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I like how relevant this question is to each child in our classes. I think everyone would be engaged and able to participate. I also think that there is an opportunity to bring about change in how our children travel to and from school and to raise an awareness of the impact of the choices we make on the environment. I love the idea of trying to make it a school wide investigation.
After a bit of time thinking about it I chose the question ‘Is the sea around our school getting warmer?’ I chose this question for lots of reasons. Our school is based in North Dublin, very close to the coast. We will also be working on the Theme of Marine Environment for Green Schools so I think this would tie in well. Also I am interested in the marine environment and think it would be a topic that children could connect with, particularly in my school. It would introduce pupils to the effects climate change can have on our oceans and marine life. Climate Detectives investigations can use both satellite data and measurements collected on the ground so there are great teaching opportunities here. To encourage pupils to participate, I would begin by asking them what they know about our local coastline, maybe we could make a KWL chart. In groups children could discuss if they think the sea temperature stays the same throughout the year and why. We could look at photographs of our coastline in Bull Island and discuss what lives there. In groups, pupils could investigate sea-temperature data from different years and record their findings in a simple table or graph. They could then discuss whether they can see any changes and what these changes might mean for marine animals and plants. We would also have the opportunity to do a field trip to the coast and carry out some practical investigations in our area. I think this would encourage curiosity, teamwork and real scientific investigation. We could also integrate it with literacy, arts and maths and make a whole unit of it, eg making posters, charts, writing texts, reading stories about the marine.
I found looking at some of these satellites fascinating. I think our young students would be intrigued and would really enjoy locating some of the satellites flying overhead as an activity. It would take. bit of pre teaching to show them how to use the tracker but it would be well worth it. The Starlite Satellite providing internet and the International Space Station in particular would capture their interest I think.
I enjoyed carrying out the activities in the ESA resource. I found the activities practical and very child friendly. The activities helped me to understand how weather can be observed and measured and how satellites can be used to gather information about the Earth. Before this module I knew very little about satellites so it was useful and informative for me. I particularly liked how hands on it was as the children can learn through investigation rather than simply listening to information from me! I think this resource would work very well with 3rd or 4th class. The activities would encourage children to ask questions, make observations, record information and discuss their findings. It could easily be integrated with the data strand in Maths and across other areas of the curriculum too. There are good opportunities for assessment and monitoring throughout as well. I think setting up a wreathe station would be a nice way to offer the children more opportunities to take on responsibilities in the class and to become more independent. I think this is a great resource and could be differentiated to suit all class levels, and more importantly all ability levels in our classrooms.
I also think the climate aid music video might be a good clip to share with children. The music that accompanies it would stimulate children and brings an emotional feel to the clip. The carbon footprint activity is very beneficial, perhaps I would share it on Google classroom and the children could even show their families how to use it. That way, out might have more of an impact and the children could help to encourage their families to recycle, reduce waste and water consumption, use active travel etc to reduce their family carbon footprint.
The film Home is a very good documentary for highlighting environmental issues. It has stunning aerial footage that captures the beauty of our planet while also showing the impact humans have on it. Although the film is inspiring, it is quite long and is aimed at an older audience, so I would not show it in full to a primary school class. I think the challenge of teaching our pupils about climate change is to convey all of the important information to them and to teach them about the changes we need to make without scaring them. So I would choose a selection of short clips from the film that match the learning objective I set. For example, clips showing forests, oceans, wildlife, farming, pollution, or melting ice could be used to spark discussion without overwhelming pupils. Using short, focused clips helps to keep children engaged and gives plenty of opportunities to pause, ask questions, and encourage them to think about what they notice. Similarly, Greta Thunberg is inspirational but it could frighten children so I would choose only small clips to show and teach them about her to inspire them. Perhaps we could then work together as a class to start a pledge for the school (one class I taught made a pledge book, others designed a pledghog!) or make some posters to display around the school to teach others about climate action.
You have come up with some great ideas here. I like the idea of using a KWL as an assessment tool, and to use as a guide for learning. I think the children would come up with a huge range of interesting questions for the class to investigate. I also think the children would be really engaged by looking up the weather on the day they were born. I might even go and check it out for myself! I also think that giving the children to teach others about climate change would be a lovely idea, the children often listen better to each other than they do to us and it is very beneficial for our students.
I would plan to integrate this with work on renewable and non renewable sources of energy. We would explore the sun and solar energy and then I would preach some key vocabulary which would be necessary for the lessons on greenhouse gases. After watching the PAXA video I would ask the children some questions to ensure they understand what greenhouse gases are before proceeding. I would ask the children to explore the TEAL Tool in pairs, allowing them time to investigate the effects of climate change on different parts of the world, but also focusing on Ireland. I would then encourage the children to complete the tasks on the worksheet with their partners. One change I would make is to create a differentiated version of the worksheet, as I have a wide variety of levels in my class. and I would like to ensure the tasks I set are appropriate for all of my students. I would conclude the lessons by asking children to focus on what they can do to limit the effects of greenhouse gases on our environment.
Having read the paper ‘Unravelling STEM’ I think that STEM always looks different in my classroom. Often it is hard to tell what subject I am actually teaching, as there is usually such a high level of integration. It is about giving children the chance to collaborate, ask questions, seek solutions and explain their thinking and learning with others. In my classroom this often happens through inquiry based learning, where we start with a question and go from there. As a result, the children very often lead the learning and what might start as science quickly becomes maths, literacy, engineering. I think when it is done well children are using skills like estimating, measuring, building, testing, designing, researching, creating, exploring etc. All of these are doing words, STEM is hands on and all children are active and involved.
I think a wet and cloudy day is a good time to start this activity. There is so much stimulus for discussion – what do we see, feel hear etc. The children could be encouraged to contrast with a sunny day. I agree that the children should monitor weather over a prolonged period to see if they can begin to notice patterns in the weather.
I really liked both of these resources.
Activity 1:
I thought it was a great idea to capture the children’s interest through talk and old proverbs and I think this would really engage my students. I really liked the opportunities for collaboration and discussion as the children plan and construct weather stations. There are great opportunities for integration with Maths, especially the data topic and history when considering how weather data was collected in the past. I think this could become a long term project and data could be displayed for the whole school to observe and analyse. Different groups of children could take a turn at monitoring and recording results from the weather station. Its hands on and allows the children to be problem solvers, it would be very valuable for our children.
Activity 2:
I also really liked these activities, the ‘is it weather or climate?’ task was very relevant to our children’s lives and could help assess their understanding of the difference between the two in a very simple way. I think the climate reporters activity would work very well in the senior end of the school. I see firsthand how strongly our young people feel about climate issues on the green school committee, and I think this would be a good opportunity for them to research this and to share information with others. I like the table on the pupil worksheet, it is a good visual to demonstrate results and to compare data. Rather than making changes to any of these resources, I would let the children lead the way and see what they would like to do to follow up on this task. I think they would want to share their results with others outside the class. The children might decide to give a presentation, write a letter to the government, make a drama design a poster, research what we can do slow down climate change, make posters, etc which would be a nice