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Wow,my first impression of the Climate Aid 2020 video was that it would be a powerful attention grabber for my senior class to make them aware of the need ti do something about climate change, but I think it would actually be upsetting. It’s such a strong statement to show the impact we are having on our world.The Home Video is a stunning production with huge scope for a senior class.It made me think of things I had never considered especially the vegetable greenhouses of spain, the cattle farms without grass etc. There are beautiful images of the earth contrasting with the damage we cause.
I would definitely break it down into shorter sections and discuss what we see/ can learn etc in each part. I see links to art, drama, science(animal life)media studies, SPHE, Geography(agriculture), English- debating and dicsussion and beyond. I would look at the impact of agriculture and the oil industry, how we as humans are responsible for climate change and the damageto our planet.
Greta Thunberg- a great vide0 for children to hear a child talk about climate change and make it more realistic to them that they too can be responsible for change. Could we make our own video for our school to raise awareness like she did? Great scope for links to oral language, drama, SESE etc. A powerful video.
Finally I think my class would really enjoy the WWF carbon footprint calculator.I teach the senior classes and I would definately use the Paxi video as an introduction to climate change and global warming. They have very little background knowledge and the video is clear, simple and engaging. I also like how it gives suggestions for ways we ourselves can help. After this I would complete our own model of the Greenhouse effect to give the children a concrete example of what is actually going on in our planet.
I would work through the video of the carbon emmission scenarios before using the temperature predictor tool to ensure they had a good understanding of the point of investigating future temperatures. I would then hold a class discussion on what areas around the world might be affected my climate change and then link back to our own home town and would we be impacted.
I would have the children complete the task of writing reports based on different future climate scenarios in groups and present to the class.
The activities in both modules so far are ones I would definitely use with my class.Caitriona, I love the idea of putting thermometers in different parts of the school as we have new, old and also prefabs in our grounds.
I would also like to use them in our garden areas and monitor where gets more sun and use this in planning what flowers would grow best.
Having reviewd the paper’Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics” It’s clear that a hands on approach that allows the children to think and question for themselves is vital. I had not previously understood the importance of the “engineering’ side but am now aware it really is the ‘glue’ and I hope to focus more on not just conducting experiments in the book but to develop questioning skills in the children and how they could use engineering skills to create products to solve problems based on the exeriments, use critical thinking and not just carry out an experiment to achieve an expected outcome and move on.
I am enjoying module one and the resources are very well suited to the age group I am currently teaching. I have 4th-6th and a high % of EAL students so the visual resources like the videos are am asset to me as well as the inclusion of hands on activities. The ‘Nose High Up in the Sky’ is a great resource, appealing to students and not to complicated for teachers to carry out. I love the idea of building our own weather monitoring stations and I would link this to our green flag activities and use recycled materials, harvesting rainwater etc. I would love to involve the whole schoolas we are currently focusing on our garden area and it would be a great addition of each class made one of the monitoring devices. I would also integrate it with morning Gaeilge and An Aimsir. I would use data collection to enhance Maths skills and link to the Weather V Climate activity to see if our weather is corforming to our climate. I would like to look back on how our climate has changed over the years.
the activities both allow for the development of STEM skills such as critical thinking, problem solving( I look forward to the children coming up with their own ideas of how to measure the wind and record it), engineering design skills and creativity.