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Hi Rachel
Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper. It does encourage us to reflect on our own teaching and whether we are allowing more curiosity-led investigations rather than following a worksheet as you have mentioned.
I like how you plan to investigate the sun’s position in the sky to incorporate maths by plotting results on graphs and developing this with digital graphs also. It encourages the learners to use maths in purposeful and real-life scenarios and as you have said real world application too. Many thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Paula
Welcome to the course. There has been lots of lovely ideas for map making shared in the forum and for your second class exploring the area around them and as you have mentioned going out on a walk with the class to collect items would be a great starting point. They could then create a 3D map such as the one on the video with Una in this module and then use this to design their own map on paper. As you have also mentioned it it’s important to show the pupils that maps can show the same place in different ways. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Siobhan
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your ideas to plan observing the moon with the learners in your class. The Paxi video would introduce the learners to the concept of the phases of the moon prior to the observations. In my own class last year for Space Week they had a project and one option was to create a 3D model to explain the phases of the moon, there were some fantastic responses, really creative and it really showed what they has learned. The timeanddate.com is a great resource in helping you when to plan for these observations. I also really like how you plan to record their observations and their learning in a Moon Observation Log using photos or sketches.
Hi Rebecca
Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your teaching idea with the World Wide Telescope. While I haven’t used this resource, I have used Stellarium with my own class and they have been fascinated, some also went online at home to help them explore the night sky. I think both of these are a great resource to share with parents to engage them and support them in helping their children with night time observations. I think it is a great idea for the learners to send in photos of the night sky, or of them exploring the night sky to share with the class so they can show their observations and share their learning.
Hi Kathy
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your plan to observe the sun’s movement in the sky. It is a great activity to get your learners outside and observing and noting specific details such as the sun’s location in relation to landmarks. You have mentioned using a compass and could consider naming the landmarks relative to their location such as the big tree in the east. Parents could also download a compass on their phone or device to help their child with this activity at home. I agree that a human sun dial would also be a great activity on the yard. I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Brian
Welcome to the course. It is great to hear your feedback on the resources in this module. They do allow for a mixture of creativity, outdoor learning and science inquiry which is a great approach to engage all learners in our classrooms.
I agree that the learners would enjoy the activity to compare their ‘weight’ on Earth and on Mars which would also integrate well with Maths. I hope you enjoy the other modules and find the resources beneficial.
Hi Cian
It is important to elicit what the learners know about Climate Change as this may influence the clips or extracts from Home that you could show the pupils. I agree that it is important to highlight to the learners that they themselves could be active participants in change as you have said. A larger project could involve collaboration with other classes in the school to promote this also.
Hi Miriam.
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your plan to observe the sun’s movement in the sky. It is a great idea to use the CCTV footage for sunrise and sunset to ensure continuity and also allows the pupils to use familiar landmarks to note the changes in the position of the sun. Similarly you could also screenshot the footage to have pictures for the pupils to compare. I also like how you plan to develop links with home in supporting observations of the sun at home and the template you have suggested will help this too.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi John.
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing the examples of cross curricular lessons for STEM.
However, you are reminded that the purpose of this assignment was to explore and reflect on the activities outlined in this module. Have you explored the Weather and Climate resource? Is there any activities you have listed that could be further explored within the topic of weather and climate? Perhaps you could revisit this resource and ensure that your post aligns with the assignment for this module.
Hi John
Thanks for sharing your research question. However, this assignment is to outline a plan of how you would explore this research question with the class and plan for activities to engage your class in this research project. Perhaps you could revisit your post and ensure it aligns with the assignment for this module.
While there are lots of examples of plants blooming earlier each year, you could consider how to explore this with your pupils relevant to their local area. The Climate Detective Project runs over a short time frame, so you should also ensure your research question is achievable. The Climate Detective Research question planner may help with this.
Hi Anita
Thanks for your feedback on this module. You are very fortunate to have lots of opportunities to explore biodiversity in the local area of your school. I am also going to get my class involved in the Birdwatch Ireland’s Garden Bird Survey, I think it would be engaging and an example of real-life citizen science for the class. I also will be integrating it with maths to ensure connections and purposeful use of maths in light of the new curriculum.
Hi Orla.
Thanks for sharing your feedback on this course. It is a wonderful idea to try and get the whole school involved in exploring the heritage of your local area. Some classes may focus on different aspects or areas as you have mentioned and there are many great learning opportunities as classes can share their learning. There are so many opportunities for skills development in this approach.
Hi Orla.
Welcome to the course. What a great idea to explore the different bridges in your local area from both the past and the present. Going on a trail in the local area will also give pupils to explore local bridges from an engineering perspective. Having visited Carrick-a-Rede Bridge myself, I only think of it from the fear perspective rather than the engineering and on reflection it would be a good activity in the classroom to create a similar bridge. I also like how you are planning for collaboration with the whole school to share their knowledge and learning.
As you have mentioned, there are lots of opportunities for meaningful and purposeful integration with maths to explore 2D shapes, 3D shapes, lines and angles. It will allow the pupils to use these maths skills with links to real-life. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Siobhan
Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your thoughts and reflection on your own practice and the paper from Liston.
As teachers we can all focus on the science experiments as our STEM but as you have said STEM is a holistic and integrated approach to incorporate all areas to make it interconnected. It is great to hear how you will apply this to your own teaching such as exploring solar panels for renewable energy which will be a good starting point for you. I hope you enjoy the other modules in this course.
Hi Deirdre
Welcome to the course. I am fascinated to hear all about the different projects and initiatives you have engaged in. I had applied to do training and receive a 3D printer but was put on the waitlist. Reading your post has increased my interest in this area. The use of the 3D printer is STEM at its best, problem solving in real-life scenarios and then actually developing and creating a solution too.
There are so many initiatives that we can get involved in as teachers such as Science Blast, Junior Entrepreneur, STEPs as you have mentioned and each has their own approach but I agree that the ESERO and Curious Minds framework has it all in one and it can be adapted as needed for other curricular areas.
Thanks for sharing your own experience and your feedback on this module. I hope you enjoy the other modules in this course.
