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To begin the lesson discuss some interesting facts about the Moon:
• The Moon can be seen from anywhere.
• The Moon continuously changes shape. In all cultures, the moon has played a very important role in the dividing the time into months. Each lunar cycle takes about one month.
• The Moon is multi-cultural: on and around the Moon, all people of Earth have immortalised characters of their culture through fairy tales and myths. Lots of cultures celebrate the moon. Discuss some of these cultures.
I like the activity: Make your own Moon.
Make sure you have enough paint, coloured craft sheets, spheres, glue, and scissors for each group. Engage the children’s interest in the Moon by showing them a white paper circle. Ask the children if it looks like the real Moon. Now show them the crescent-shaped white paper. Explain to the children that they are going to find out what the Moon looks like, and why it is that some people say they can see shapes like people on the Moon. Ask them why they made their Moon the way they did. Pay particular attention to the colour and the shape. Ask them if the Moon really looks like that. Explain that the Moon is really a sphere. From the Earth we can only see one side of the Moon at a time, which is why it looks flat. Sometimes we see the Moon as a circle, and sometimes as a crescent.
Read book: “Man on the Moon” by Simon Batram.Inquiry based activity:
Fill one of the plastic bottles about ¾ full of water.
Add a couple of drops of food colouring.
Add about a teaspoon of glitter to the coloured water.
The glitter represents the dust in the tornado.
Tape the top of the empty bottle to the top of the bottle with the water.
Make sure the tape is secure around the bottle tops.
Turn the bottles around making sure the bottle with the water in it is on top.
Watch as the water flows from the top bottle into the bottom bottle.
The water flows slowly from the top bottle into the bottom bottle.
Also, air bubbles travel up through the water in the top bottle, making a noise.
Hold the bottles where they are connected and quickly swirl them in a circular motion for a few seconds. Stop and look inside the bottles. There will be a mini tornado in the top bottle as the water flows quickly and quietly into the bottom bottle.
Hi. My name is Muireann McCarthy. I have taught Senior Infants last year and I have Senior Infants for the next school year. I am excited to learn some space activities for the classroom. My favourite space fact is that shooting stars aren’t stars. They are actually tiny pieces od rock or dust from space that burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.
As mentioned the little efforts made by us in the classroom can be passed on to the students, who will hopefully bring them home. The ‘field to fork’ is a great idea to bring to school.
I feel the introduction of the carbon footprint to the class would be great at raising awareness to sustainability and how we can contribute to this. Shellfish farming and seaweed farming is an idea which I will be bringing to my school as we are situated close to these activities. Children are slowly becoming more aware of the whole idea of reserving the earth’s resources for future generations and I think if we include more aspects of this in the curriculum in schools it will put even more emphasis on it. The Origin Green Award, which was developed by Bord Bia and is Ireland’s food and drink sustainability programme. As I mentioned the Carbon Footprint report of the Irish Seafood sector and the list of threatened species are resources I will take away from this module and hopefully use in the classroom. Having example of the different labels is another way where we can introduce the idea of sustainable fishing to the children and is a great way of giving them the opportunity to contribute to this.
This module has stood out for me so far because of the information included. Nutrition is an important part of maintaining a healthy body. The food pyramid is a great resource to show us the recommended amount of each food group we should be having. This image alone offers a huge teaching point and opens up discussion about the foods we eat. The explanation of the 9 amino acids which needs to be absorbed by food as our bodies cannot produce these for our body. Both The HSE Healthy Eating Guidelines and the Healthy Food for Life links are great resources, which I plan on using in the future. The slide which showed the vitamins, minerals and amino acids present in seafood and the vast amount is a great visual. The use of ‘salmon of knowledge’ story is a great idea, especially with younger classes. I also liked the ‘Eye spy’ in the supermarket activity and even the introduction of the labels and certificates on our food.
I thought the ‘Goldilocks climate’ was a great term and comparison! I can imagine it giving the students a little laugh. It was fascinating to see how much is actually used for aquaculture.
Great idea with the connection between sports and healthy eating. It’s being able to make any connections for the children and for it to resonate with them.
In our schools we tend to focus on agriculture and less on aquaculture. As mentioned above, our school textbooks are predominantly focused on agriculture. It has given me an awareness of the importance of promoting sea farming and all it entails. The ARC videos are a great resource at highlighting the importance of aquaculture here in Ireland and give us opportunities to discuss this type of farming. This is something which we could focus on for our SSE – more emphasis on aquaculture and its role and opportunities today. Even more so, when we have such a wide range of sea farming right on our doorstep. The different aspects of Sea farming and the connections it has to STEM would be an area I would like to promote, especially in the senior end of the school. To give the students the opportunity to be made of the jobs available in the aquaculture industry – marine biologists, engineers, commercial divers, etc.
The map of Ireland was a great visual for the location of the aquaculture farming around us. With the growth in population, the increase of people moving to busier parts of Ireland, the rise of infrastructure in the West coast of Ireland all contribute to the local community. At times we can see a decrease in the number of people living in the West coast of Ireland. Without aquaculture farming many of these towns and villages would not be able to survive. With the rise in this type of farming allows these areas to become ‘attractive’ once again. People now have emplyment opportunities here and no longer need to relocate to other parts of the country. This then has an effective on local amenities – schools, roads, transport, shops, etc. The success of BIM has made a fantastic contribution to the west coast in particular. Having completed this module iy shows you some examples of this – Mussel farming, salmon farming, oyster fishing, science research, etc.
Such a simple and effective way to link to nutrition. It has never occurred to me either. Will definitely use it next year.
Having completed the first module of this course I can see how beneficial it will be for me in order to raise awareness of the importance of aquaculture in Ireland, in particular as we are located in the west of Ireland. These tools will allow me to include them in STEM education in our classrooms. I was unaware of the Social Licensing projects available. The ARC is a fantastic resource. This interactive, new way of learning would be a brilliant resource to offer to schools. I will be signing up my school to be added to the waiting list. It is another way to raise young people’s awareness of aquaculture. The Next Generation Oyster Producers was an interesting section and who knows, it might spark an interest in a child. The videos on the BIM website were particularly useful and have made note of these to use in the next school year.
