[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Cian,

Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your feedback on the different activities and resources in this course so far.

Home is a very powerful resource with excellent imagery to allow for lots of critical thinking and discussion, especially among your 5th class pupils. I teach senior classes too, this age group does have awareness of climate change and sustainability and would engage in meaningful discussion after this video as you have mentioned.

I also agree that there can be a level of anxiety in learners regarding climate change and it is important for us all to focus on positive solution-focused tasks and empowering the learners to take action. This can be in the school, at home or in their wider community.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Cathriona,

Welcome to the course. It is great to hear that your enjoyed Activity 3 and how the Paxi video was clear and engaging, and would hold the attention of your 1st class.

I think there is a lot of vocabulary development opportunities in the video and as you have mentioned it is an opportunity for pair or group work to focus on the vocabulary initially. The video does allow for lots of classroom discussion that could be guided by the teacher in the younger class. I like how you are planning to extend the learning further with posters of how the learners could take action, at home or in school, and this would empower them to encourage others to take action, at home, in school or in their local community.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Michelle,

Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your reflection on Liston’s paper and how this applies in your own school and how STEM could be developed.

Thanks for your feedback on the resources and activities in this module. They do allow for connections to real-life examples and problems while also addressing the different areas of STEM. It is great to hear how you will use these resources in your own class next year and how, through project based learning, you will engage the learners in STEM and also 21st century skills.

I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Karen,

Welcome to the course. It is great to see you starting with the vocabulary and discussing the meaning of the word biodiversity with your learners. This will give them a good understanding of biodiversity before they explore the school grounds.

You are very fortunate to have the swift boxes to observe the birds nesting, and watching the swallows going back and forth to the nest, the swift boxes will allow the pupils to see what happens next. While we have swallows nesting in the school, we have seen them passing by the classroom window and now I am thinking of how we could have spent some time watching them and making our own observations.

Exploring the lights around the school through the survey is a lovely idea for 1st & 2nd class and I like how you are planning to make posters to reduce the light pollution. This will encourage the learners to take action and maybe continue this action at home.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Sarah,

Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your observation plan for the moon. I like your starter question to allow for talk and discussion and some critical thinking. It can also help to address any misconceptions such as the moon only comes out at night.

I also like how you will encourage the learners to record the time, date and shape of the moon using labelled drawings. This will encourage the learners to show what they know, some may even be aware of the phases of the moon prior to this task and you can develop their understanding by using the ball on a skewer to represent these phases following the observations as you have mentioned.

Some great ideas, thanks for sharing. I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Aoife,
Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your Globe at Night activities. It is important to discuss the issue of light pollution and its impact on nocturnal animals and insects along with energy use, as you have mentioned, prior to using the app or allowing for the homework task.

I think it is a great idea to encourage observations at home and show the learners how to submit their findings to become part of a larger citizen science programme. This also will raise awareness of light pollution in the home and the local community and it may encourage families to take action of their own to help this.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Mary,

Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your observation plan for 3rd & 4th class.

It is important to go to the same spot on the yard for each observation and you could choose a location where there could be landmarks to help the observations such as trees, another building etc. This will guide their observations and as you have mentioned it is important for the learners to record their own notes and drawings too for comparisons.

I like how you plan to create a timeline or poster for the learners to share their learning on this task. It is engaging and as you have mentioned, it allows for curiosity and also develops the skill of observation. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Tommy

Welcome to the course. Thanks for your feedback on the day and night activity. Thanks for sharing how you would adapt the lesson to suit the learners in your infant class. I agree that you can adapt it to allow for more language and play based approaches to explore day and night at this level.

I like how you plan to explore day and night across the world and introduce the learners to the concept that it can be day time here and night time somewhere else. Lots of ideas, thanks for sharing. I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Patrick

Welcome to the course. It is great to hear your feedback on the activities in this module and how you really enjoyed Activity 2. I agree that this activity gives the learners lots of responsibility of their own learning as they collect and record weather data and this allows them to think and work like scientists.

It is a good idea to record this data over a number of weeks and compare their own predictions with Met Eireann. You could also consider repeating the activity in another season to compare the results such as Autumn and late Spring.

I agree that it is important to differentiate the tasks for the learners and ensure they are specific to the needs of your class. Multiple ways to engage or show their learning would allow for this also.

Thanks for sharing and I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Louise,

Welcome to the course, thanks for sharing your lesson ideas following the Paxi video. As you have mentioned some guided discussion following the video it would allow the learners to understand the causes and impacts of climate change.

I agree the TEAL tool would be most suited for older learners to explore, while I do think it would need some teacher demonstration initially, this would lead to discussion and critical thinking before they explore the temperatures in other areas. I agree that these activities would develop the learners’ awareness of environmental issues.

I hope you are enjoying the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Sinead,

Welcome to the course. I agree that some adults can have misconceptions about the difference between weather and climate and it is important that the learners in our class explore these concepts and discuss each one and the difference between them. The weather v climate resource helps to explore this in a very age appropriate way. As you have mentioned the video resources are very helpful for this. I agree that there are lots of vocabulary development opportunities when teaching about weather and climate and specific terminology as you have mentioned. I agree that there is lots of potential for cross curricular integration too. Gaeilge and An Aimsir is a natural progression and can offer more meaningful activities when exploring it in other curricular areas too.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Helena

Welcome to the course. I can totally agree with you regarding the dismantling of pens in the classroom. Definitely something I saw lots of last year but as you have said it is the learners way of exploring how the pen worked. I like how you are planning to use this as an introduction to STEM next year. It is great to hear your reflection on the roller coasters project you did with your class. It can be nervous giving the learners freedom to guide their own learning but as you have said it can be rewarding to see their finished work and see the learners take pride in their roller coasters. I did roller coasters with my class for engineers week and to see their creations was great. Once we can overlook the noise, there is amazing learning going on.

Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Louise,
Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your thoughts on how the activities in this module can be adapted for the infant classes. I agree that lots of picture cards and oral language would be needed to support their learning.

Activity 2 allows for lots of hands on activities and recording the weather each day, this is also something you could consider in Gaeilge to make more cross curricular links. To make it more accessible you would need visuals as you have mentioned, you could also consider a dress the bear activity to further support their learning.

Great ideas, thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Deirdre,

Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing the satellites orbiting earth now. It is fascinating the number of satellites orbiting us and the different roles each satellite has also.

I agree that learners would really enjoy tracking them and I think this would be a great idea during Space Week in October and get students to check at a specific time each day to allow for comparisons across the week.

I hope you are enjoying the course, thanks for sharing.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Blaithin,

I think it is a great idea to use all the information and knowledge from the different activities across this module in designing a model of a dark sky place. I can see how the information on light pollution and biodiversity for nocturnal animals along with star gazing and spotting planets is brought together by the learners in a meaningful way in designing their dark sky place.

I like how you will integrate with literacy in creating stargazing tips and checklists too. As you have mentioned creating this plan will allow for creativity and will help learners appreciate the beauty of the night sky.  Thanks for sharing, I hope you have enjoyed the course.

 

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