[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Lorraine.

Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your thoughts on Home. It is a powerful documentary.

I agree that it is best to choose different scenes to show the pupils in your class. Every class is different and the response to different scenes could differ. I also agree that this also allows for reflective discussions and critical thinking and also encourage pupils to reflect on action they can take themselves whether at home or in school or in their local community.

I like how you plan to use their learning to create posters to display around the wider school community to raise awareness and inform others about climate change.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Katie.

Welcome to the course. I agree that showing clips from the documentary Home may be more suitable for pupils, it would also allow for discussion following the clip to allow pupils to share their thoughts and also what steps they can take. It is important to focus on the steps they can take individually and as a class to ensure it is positive and about taking action as some pupils can be quite anxious about climate change, from my own experience, as you have said there are different ways they pupils could engage and learn about climate change through project work.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Laura

Welcome to the course. I like how pair a picture book with different activity. I love using picture books with my own class and it does not matter whether they are infants or senior pupils. They can all relate to picture books. I haven’t heard of the book you have mentioned, Climate Action, but I will have to take a look myself. I am not sure if you are familiar with the Green School Book Club where they have different picture books to link with each Global Goal. I particularly like Greta and the Giants from this list.

Thanks for sharing the book recommendations.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Sarah

Welcome to the course

In my own class they have always enjoyed learning about the weather, they have made their own instruments and gathered their own data. I also have weather instruments from school supplies, however I find they like to make their own and take more responsibility when creating their own instruments too.

I also integrate the weather across Gaeilge and we explore weather forecasting using maps and the whiteboard. If you have a greenscreen it is very engaging as pupils can record their own forecast and use images or maps they have made themselves in their video.

I like how you plan to get the pupils to present their work and to use lots of different resources to do so such as videos, maps and photos. I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Keith

Welcome to the course.

Through creating their own weather instruments the pupils will be engaged and take more responsibility for their learning and the data they can collect. There are lots of opportunities for skills development as you have mentioned such as observation, recording and analysing and many opportunities for critical thinking also.

You have mentioned a weather diary over the course of a week and you could consider exploring this over a longer period. You could also consider Term 1 for the first year and alternate the terms in subsequent years to allow the pupils to explore and compare the data from the previous class. I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Michelle

Welcome to the course. It is great to hear that you are providing for lots of active learning and skills development in STEM activities in your classroom.

The weather or climate activity allows for lots of class discussion as you have mentioned, along with critical thinking using the prompt of weather on their birthday. It helps to pupils to understand the differences between the two concepts.

Weather Detectives has always been a hit in my own classroom, giving pupils the responsibility to check the temperature at the same time every day and recording the data that they can then use with their peers to create graphs and recording averages as you have mentioned. It gives meaningful purpose to the maths lesson when they are using data they have collected themselves and it is a great idea to share your findings with the whole school and acknowledge their work. Thanks for sharing.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Amanda,

Welcome to the course, what a great location to have the Phoenix Park near to your school and to explore the wide varieties of habitats in the area.  Your pupils are very fortunate to be able to explore biodiversity in a wide area and also compare it to the biodiversity within your own school grounds. I think getting your pupils involved in citizen science projects will be very engaging and as you have said it will show how they can become contributors to real-world science. I have planned to take part in the Garden Bird Survey with my own class this year to give pupils the responsibility to observe and record the data in their own observation journals too. Thanks for sharing.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Tommy.

Welcome to the course. You have shared lots of data sets that could be used to develop real-life uses of maths in the classroom. I have used data from CSO to generate different graphs and also data from different weather stations on Met Eireann to explore trend graphs and compare the data from each weather station. It is more meaningful for the pupils and they could also record their own data such as the temperature on a daily basis and compare that with Met Eireann.

With the younger pupils, as you have mentioned, it is important to use their own  interests or their local area and how they travel to school is one option. It makes connections to their real life and use of Maths to display this information.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Sharon

Welcome to the course, it is great to hear that you will make use of the Curious Minds framework for inquiry in the coming school year. It does allow for lots of active learning and for the pupils to guide their learning through questioning, critical thinking and investigating. I have really enjoyed using it in my class and the class have also benefited from this approach.

As you have mentioned the investigate stage puts the pupils as central to the learning process and they can guide the investigations and any future investigations that may arise from their own observations and questions. It does allow for a sense of ownership of their learning as you have said.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this framework and I hope you enjoy the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Sadhbh.

Welcome to the course, it is great to hear you have a buddy system in your school. I loved having a buddy system in a previous school and it allowed for lots of collaboration and learning for both the infants and the senior pupils.

I am sure the senior pupils would also learn about the planets in this tube activity while also helping the infants in creating the tubes. I also like how you plan to link with Maths in matching items around the classroom to the tubes whether they were heavy or light.

Gravity can be a difficult concept for the infant classes and as you have said it is a mini unit within a larger unit on Space. Space is always a popular topic not just with the infants but with any class.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Kate

Welcome to the course. it is great to hear how this module has helped you reflect on previous lessons and how to adapt them such as recording the sun’s position by a window in the classroom. Photos are always a great resource to refer back to and could also be used in future classes for comparison or as a stimulus for discussion also. I like how you plan to share them on the whiteboard to allow for comparisons by the pupils and that you are also planning to be more exact with the position and location of the camera for accurate comparisons. Thanks for sharing.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Susan

Welcome to the course. Liston’s article inspires us all to ensure there is real life connections to our STEM lessons and also to ensure it is a holistic approach to STEM also.

I like how you plan to observe shadows across the day and over a number of days. I also agree that taking photos of the shadows they create and note the time for each photo will give the pupils lots of opportunity to compare photos and make their own connections to their learning, it would also allow for lots of critical thinking and discussion. Thanks for sharing.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Aimee

I really like your idea to link with art in creating the city scape. This would allow for lots of discussion and critical thinking about light pollution and also give pupils the opportunity to share their thinking in different approaches. As you have mentioned this would also allow for discussion on how to reduce the light pollution in the area and I like how you plan to use this lesson for persuasive writing too which gives the pupils meaningful purpose for their letters.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Eoin,

Welcome to the course and thanks for sharing your thoughts on the video and resources in this module. I like your plan to create the sundial, I particularly like the use of rocks to represent the location of the shadow at each hour. The use of physical materials like the rock is ideal to encourage critical thinking and discussion among the pupils and make links to a analogue clock. Space Week is in October which would be a great time to explore sundials with your pupils. I hope you enjoy the other videos and activities across the modules in the course.

[Michelle Mannix]

Hi Rhonda

I like your plan to explore the videos with your class, the Paxi video would help the pupils own knowledge and understanding of climate change and then showing clips of Home would support lots of discussion and critical thinking. You could show the clips that you feel are most appropriate for your own class. I like how you are planning to use project work and art to share their knowledge with the school community.

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