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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.
Hi Triona,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Liston’s paper and how we can reflect on our current practice to improve the teaching of STEM rather than individual subjects. It is important to ensure meaningful connections across the different areas of STEM, this could be done in more project based learning.
The resource One year on Earth allows for lots of discussion and as you have suggested allowing the learners to create their own model to demonstrate and share their learning. I also like how you plan to include digital learning and using simple data to address all areas of STEM. As you have mentioned this would allow for lots of skills development from the curriculum but also for collaboration. Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Caoimhe,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and reflection on your current practice in light of Liston’s paper. I agree and find that my own class are always more engaged when they are discovering things for themselves and often while I may have the lesson planned, their own thinking and reasoning can at times lead us in a different direction as they explore their own ideas.
I think using a fixed object in the yard will be a great help in guiding their observations and looking at where the sun is in relation to the item. You could also consider a tree, pole, even chimney of nearby building as a focus point when observing the sun’s location. I also agree that focusing their observations will encourage them to reflect on something they see every day and haven’t thought about it.
Thanks for sharing, I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Diarmaid,
Thanks for sharing your project idea on Roscommon. I really like the concept of the noticing walk and encouraging the learners to collect sound snippets on their devices. This would be a great stimulus for the art lesson also.
It seems like you have many areas to incorporate in your place-based project with the different habitats and areas of heritage. You could consider focusing on one area at a time to allow for more time to learn about the specific area and to show their learning in different ways such as art, poetry, music as you have outlined.
As you have mentioned a gallery walk would allow for sharing of knowledge and learning. You could also consider more group based projects focusing on different aspects, this would also give the learners the opportunity to become more independent in their learning and sharing their learning with their peers.
Hi Niamh
Welcome to the course and thank you for sharing your thoughts and reflecting on your own practice in light of Liston’s paper. I agree that we all have fell into the trap of treating the areas of STEM in isolation rather than an integrated approach. I really like how you are planning to put engineering into the heart of your lessons now and making connections to real life problems. I often try and consider design and make tasks that would link to concepts or topics in Science such as exploring forces and gravity and then having a parachute task to allow for connections between the concept and engineering.
It is great to hear that you feel the Curious Minds framework might be a better fit for your student’s needs and I hope that the other resources across this course will help in planning for the learners in your class to allow for project based learning at their level. I hope you enjoy the course.
Hi Rebecca
Welcome to the course, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the different resources in this module. The many resources across this module and other modules do allow for critical thinking and real world learning. I agree that reasoning and encouraging the learners to share their thinking is very important and that teachers can adapt the lessons where suitable to encourage this. I also agree that allowing multiple ways for learners to show their thinking and learning would support a Universal Design for Learning.
It is great to hear that you will use these resources with your class and allow for cross curricular, integrated learning. I hope you enjoy the other modules in this course.
Hi Laura,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your reflection on using the documentary Home with your class. It is a great idea to choose different clips to use in your classroom as you can choose what is most relevant and suitable for those in your class. I like how you are planning to carry out different activities to link with the clips from the documentary and allow for meaningful connections between the video and the learning. It is also a lovely idea to encourage the learners to reflect on action that they take themselves and to promote even the small changes in the school which will hopefully empower them to make changes at home and in their communities.
Hi Ashling,
Welcome to the course. Thanks for sharing your reflection on Liston’s paper. The paper allows us lots of opportunity to reflect on our own practice and how to enhance it for the learners in our classrooms. I can see how you plan to enhance the STEM activities in your classroom to allow for more meaningful integration with all areas of STEM. Something that I think we can all try and focus on and will link with the new STEM curriculum. It is also important to reflect on what is working well and you seem to have a great approach in incorporating real life problems for the STEM tasks. Well done! I hope you enjoy the other modules in this course.
