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This is brilliant and something I need to create for myself – a whole year map of how to include everything that I learned through this module. I am loving the idea of thematic planning and the inquiry play based approach to learning and this is the type of approach that makes it possible to implement as the teacher.
Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage
I have 5th class and a local trip that we do is a walk to Old Kilcullen which is about 2-3km from our school. We go through the monastic history of it and move onto the 1798 rebellion and the battle that took place there. The song we cover is the Rising of the Moon and we have the arms, flap caps and the English colours and conduct a battle at the tower. It is a great day and very memorable for the students of Kilcullen. We also do creative writing pieces on life for the English soldier and for the local people whose dwellings were burned with all their possessions inside. Having completed this course, I would also like to look into the biodiversity side of the trip and the mapping of the site – how Old Kilcullen is at a slightly higher elevation and why it was chosen as the site of the monastery and subsequently Old Kilcullen.
I have learned so much from reading this module post. I had never heard of Tinkercad and intend to use it as you suggest in a design and make challenge of making bridges. I also loved the youtube video you suggested of a real bridge that went wrong and how they endeavoured to fix it. Thank you
We have a local bridge in Kilcullen that is accessible from the school. We would investigate the history of it and the difference between the old and modern sides of it. Then we could also complete the paper bridge challenge and encourage thinking about strenghtening the bridge using arches, struts etc. I also like the idea of creating bridges from recycled materials with various maths concepts e.g. a bridge that is wide enought to cater for two way traffic and a boat to travel underneath. If time was limited, we have access to large amounts of lego and Knex and would create them using this as an alternative. I would defo integrate to other subjects to and making drawings of the bridge in art. There are also artefacts from the 1798 rebellion on our local bridge and we even have costumes available to reenact the battle of Kilcullen in history and drama.
We have an excellent green schools coordinator in our school and have many biodiversity elements in place. I would start with a walk around the school to visit the school garden, the track walk and observe life in the swift boxes and around the bird feeders. We also have access to a local walk near a river so I would extend the lesson by visiting it with the identifier grids and recording sheets provided. I looked up the local biodiversity plan from the county council and there is a huge wealth of information there to help me get started on the flora and fauna in the area, how local committees are protecting it and projects that members of the community are working on to improve biodiversity. I will use the Green schools lessons and really encourage the hands on, discovery approach rather than telling them what they will find in Kilcullen.
I would hope to follow a similiar plan, although I am not sure that I would manage it once a month – or maybe a quick reference to it rather than a full lesson every month. I have defo gained confidence in attempting biodiversity projects with my class following this module. I hope that we are provided with the module slides at the end so that I will remember it all!
There are some great ideas here. It is true that students need both artefacts presented to them and it is good to use the atlas and real maps in this unit of work. I love the idea of creating a 3D model of the classroom and hiding treasure in the room. This would be great for learning coordinates with my 5th class. I can also see myself using Lego to create 3D models here – a great idea.
Hands On Mapping Activity
I am so keen to try this lesson with my 5th class in September. I am engaged in the JDO project and we usually do the “Take a Walk” exercise to begin with. This involves using Google maps to map your route, measure distance etc from home to school and to other points of interest in our town. I have learned so much from this module and am really keen to use the Geohive maps and look at how our town has changed over the years. I really really loved the YouTube clip from the last module where a history of Dublin was included and I spent ages looking through the resources that he used. There are maps of Kilcullen dotted around the school that I recognised in the Geohive app but using the app is way more beneficial as they can layer the development of the town in a better way. I will also attempt to use the biodiversity maps – it is not an area that I am hugely confident with but willing to give it a go. I even found myself out for a walk yesterday and trying to find the names of trees and wildflowers. I thought the resources presented here were excellent and will defo enhance my Take a Walk lesson.
We are working towards this in our school as well. We have a large school of 670 students so it is difficult to adopt a whole school approach to STEM. It is difficult to stay on the same page with the other 3 5th classes too! Although I dislike the pressure around the Science week, space week, engineering week etc i admit that it is the best way of getting alot of information and topics covered as a whole school. The younger classes visit the older students who have worked on a given topic – last year the 4ths did a Lego coding project with the Prime sets, the 5ths did an engineering “make a maze” challenge using lego and the 6th classes used the curious minds lesson examples for design and make and created various objects in small groups. Then we all came together and displayed our work at the science fair in November.
Lesson Plan mirrors, magnifying glass, telescope (5th Class) _ 1 month unit of work
Engage
Start with the live stream from the ISS and/or the clips from the astronoaut Chris Hatfield which shows his view from space. There is an excellent one that he recorded on St Patrick’s Day one year. Explore how we can see far away or tiny things and introduce the mirror, magnifying glass and a simple telescope. Link with history and look at the telescope in Birr Observatory.Investigate
Observe reflections in mirrors – I like the reflective writing exercise to begin with. With my 5th class we would aim to make a periscope as well. Another group could use magnifying glasses or an online mapping activity where they zoom into our local area using Google Maps or the biodiversity maps. Although I generally advise staying away from Wikipedia, another group could explore the Leviathan Great Telescope from 1845 which was the largest telescope of its time or visit the Birr Demense website to learn about it. There is so much to learn and i want to improve at “providing the stimuli” and encouraging students to inquire for themselves and see where it takes them. The overall goal would be to learn about mirrors, telescopes and magnifying glasses and how they have enhanced our lives.Reflect
If different groups completed these different exercises, we would come together to learn about each other’s work at the end. Ask things like what could we do differently etc. My approach this year is very much so engrained in thematic planning so I would hope it would inform a future lesson e.g. in Maths or Literacy where we may visit the topic again.
