[Colette Lynch]

Our school garden has been a blank canvas as we only moved into our new school building in 2022. In the past few months a huge effort has been made and the fruits of this work is starting to show.  I think it would be a great place to conduct a flora trail. I would use the Wildflower walk as a tool.  The children can be divided into mixed ability groups and can observe and monitor the various flora and fauna over the course of the the school year.  We can look at conditions that favour  certain plants. Do some need more shelter than others? Do we need to protect them over the winter months?  The children are fortunate to have our school situated near the grand canal. This in turn might lead us to expand our research further into the community especially in  the senior classes. A nature walk once per term will help to compare and contrast plant life that grows in the wild v a more streamlined setting. Art work could be done based on the various flowers. Graphs to show the numbers of flowers over the various seasons. Take pictures throughout the year and do a google slideshow for other classes. We may also observe different species and could record them on the national bio data centre to link in with our wildflower observations.

 

[Colette Lynch]

I also like the idea of the photo book as the children will be able to look back over seasonal changes and also progression that may have been made to an outdoor space etc.

[Colette Lynch]

Thanks Úna some lovely ideas you suggested

[Colette Lynch]

Explore how you would use some of the online data sets in your teaching of data in maths and to highlight the application of maths in real world contexts.

Using the online data sets lets discover the number of fire stations in the county.

Intro:

• Is there a fire station nearby?
• Why do we need fire stations?
• Using google maps lets locate how many fire stations are in our county.
• Are there any full time stations? how many part time stations?
• What do they notice about the location of the stations

Body:

• Create a trend/bar line or bar chart based on the findings
• Log the distance between the areas they have to cover and record
• Retained firefighters must live or work within a 5 min response. Find areas within 5km and pin on the map

Conclusion/ further dev:

Are urban areas better serviced with firestations?

Ask a member of the fire station to come and talk to the class.

Make some google slides based on their findings.

Write to a local TD if they feel we need to have more stations and better conditions for our fire departments.

Lessons on fire safety

[Colette Lynch]

Lovely way to get the children’s attention by telling them a story. It will help to stimulate their enthusiasm. I like the idea of using maps and having Rosie walking around. It will captivate their attention. Enabling the children to take screen recordings of their map will empower them. It could be then shared with a potential buddy class and they can discuss their findings. Older classes might also be enable to ask questions to them a their level.

[Colette Lynch]

STEM lessons for 6th Class.

Some lessons which I have used. Importance of class/ pair discussion and use of KWL to discuss our findings. Use of IT to compile our findings.

Lesson 1:Exploring refraction in water

Straw or pencil, large glass half filled with water

• Place the straw or pencil in the water and look at it from all angles. Can they see it bend and why do they think it does.  They will hopefully come to the conclusion that the light is not travelling in straight lines and you see it in a distorted way.

Lesson 2 :Exploring how colour is absorbed and reflected

red/white/blue/green paper. red/blue/green cellophane, torch, sticky tape or elastic band.

• Darken the room
• shine the torch on the white paper. Record colour you see on the worksheet. Repeat with the other coloured paper.
• Place red cellophane over the front of the torch, secure with sticky tape and elastic band.
• Shine the torch on the different colours of paper and record results on worksheet. Repeat using the blue / green cellophane.

Conclusion: white colours will appear white as they reflect all of the colours and absorb none.

[Colette Lynch]

Hi Fiona

Thanks for the ideas suggested I will certainly try them out. I like the use of  class/pair discussion to allow the children to brainstorm and problem solve is critical. I also use IT to present our findings as it allows the children to display their findings creatively.

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