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I think your idea on looking at trees is great.There is a lovely poem’Where is the Forest’ that could be used as a stimulus for a number of lessons as we could discuss urbanization and its effects on animal habitats.We could then use your ideas of video etc to create a mind map and look at google images of our rural area in both past and present
Climate Detectives Research Question Planner
1. Research Question
How has increased rainfall over the past five years affected the frequency of flooding problems we have seen recently in Roscommon.
2. What is the climate issue?
It has become much wetter in the region in recent years and climate change is probably playing a part in this.
3. Why is it important?
Flooding is affecting farming in the area and farmer’s lives have become much more difficult. Even our school transport system has been affected with buses not able to get through.4. Who is affected and how?
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Residents and business owners in the town experience economic losses.
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Local government and emergency services face increased pressure to respond to frequent flood events.
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Commuters and students are affected by road closures and service delays.
• Farmers are challenged getting feed to livestock and also accessing main roads etc.5. What data could you use or collect to investigate it?
• Rainfall data from Met Éireann over the past 5 years.
• Flood incident reports in the County including local newspaper reportsI totally agree with your post.Children need small incremental changes that are manageable and they can educate the adults at home eg turn off lights. walk to shop not drive, recycle where possible.The children themselves will take pride in their achievements if they have completed a task themselves rather than just being passive learners.
‘Home’ is a brilliant production and gives us the whole history of our planet Earth.I myself have learnt a lot from it and it has given me food for thought.I certainly would use clips of this with 3rd Class being cognisant of the fact that they children are young and would not like to be the cause of climate anxiety.
However the clips I would carefully select would deal with the very early part of the movie which explain how planet earth as we know it came in to being.We would then have a ready made geography lesson on the various regions as a group work activity.
I would then move on to the greenhouse effect being selective with the audios.We could then finish off with an art activity or as mentioned in a previous post a science activity on rising temperatures.SPHE and our responsibilities in life could also be addressed as part of a module of work as could be topic of advertising and needs vs wants in life.I like the idea of playing meterologists and climate reporters in the classroom.Children love to get involved in role play and drama and they could have a map of the world up on the interactive screen and a pointer as if they were on a TV programme. Flooding , storms etc have become common everywhere.This could be done with Ireland first and then move to Europe and finally the world.Geography and science would be fully integrated in an activity like this.
The Paxi video is a fantastic resource to address climate change, greenhouse gases and melting ice caps in the classroom.The Earth Under the lid experiment is definitely one I will teach when I return to school.The national geographic video is very informative as is the one on energy . I had not hear of Curious Minds before now and I think the framework will be invaluable for teacher planning .While there seems to be alot of content in the framework document once you would become familiar with it it will certainly result in a very organised lesson/lessons and allow children to develop their scientific skills at the same time.It will also allow us to address issues such as Social Justice as we can look at how climate change is affecting those in underdeveloped countries most.The children could take a country affected as part of a Geography module and present their findings to the class.All areas of the curriculum could be incorporated in to this project.
Firstly can I complement you on a very informative Module1.I have to say I have learnt a lot myself and actually can see a great unit of work ahead for September. Children and adults can get confused with the difference between weather and climate and I certainly will be recommending your activities to my colleagues.Textbooks are not the way to approach teaching weather and climate as only a snapshot of the topic is addressed while the videos /worksheets etc recommended here provide a solid basis for a unit of work.
Building a weather station or components of a weather station would be a very inclusive activity for a classroom as all children would be able to fully participate. One could also look at the weather forecast daily on News Jnr to get a prediction for the days ahead. Alternatively the whole school could engage in a project eg one month per season and display it in a central area. Older children could take younger children out to view the Weather Station.
Geography would also be covered when looking at Koppen’s Climate Classification and in Senior Classes or even Middle Levels Geography projects could be done on countries from the various regions.With not too much hard work literacy, music, art ,Gaeilge and STEM subjects along with History could be incorporated in to a unit of work for a term.Hi Sinéad
I agree that the idea of using proverbs etc is a fantastic way of teaching about weather and climate while at the same time enhancing literacy skills and visual arts could also be integrated here.The idea of a weather log is great and would be a great opportunity for group activities as small groups could have task of the daily log which they could present to the class.Gaeilge could also be used as part of the activity with older classes and weaker children could draw a picture to put on the wall.
