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How could conserving and restoring natural spaces, and the biodiversity that they contain, in our local community, be essential for limiting emissions and adapting to climate impacts?
Strategies to explore the research question.
Class discussions and brainstorming about our own natural spaces surrounding our school building and the natural spaces that we have around our own homes. Ask students about how they think the huge increase in infrastructure and buildings in the last 10 years might have on biodiversity and climate change in our local area.
From here, the children would work in groups of 3 to study satellite photographs of their community before and after the amount of housing estates and roads were built. (Observation and data) They would also use tools like the EO browser to assess urban development in the area. A map of the local community would then be divided up into separate areas and numbered. Each group would be assigned an area to study, observe and document. Field trip: each group would walk to their assigned area using their maps, providing a real-life experience to document the proportions of natural spaces/ wild meadows present in this specific area.
I would invite local environmentalists and community members to speak to the children about the changes that they have observed in the community and to hear the local impact of reduced natural spaces have had on our community.
After researching and analysing their data, each group would share their results with the class and reflect on their findings as climate detectives. The children could then invite a local politician into the school to present their solutions to their research question and to show him/her the potential that we have to make a real change in our community and local environment.I like the idea of teaching the children about when the light source changes , the shadow changes by getting them to trace their own shadows. Another idea for younger children would be to get them to trace the shadows of various dinosaur model toys, they might have greet fun observing the shadows of these as well!
A lovely idea of how to explain self shadow and cast shadow and one that will really help the children’s understanding.
Plan to observe the moon-which phase of the Moon is best for observing in the morning from school
I would introduce the topic using the video of Paxi as a trigger to stimulate interest and meaningful discussion. After identifying the phases of the moon I would ask the children in groups of 3 to come up with a solution to explain the phases of the moon to a group of children in the junior school using various materials. I think that the children would enjoy using the engineering design process for this activity and would gain inspiration and insight by observing each others designs at the end.
After this we would look up the moon phases 2024/2025 on the lunar calendar for Dublin (timeanddate.com). The class would observe that the best visibility of the third quarter of the moon would be when it rises in the morning time before sunrise in September 2024.
The children could keep a “Moon observation log” (Esero) by recording what the moon looks like each day and labelling the time and date under each sketch. In the month of September there will also be a partial lunar eclipse and a super full moon on 18th September 2024 so this would be another great opportunity for a class discussion about eclipses. Encouraging the interest at home about the topic would be great too by using home school links such as Seesaw , the children could use voice recordings of their observations of the moon’s appearance from home.The paper, Unravelling STEM : Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by Liston 2018 really highlights the importance for us as teachers and educators to integrate STEM disciplines right across our everyday teaching practices. STEM should not be a stand alone subject. This is fundamental in our role as teachers moving forward. We need to embed 21st century thinking skills in all that we do. We need to provide opportunities for our students to become critical, innovative thinkers so that they can define a problem (real world) , research it together as a team, plan and develop, make good decisions , reflect on them, create and build, test and evaluate them and then improve on their ideas and designs. This process should be at the core of our teaching right across our everyday teaching.
In my own role as a SET teacher in a senior school I used this process mentioned above with the “Lego Spike Essential Kits “. The children were encouraged to work in teams of 3 to become critical and innovative thinkers so that they could plan and develop a car that could move only by a programmed control panel do that the car could participate in a race to the finish line in the corridor. The children worked together using the Engineering design process (EDP)as a way of designing a solution to the task at hand. The group of children then presented the task to classes at 4th class level and 6th class level over the course of 3 weeks. I observed that the group of students from my own classroom really excelled while using the EDP. It was evident that once given the opportunity to use skills such as creativity, problem solving, inquisitive thinking and teamwork, their confidence in themselves, as learners, grew and they really enjoyed presenting the challenge to the other class groups afterwards. I learned so much by using the EDP and have since tried to embed it in my everyday teaching moving forward. In my opinion I see that by using this process, our students can make connections between school, community and work and this will enable them to solve real-life problems that are occurring in our communities and world around us.
Similarly, I believe that constructing a sundial would be an excellent activity to do with the students in my group. I would begin by using the stick and bucket video as a “trigger” to inspire their thinking about how the sundial works. We could practice this on various parts of the yard and come up with where the best space would be to get all day 1hr readings. Then I would ask the groups of children to come up with a solution to create a permanent sundial for our school. This would allow them to use and practise 21st century skills while engaging in the engineering design process(EDP). The EDP would enable the students to research the best area in our school for the permanent sundial, the materials and cost involved, getting permission from the principal and the maintenance of the sundial etc. Imagining the size and shape of the sundial, planning, and designing the sundial, creating and building it using the selected materials. After construction, the group would test and evaluate their design and look at how they could improve the design for other schools.I like the idea of getting the children involved in the engineering design process of the sundial Patrick, they would gain so much from this and something that I would like to do with my own students next year.
I like the idea of getting the children involved in the engineering design process of the sundial Patrick, they would gain so much form this and something that I would like to do with my own students next year.
I agree Aonghus, I thought that the Teal Tool was a real eye opener and an excellent visual that highlights the impact climate change is having on our world but in particular specific regions such as Spain and Greece . Many of our children would holiday in these countries so I think that they would really make connections with these particular regions and thus deepen their level of understanding. I also agree that real life accounts and stories are an excellent resource to use in the classroom too.
Module 2
Activity 3: Climate reporters and predicting temperature change is an engaging and practical activity that I can see myself using in my classroom. First I would use the KWL strategy to find out the children’s prior/existing knowledge about climate change and also to highlight key vocabulary and familiarise the children with the meaning of the new vocabulary.
I would then use the Paxi video as a “trigger” to engage in more meaningful conversation and discussion about the effects of greenhouse gases. I would use the temperature predictor tool to show how temperatures increase where we live and to predict future temperatures.
As a groupwork activity , I would get the children to work in groups of 3 to approach this real world problem and think about ways in how we can change our actions in our school to help reduce the effects of greenhouse gasses (key focus would be on the engineering design process)Katie, I really like your idea of including digital tools or apps for weather tracking and one that can be embraced when the children are working in their groups at the engineering and design process stage when undertaking the task of designing their own weather instrument.
The paper, Unravelling STEM : Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics by Liston 2018 really highlights the importance for us as teachers and educators to integrate STEM disciplines right across our everyday teaching practices. STEM should not be a stand alone subject. This is fundamental in our role as teachers moving forward. We need to embed 21st century thinking skills in all that we do. We need to provide opportunities for our students to become critical, innovative thinkers so that they can define a problem (real world) , research it together as a team, plan and develop, make good decisions , reflect on them, create and build, test and evaluate them and then improve on their ideas and designs. This process should be at the core of our teaching right across our everyday teaching.
In my own role as a SET teacher in a senior school used this process mentioned above when with the “Lego Spike Essential Kits “. The children were encouraged to work in teams of 3 to become critical and innovative thinkers so that they could plan and develop a car that could move only by a programmed control panel do that the car could participate in a race to the finish line in the corridor. The children worked together using the Engineering design process (EDP)as a way of designing a solution to the task at hand. The group of children then presented the task to classes at 4th class level and 6th class level over the course of 3 weeks. I observed that the group of students from my own classroom really excelled while using the EDP. It was evident that once given the opportunity to use skills such as creativity, problem solving, inquisitive thinking and teamwork, their confidence in themselves, as learners, grew and they really enjoyed presenting the challenge to the other class groups afterwards. I learned so much by using the EDP and have since tried to embed it in my everyday teaching moving forward. In my opinion I see that by using this process, our students can make connections between school, community and work and this will enable them to solve real-life problems that are occurring in our communities and world around us.
The ESA resources “Nose Up High in the Sky” and ” Weather Vs Climate” are excellent resources to use in classrooms. I think that as mentioned above, helping the students to make connections by using the class or group “Birthday Chart ” would really help them to identify the difference between Weather and Climate. The “Weather Detectives” outdoor activities present a wonderful opportunity for children to work in groups together outside. I think that the idea of creating a school Weather Station would be a lovely challenge for the Student Council to undertake as one of their objectives for the year ahead. They could plan together where the best location in the school to have it would be and come up with a plan on how to organise the design process of all the weather devices between the 4 class levels, calculate the cost of some of these weather devices and identify how we would maintain and take care of the Weather Station area.
