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I like your idea of bringing the children on a visit to the local fish farm and inviting a fish farmer from the oyster farm to come into the school as a guest speaker. This would really bring the curriculum “alive” to the children and they would become more involved and engaged from the very start.
I think these are lovely ideas Michaela and very closely linked with Greenschools . I think the eco map ties in nicely with mapping in geography and I love the way you want to link local action with classroom activities. I think that by doing this, your students will feel more involved and become agents of change.
Hi Michaela, I love your ideas about food tasting and creating posters about brain foods. I think that children would become very aware of foods that are good and nutritious for our brains and for brain development if they did this task/ activity.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Aquaculture farms are mainly located along the west and south west coast of Ireland , where the inlets and bays are sheltered and protected.</p>
I have uncles who work in aquaculture farms in Clew Bay and West Cork and I have seen first hand the benefits that these farms have on the local communities. As well as providing direct employment such as fishing, fish farming, divers, marine biologists, there are also many other job opportunities available as a result of the aquaculture farms e.g marketing the fish products, event managers for seafood festivals, educators , engineers for development of infrastructure.The addition of these aquaculture farms have created a boost to these rural communities providing awareness and knowledge of sustainability, education around what we eat, improvements in infrastructure , marketing of seafood festivals and products thus bringing everyone together and creating opportunities to develop a love and respect for community values.
I agree Michaela, aquaculture provides huge opportunities for people and their livelihoods in rural areas right across Ireland. (E.g Donegal, west Cork etc)
It provides ample opportunities for employment as well as educating the young children from the communities about it’s core values and it’s purpose.
After studying and observing the content from Module 1, I think that we as teachers have the perfect opportunity to help children discover and learn about the importance of aquaculture and how it affects environmental, economic and social systems.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>Learning about these topics helps students identify where their food comes from and also helps them to think about the environmental and social responsibilities linked to food production.</p>
Our 6th class students were fortunate to experience the immersive nature of the ARC truck and they gained so much from the day. They could see first hand how their actions as citizens have a direct impact on the world around us.
<p style=”text-align: left;”>By providing opportunities to examine social licence, we are enabling our students to become more empathetic, aswell as, increasing their awareness of sustainability. The students will become more aware and more involved with what is happening in their locality, thus promoting responsible citizenship .</p>
I think , moving forward, as I know there is a waiting list for the ARC truck experience, it would be great to have BIM speakers visit schools to talk about aquaculture ,especially to the schools in urban areas. It is amazing to see how the students from these inner city schools respond . I know in our school we had many children who wanted to become marine biologists after a guest speaker from BIM visited us for Science week. To see their reaction after touching the scallops that they had just watched from real footage on the IWB, was a moment I will never forget.I agree Michelle and I think that we as teachers have the perfect opportunity to help children discover and learn about the importance of aquaculture and how it affects environmental, economic and social systems.
By providing opportunities to examine social licence, we are enabling our students to become more empathetic, aswell as, increasing their awareness of sustainability. The students will become more aware and more involved with what is happening in their locality thus promoting responsible citizenship.
My school is based in the Dublin 15 area so I would base my investigation on the local engineer Anne-Marie Holmes, who is a leader within Intel Ireland in Leixlip. She is a prominent engineer and was appointed vice president for Intel’s technology and manufacturing group in 2016. Her role makes her a highly significant figure in engineering in the D15 region particularly within the technology and manufacturing sector.
I think that is is also important to highlight the role of female engineers in our world today. We were involved in a program last year run by PWC called “Tech we can” and this programme really inspired our 6th class girls and it showed them the endless opportunities that girls have in jobs in engineering & technology.
For this lesson I would start by introducing Anne- Marie Holmes to the class. I would organise a live conversation/interview with Anne Marie via Teams on the IWB so that the children could ask her questions about her role in engineering and technology. We would discuss what happens inside Intel and organise a visit to observe the systems at work inside Intel in more detail.
We would then, in groups, be ready to participate in the Intel mini scientist competition using our own investigations Each group would have to use what they observed from Anne Marie Holmes interview, their observations on their visit to Intel, to come up with a project/investigation for the competition. Judges from Intel ( as part of the program) would then come to visit the class and question the groups on their work.
Such a rich and imaginative setting to use for your children. I love the area around Bunratty and even the history of the bridge and the story behind dirty Nellys pub could hold so much interest for the children . I really like your idea of including drama and I think some children would get the opportunity to really show their talents in this area.
I would introduce the oldest Bridge in Ireland (Trim) as our main focal point.
Our school is located 20minutes away and many of our children have visited the castle in Trim.We could easily get a bus to Trim and take some pictures of the bridge on the school ipads. We would learn about the history of the local bridge. A local historian from Trim could be invited into the class to talk about the bridge and it’s purpose. We would then discuss how bridges work outlining the importance of structure, materials etc.
We would discuss the role of engineers in particular civil engineers and learn about basic bridge types (beam, arch, suspension, etc).Following this the children would work in groups where each child would take on the role of engineers, architect and quantity surveyor.
Within these roles and working as a group the children would have to
-sketch their own bridge design inspired by Irelands oldest Bridge.
-consider what materials they would use (lollipop sticks, cardboard, string, etc.).
-think about scale and stability and cost factor of materials used to produce the same outcome.
Groups would then present their bridge models to the class.
Bridges will be tested for strength and students reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how they’d improve the design in the future.Each group will be availing of their 21st century skills throughout this project aswell as observing the important role that engineering , maths & design play in our world in our past, present and future.
I love your idea of using the old mill to get some real historical accounts of what it’s purpose was in the past- this provides such wonderful storytelling opportunities. Wouldn’t it be great to invite one of the children’s parents/grandparents to visit the school and talk to your class about their memories of the old mill.
Outline how you would use some of the course resources to conduct a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the school year. What resources and recording sheets would you need? How often would you bring learning outdoors? How would you integrate other subject areas?
After studying the wonderful resources in this module I would love to run a seasonal biodiversity project with the 3rd class level across the school year.
To start , we would introduce going on a nature walk once a week around the school grounds in September & October observing and recording what plants, insects, and birds we notice in our school environment. We would encourage teachers and students to use resources like the Wildflower ID guides, Seek app, and the National Biodiversity Data Centre recording sheets to support identification and data collection.
From these walks I would get the children wondering about how could we introduce more wildflowers & birds into our school surroundings and garden. I would pose questions such as
– Do you think the habitat is good for birds?
– what could we do to bring more wildflowers and birds into our school ?
The next step would be to introduce wildflower meadows & wildflower seed planting to the garden. The children could get their hands dirty and make wildflower seed bombs with the soil. They could then get involved in creating and designing their own bird feeders which would encourage more birds into our garden. We would install a small camera into the birdhouse to track and record the types of birds, whether they are common or rare, what they like to eat, how often they eat and what time of the day they eat.
The children will have great fun designing their bird feeders collaborating and identifying what materials to use to make them, where and how to hang it in the garden & thinking about if the material used can biodegrade into the garden
The children will track these observations in their copies or on their ipads so that they have all the information to create a project of their findings ( of wildflowers and birdlife) after each season linking to the concept of phenology. This would tie in well with SESE (Science and Geography) but could also support Maths (charting and analysing data), English (report writing or nature journals), and Art (drawing bird feeders and birds and creating posters). I’d encourage the class to upload sightings to the Biodiversity Data Centre to promote real-life learning through citizen science.
The observations of the birdlife from the cameras inside would be something that the whole school could observe so that all classes are aware of what is happening in our school garden throughout the seasons and it would create conversation and awareness around our living plants and birds in our garden enabling them to realise that there is a personal responsibility for taking care of our environment at school and at home.
In this module I have learned new ways to incorporate STEM more meaningfully into my teaching, in line with the STEM Education Policy Statement.
Last year, as a whole school, we engaged with the Curious Minds programme and also participated in the gold awards programme.
On reflection we all gained so much from this experience but after studying module one, I realise that we as a staff need to put more focus on using the Curious Minds/ESERO “framework” to plan and deliver lessons that are both hands-on and inquiry-based.Having visited the Science centre in Birr Castle I was inspired by the connection between science, engineering , technology & art/ creativity ( photography). I plan to create more opportunities in STEM that are holistic, cross curicular and integrated where the children will be encouraged to think more about a real life situation using a prompt to encourage discussion & critical thinking. These elements align closely with the STEM policy’s emphasis on developing problem-solving and communication skills in pupils.
I also think that getting the students talking more will strengthen pupil voice in the classroom & beyond the classroom. I plan to focus less on telling/teaching students but instead as Galileo said, help them to discover it , within themselves.I think it is important to spend some time discussing the concept of maps & mapping with the children first. How do maps work & why do we need them?
Then I would get the 3rd class children into groups to go on a walk around the school at first to observe what we know and ask them what they think we should put in their 3d map? Observe the shape of the school building, the tarmac, the grass/garden, hedges, walls and trees.
We would then discuss the materials that we would use. Each group would take photos of their maps and present them to the class. We would evaluate our maps as a whole class and then look at taking the next step.
I would encourage the children to look at making a biodiversity map of our school garden using the online resources available on biodiversity ireland. We would participate in the “Garden Map Challenge” and following this the children in their groups woukd get markers and acetate sheet to focus on map layers for our school garden. E.g vegetation at ground level, vegetation to 1m height, vegetation to 2m height, locations of different types of birds, soil type, depth & temperature. The children will be encouraged to use Geohive and the NPWS maps to explore land use and habitats around our school, and I can definitely see how this could tie into our local studies work in Geography and Science. We could also keep a record of local weather using Met Éireann data and link it to seasonal changes or climate discussions.This lesson would work well across different subjects and really help the children connect what they’re learning about our school garden to their own gardens and the local area in which they live in.
I really like the idea of using a piece of wood in the garden and observing the life underneath it. Such a simple and practical idea of sparking the students interests in mini beasts. I think that by providing more outdoor learning, the children learn and observe more and then they bring his learning back to the classroom with heightened interest.