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Hi Elspeth,
I really enjoyed your suggestion re plastic waste. Thank you for sharing the video link too.
My project suggestion would be ‘What everyday changes can we make to reduce our impact on climate change?’
We would begin with a brainstorming exercise where we discuss what we understand by ‘climate’ and what does ‘climate change’ mean. I would use some of the videos from earlier modules to aid their understanding and to spark their interest. I think the video by David Attenborough called ‘Save Our Planet’ really delivers the message that we must all play our part.
The children would work in groups and come up with ideas how to involve the whole school community. They would present these ideas at school assembly. Suggestions for the school might include Introduction of WOW (Walk on Wednesday), a litter picking timetable so every class takes their turn, an energy chief appointed in every class to ensure lights and whiteboards are turned off when leaving, a poster competition to promote awareness of climate change, everyone in the school completes the carbon footprint calculator and a climate change suggestion box in every class which the green schools could monitor.
We would run this for a period of time and then review, reflect and evaluate how successful it was and what changes we might make.
Hi Criona,
I really enjoyed the Nose Up High in the Sky activities. Making rain gauges and anemometers would really engage the children.
These are the satellites I picked. It’s mind boggling how many satellites are out there!
- International Space Station (ISS). Astronauts are based here and it is permanently occupied. The station is used for carrying out scientific research. It is probably one of the most familiar satellites.
- Starlink. This is a communications satellite owned by Elon Musk. It provides broadband internet to homes, mobiles, businesses and remote areas. There are a lot of starlink operated satellites in orbit at any one time.
- EUMETSAT. This is the European operational satellite agency for monitoring weather, climate and the environment from space. Met Éireann uses the Meteosat-11 satellite.
- NOAA-20. This is a polar orbiting environmental satellite operated by NASA and NOAA. It circles the globe 14 times daily to record data for weather forecasting, hurricane tracking and climate monitoring.
- Terra Satellite. Operated by NASA, it is a climate research satellite. It observes and measures the earth’s atmosphere, lands and oceans to understand the changing impact of human activity.
I totally agree with you Michael. I think some children could feel anxious and be overwhelmed. Focussing on finding solutions and working together to achieve them is a really positive approach.
There was a wide array of videos in this module. HOME was evocative and powerful. It consists of amazing footage of the beauty of our world and at the same time how fragile it is. It is probably more suited to the senior classes but even then, it would need to be adapted, as there are so many children with anxiety and they could find it upsetting. It is quite long, so probably best to view smaller select portions. We would follow on with a discussion to ensure they understood the content and message and what changes we can make in our own lives.
The Climate Aid 2020 and the accompanying song ‘Mad World’ was yet another powerful video and audio. It also focused on climate change and food shortages.
Greta Thunberg is such a brave young lady, and I really enjoyed her Ted Talk speech. I think children would relate to her passion.
I thought the footprint calculator was a great resource and enjoyed finding my own carbon footprint. It would be an easy tool to use and would help the children to understand that even small steps/ changes make a difference. It would be a useful homework project where the children interview family members and calculate the carbon footprint of each member and then of the whole family together.
This year my class planted strawberries, lettuce and onions in flowerpots on the windowsills in the classroom. They took on the responsibility of watering them and the excitement when the strawberries grew and ripened was great to see!
I think the Paxi video is really well presented. It explains green house gases in really easy to understand language, along with colourful animation. I think it would engage the children and be a wonderful starting point. We would discuss all the new vocabulary- atmosphere, greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide etc to ensure everyone understands their meanings, (especially the children with English as their second language). We would brainstorm how we can make changes in our everyday lives to help combat climate change. We would agree on one suggestion and work on that one for that week with the other suggestions to follow on from that. We might present our suggestion list at school assembly and explain why it is important for everyone to play their part. The TEAL prediction tool allows students to explore how different levels of greenhouse gases can affect temperatures around the world and it allows them to compare countries. This tool would require a certain amount of pre teaching, and I myself would have to feel comfortable with it before using it. That said, it looks like a fascinating resource.
Hi Sarah,
I agree with you regarding making maths meaningful. I think when the children see maths as playful and that it is all around us, it makes it more relevant.
Unravelling STEM (Liston) argues that STEM should be seen as an integrated subject rather than four separate subjects. She also argues that engineering is the ‘glue’ that integrates science, maths and technology. After reading this, I realise I am guilty of teaching these subjects in the traditional way and I will need to adapt my methods.
Activity 1 (Is it weather? Is it climate?) is a gentle introduction to learning the difference between weather and climate. The starting point of using the children’s birthdays is a clever one as young children would be engaged immediately. The video links provide a great tool to introduce and explain the terms. I really liked the ESA video, Meet the Experts: Weather v’s Climate.
Activity 2(Weather Detectives) is very interesting and ticks all the relevant boxes for STEM. It’s highly adaptable too for use throughout the school. I particularly enjoyed the idea that the recording devices could be designed and made by the children, using recycled materials.
The question I would choose would be ‘What can we do in our class and school to help prevent climate change?’
We would begin with a brainstorming exercise where we discuss what we understand by ‘climate’ and what does ‘climate change’ mean. I would use some of the videos from earlier modules to aid their understanding and to spark their interest.
The children would work in groups and come up with ideas how to involve the whole school. They would present these ideas at school assembly. Suggestions for the school might include Introduction of WOW (Walk on Wednesday), a litter picking timetable so every class takes their turn, an energy chief appointed in every class to ensure lights and whiteboards are turned off when leaving, a poster competition to promote awareness of climate change, everyone in the school completes the carbon footprint calculator and a climate change suggestion box in every class which the green schools could monitor.
We would run this for a period of time and then review, reflect and evaluate how successful it was and what changes we might make.Hi Laura. I agree this is a great activity. I think the resources on the ESA website are fantastic. I like the way you would adapt it for your class.
I used the website https://satellitetracker3d.com to help me locate satellites.
I was really amazed to see how many satellites are out there! I think the children would enjoy this exercise as much as I did.
Here are 5 satellites that have passed over or close to Ireland recently and a short note on their functions.
1. International Space Station (ISS). One of the most commonly observed satellites. It was designed for scientific research in various fields, including biology, physical science and astronomy.
2. NOAA-20. A polar orbiting satellite that provides global observations used for weather forecasting and climate monitoring.
3. STARLINK – various ones. Operated by Space X. It aims to provide high speed internet access.
4. EIRSAT-1. Designed and built by UCD. Serving educational and scientific purposes.
5. Sentinel 1. It offers radar imagery which is useful for monitoring land and sea. Sentinel 2 offers optical imagery used for mapping and water quality. Both of these are part of the Copernicus programme.There was a wide array of videos in this module. HOME was evocative and powerful. It consists of amazing footage of the beauty of our world and at the same time how fragile it is. I would adapt it for a class, viewing smaller select portions, as some children might find it upsetting. We would follow on with a discussion to ensure they understood the content and message and what changes we can make in our own lives.
Climate Aid 2020 and the accompanying song ‘Mad World’ was yet another powerful video and audio. It also focused on climate change and food shortages.
Greta Thunberg is such a brave young lady, and I really enjoyed her Ted Talk speech. I think children would relate to her passion.
I thought the footprint calculator was a great resource and enjoyed finding my own carbon footprint. It would be an easy tool to use and would help the children to understand that even small steps/ changes make a difference. It would be a useful homework project where the children interview family members and calculate the carbon footprint of each member and then of the whole family together.