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Hi John,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper. I am trying to image what a car engine at the back of the room would look like in any school but an amazing opportunity for children to explore all the same. In my own classroom I have the most basic of equipment and resources to allow for STEM challenges, straws and pipe cleaners and even index cards and tape. While it’s not a car engine, it allows for hands on tasks and critical thinking along with being a regulation tool for some.
There are many resources across this course that I hope you can bring back to your own classroom and school in September.
Hi Gina,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on the module.
Using proverbs and weather lore is a great discussion point for children and links well with local history. I asked my class to get weather proverbs from grandparents and older relations and they really enjoyed it and I even learned some new ones myself.
The activities outlined in this module are fantastic resources to explore the concept of the weather and allow for skills development such as prediction as you have mentioned.
Hi Christina,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module.
Light pollution is certainly having an impact on every local area, for children in urban areas they may not see the night sky or realise the impact of light pollution on their area. I really like your idea to link in with family members in other areas and even other parts of the world and look at the night sky from their perspective. This would ideally integrate with Geography too.
The children could also look at the design of the street lights and whether they could be changed to further help light pollution in the local area.
Hi Laura,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module. I really enjoyed the weather lore and proverbs also. I explored other weather lore with my own class this year and they asked older relatives and grandparents for weather lore. They were fascinated. Our favourite one was Rain before seven, fine by eleven. Just in time for our break.
I also agree that children will take ownership of the weather station when they are building and creating their own weather station. I hope you get lots of other ideas among the great resources across this course.
Hi Karen,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module.
It is important to address the difference between weather and climate and I also like this resource as it gives practical examples that the learners can relate to such as weather on their birthday. This concept can also be explored when looking at weather or climate in another country in Geography.
There are many great resources in this module that I myself have used with my own class last year and I hope you will get lots of ideas for your class across this course.
Hi David,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your ideas from module 2. It is important to address the misconception that the moon only comes out at night with children and as you have outlined the date and time where the moon will be visible.
I really like your ideas to develop children’s vocabulary across the lessons and getting the children to use the vocab in context when they are describing the moon in September. This topic also lends itself naturally to integrate with other curricular areas as you have mentioned.
I hope you enjoy the other modules and will get lots of ideas and resources for your own class in September.
Hi Michael,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on the activity to explore the seasons.
There is a lot of topic specific language to explain the seasons and I think you have a nice idea to explore each concept on its own and then use visual aids and activities to bring their learning together. Hands on activities using the globe and light source as you have mentioned would be an ideal opportunity for children to investigate sunlight and seasonal changes themselves.
There are lots of other great resources across this course that you can use with your own class in September.
Hi Caoimhe,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module.
Teaching the difference between weather and climate can be tricky, but I have found this resource great in the classroom to give practical examples such as the weather on your birthday as you have mentioned. It is important to know the difference as you explore climate in other countries in Geography.
Creating a weather station does allow for lots of skills development as you have mentioned and the children can really take ownership of their own learning. They can also use the real life data in Maths.
Hi Zara,
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module.
There are many opportunities to get the class involved in building their own weather station and it gives them responsibility in recording the data. The class could make their own anemometer to understand how it works. A weather station is a valuable resource that all children in the school could benefit from. Best of luck with your own weather station.
Hi Clodagh,
I hope you have enjoyed the modules so far and thank you for sharing your thoughts on these resources.
I have used the Nose High Up in the Sky resource with my own class last year and the pictures were really engaging for them and as you said there is lots of subject specific vocabulary within the lesson also.
Children love to learn about space and it is easily linked with other curricular areas such as English as you have mentioned. I hope you find lots of resources across the course that you can use with your class next year.
Hi Sean,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this module. There is a vast difference between rural and urban areas for light pollution and as our cities and towns expand, the effects of light pollution are also growing. While my own school is in a rural area I hope to use the materials from this course to explore light pollution with my class next year. The light pollution map could be explored for children to see the difference between their area and a contrasting area. I like how you have allowed the children to identify possible ideas to reduce light pollution to encourage them to share ideas and try to make changes.
There are lots of resources across this module to use with your own class next year.
Hi Kerri,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this module. Living in the city certainly has an impact on what you can see in the night sky and the impact street lights have on our environment. I’ve lived in the countryside most of my life and sometimes I take it for granted.
It is important to make the children we teach aware of the problems these street lights can cause for animals and also ourselves. You have great ideas for the children to record their own data on the light levels in the city. By having external speakers it would add to their understanding and make the class aware of changes that could be made.
Hi Michelle
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your own experiences in your post. I liked the idea of the Lego Spike Kits, last year I had the opportunity to borrow Lego We Do Kits from the local Education Centre and it allowed for so much collaborative learning in the classroom, to be honest, I learned just as much as they did. The EDP approach is key to allow the children to take ownership of their design and learning. I like how you would develop this in creating a sundial also.
I hope you enjoy the course, there are lots of activities that could be explored within a SET role.
Hi Michelle
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your own experiences in your post. I liked the idea of the Lego Spike Kits, last year I had the opportunity to borrow Lego We Do Kits from the local Education Centre and it allowed for so much collaborative learning in the classroom, to be honest, I learned just as much as they did. The EDP approach is key to allow the children to take ownership of their design and learning. I like how you would develop this in creating a sundial also.
I hope you enjoy the course, there are lots of activities that could be explored within a SET role.
Hi Deirdre,
Welcome to the course and thank you for your post. It can be challenging in multigrade to find resources that work across multiple classes, but this resource could be used easily with your class and as you have mentioned it will be an ideal opportunity to explore this theme in other subject areas also. The images are very engaging for pupils and allow for lots of discussion that can be differentiated across the different classes in your room. There are lots of lovely resources across this course that can be used in multigrade also.
