervision of an adult. We would then compare the results, identifying animals and insects that appear at different times and further discuss why this is so.
A reflective piece on how light pollution is impacting your local area and how you would engage your learners to explore this.
I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a rural part of Cork where the light quality throughout the night was very good. When I looked into the distance in the direction of the nearest town, it was very easy and clear to see the light pollution caused by the streetlights, shops and house lights. I have since moved up the country to a large town, where the effects of light pollution are extremely strong. Teaching about light pollution to the children would be a little bit difficult as the children have grown up in this large town and would find it unimaginable to imagine a clear, unpolluted night sky in the locality. I would show the children older pictures of the town to display how much less unnatural lights there were in the town. I would also show them images of the night sky from the countryside and the middle of the town to discuss. I would also bring the children on a trip to a rural part of the country (south west/west part of the country) so they can witness in person the beauty of an unpolluted night sky.
That’s a great idea using the Oreo’s to portray the different stages of the moon. Will definitely try that out when teaching about the moon!
<span id=”docs-internal-guid-80b7ac74-7fff-ff80-3b43-bbb18c145d1b”><span style=”font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: #000000; background-color: transparent; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;”>Having investigated on various websites, I have discovered the best phase of the moon to observe in the morning is the third quarter, about six to seven days after the full moon. The best time of the year to start the project in Ireland would be the end of September. This will give me three weeks to familiarise the children with the relevant vocabulary and terms. I will teach the children about the various circumstances that affect our visibility of the moon. As we observe the various stages of the moon throughout the year, I would integrate this with art to create models and paintings of the various stages of the moon. At the end of the year, the children would have a complete art display of the different stages of the moon and would be able to explain in detail what causes the visibility of the moon to alter throughout the year. </span></span>
I agree Patrick, this is an excellent opportunity to integrate different subjects in the curriculum and will be exciting to try out next year.
I agree Patrick, this is an excellent facilitator of cross curricular integration which will be exciting to try out next year.
Plan for school grounds to see where a sun dial could be placed.
This activity would be most suited to sixth class in my school. I am fortunate that there is a large field next to the school where this activity could be facilitated. This activity would be carried out at the beginning of the day to enable the children to check their sundials hourly. I would allow the children thinking time to identify both the advantages and disadvantages of this area, and how to overcome the challenges. In groups, the children will identify suitable materials in their surroundings that could be used to create the sundial. They would then gather the suitable materials and construct the sundials in the field. The children will then check their sundials on an hourly basis and record their findings. I would carry out this activity at different stages of the year which would allow the children to see the effects of the different times of year.