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Hi David,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper and the resources in this module. Liston reminds us of the importance of addressing all areas of STEM together rather as stand alone and it sounds like while you have been focusing on skills such as observation, communication and early scientific thinking you have been addressing the areas of STEM in play based approaches.
For the younger classes, as you have suggested, these lessons can be supported with the use of picture books and visual supports. Even opportunities to dress the teddy for the weather as it would make connections between the weather chart and real life. In saying that, while it may be a focus in junior classes to focus on the weather every day. I must remember to focus on weather more with the senior classes to develop prediction and communication skills. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Elaine,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for your feedback on the Paxi video. It does clearly outline the concept of greenhouse gases. You can then choose to pause the video at different moments to allow for class discussion and even get the learners to create a mind map while watching the video to record and share their learning.
The Teal tool would allow for lots of learning opportunities, from getting information on temperatures in the past, present and future. Learners could also gather real life data to create their own trend graphs or bar charts. For other younger learners, a worksheet, as you have suggested, would guide their learning and use of the tool. It is always important for the learners to reflect on action they can take in school, at home and in their wider community to ensure meaningful connections.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Mark,
Welcome to the course. It is great to see you have downloaded the satellite tracker. I hadn’t realised that there was a link between the robot lawn movers and satellites overhead but you can see how the broadband satellites would link in with this also. But as you have mentioned, a learning opportunity all the same.
I have tracked the ISS with my class and watched their live feed but I hope to explore satellites a bit more during space week where some learners will check and record the satellites at the same time each day for sharing with the class.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Lauren,
Welcome to the course and thanks for your feedback on the documentary Home. The documentary is engaging with lots of imagery and clips that could be used in the classroom. I agree that shorter clips would work well for the learners and it also allows for the teacher to choose topics relevant to the class at their level and with their interests in mind.
I really like your idea to run mini investigations and research about different parts of the world from the video. It will give the learners agency and allow them to be autonomous over their learning. It does allow for a variety of skills as you have mentioned also.
I hope you are enjoying the course.
Hi Denis
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper and the resources in this module. I also really like your approach of no questions allowed time in the lesson to encourage the learners to problem solve with their peers and think critically about their activity. I think I will also give this a try next year with my class.
It is important to teach vocabulary first prior to these lessons, this could be within the oral language lesson in English. Once the learners have acquired and understand the different terms, it helps them to engage more with videos or more technical investigative parts of the lesson.
I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Barbara
Welcome to the course and it is great to hear your feedback on the resources for this module. I think the Weather or Climate is a great lesson, even for senior classes, to address the concept of weather and climate.
Creating a weather station with the senior classes allows them to take total ownership of their learning, from creating the weather instruments to recording the data and share with the wider school. As they get familiar with everything they can share their own predictions also. It is definitely something I must look into with my own class next year. While we have recorded data over shorter intervals, maybe we could look at data over a longer term.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Niamh,
Welcome to the course. It is great to hear your feedback on the resource in this module. Having used it with my own class, they really enjoyed working with the satellite images and comparing the different images. It allowed for lots of discussion and critical thinking. As you have outlined, this approach allows for active and playful learning opportunities which is part of the new STEM and SEE curriculum. Thanks for sharing your feedback and thoughts on school self evaluation.
Hi Richard,
Welcome to the course, there are so many satellites that pass over Ireland and I too have focused on the ISS with my own senior classes and next year I will focus on the other satellites that pass over on a daily basis. It is also fascinating to see the different roles each satellite has whether it is for internet, weather forecasting or images of the Earth’s surface. Like you, this is something I will look into with my own class next year, maybe during Space Week in October. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Fionnuala,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the documentary Home. I agree that it is important to present the information in a solution focused manner as there can be a level of anxiety among children about global warming and its effects. I think it is also important to choose different clips from the documentary that you feel are suitable for the learners in your class. As you have suggested you can then focus on action that the learners can take whether it is at home, in school or in the local community.
I hope you have enjoyed the course.
Hi Sandra,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your observation plan with your 4th class. It is important to get the learners to stand in the same spot and as you have suggested, marking it with chalk. You could also consider the poles, trees, houses or other man made items to guide their observations, is it closer to the pole now, has it moved from behind the tree? Just some examples.
I like how you are planning on measuring shadows and comparing the length of shadows across the day, this will also be a great example of real life maths and making connections between maths and science and the skills of using a compass to find the direction also. Great ideas, thanks.
Hi Anne,
Welcome to the course. This module does make us reflect on the night sky around us, our experiences as a child, I also grew up in a rural area, and what the learners in our classes can see in the night sky, or cannot see if they are in an urban area. I agree that the wonder and awe of the night sky can be lost among busy urban areas due to the artificial lighting.
For our learners, it is important to recognise the sources of natural and artificial light and identify what can be done in the local area to improve the use of artificial light – such as down lighters and showing the learners in the class the differences between the different types of lights and how they can help biodiversity at night. This would also help to guide their research on how it impacts their own local area. There are lovely ideas to guide your learners and support them in their research, thanks for sharing.
Hi Niamh
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your moon observation lesson ideas. I like how you are planning to cover this across different lessons such as Art and allow the learners to show what they have observed and learned using a mixture of media.
I also like how you are planning for a series of morning observations which can address the misconception with the young age group that the moon only comes out at night. While your dates are all within the last quarter of the moon phases, you could consider other dates to identify other phases of the moon.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Shannon
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your moon observation lessons. I like how you are planning to complete your own observations of the moon initially, this will allow for lots of discussion and critical thinking. This also provides an introduction to learning about the phases of the moon as you have outlined. Finally, using Stellarium to guide observations and encourage the learners to make comparisons between what they have observed and what it looks like on Stellarium will make great connections between the digital resource and real life observations. Great ideas!
I hope you enjoy the other modules in the course.
Hi Marie,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper and also how this could be reflected in the sundial lesson. It is important to make real life connections when engaging in STEM topics. I like how you are planning to look at telling time in history initially, this would allow for real life links but also critical thinking and making connections with life in the past.
There are also other cross curricular links such as Geography and Maths as you have suggested and I agree that giving the learners ownership of the investigation would engage them fully and allow them to make their own meaningful connections with what they know already and real life scenarios.
I hope you enjoy the other modules.
Hi Irene
Welcome to the course. Thanks for the information on light pollution in county Kerry. There is lots of information on the impact of light pollution on wildlife and also the impact on humans in your post.
For the purpose of this task you are also asked how you could engage the learners in your class about this topic. You could consider where your school or you, yourself are located. You could reflect on lighting or light pollution in your local area, Are there opportunities to identify light pollution specific to the school or local area? Are there opportunities for the learners to view lighting in the school grounds or in their local community and ask if they could be changed to protect noctural animals and biodiversity. It is important to make the learners aware of the impact of light pollution but also action that can be taken.
