Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Prepare a school project to collect Piseógs/Traditions/Stories of the Night. For Example: Dúchas Folklore Commission
This is definitely a topic I would link with the theme Halloween in my class in the coming year. I found the presentation with Clodagh very interesting and loved learning about the traditions and piseogs linked to Halloween.
I would begin by asking the children about their own traditions at Halloween. (Begin KWL chart) We will then see if we can link these traditions to the olden days. I will explain to children that we will be researching the history of Halloween. Children will each be required to create their own project on Halloween. The Headings would be the following:
- Origin of Halloween
- History of Halloween costumes
- Trick or Treating
- Any other interesting stories/customs
- Interview with older person based on their traditions
- How I spend Halloween
Information would be gathered over the course of a week using Duachas, research on iPads and books, children will also be encouraged to ask parents/ grandparents about Halloween when they were young to use as a comparison to their own traditions.
Children will rpesent their projects to rest of class and KWL will be filled in.
Some fantastic ideas Cathy, I love the idea of getting the kids to research their favourite plant/animal and presenting it to the group as I think children really benefit from peer learning. I too teach in Dublin and think it is important for children to be in contact with nature and taking them to nearby parks or creating a school garden so they can observe and investigate natural wildlife and flora.
How you would engage your learners to explore biodiversity in your
local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity.Firstly, as a class we would look at the term biodiversity. We will discuss and explore the flora and fauna that are evident in our locality. Then children will be introduced to two terms nocturnal and diurnal. We will brainstorm all of the nocturnal animals and write a list on the board.
I will get the childrens opinions on bats and why they have a bad reputation. Children will then be shown the video on the long eared bat from RTE wild on Youtube. Children will then be asked to make a profile on the bat, their appearance, diet and habitat. Children can use iPads to research for their profile. After they have done this we will explore and investigate how bats see in the dark. I think a great game to highlight this is the bat and moth game mentioned in this module. Then Echolocation could be explored and added as an adaptation in their factfiles.Finally we will look at the effects light pollution has on Bats, how it effects their navigation, feeding and foraging time. We will also look at how other animals, plants and insects are effected by light pollution.
Katie, I like you didn’t think much of light pollution prior to this topic. I also found it very interesting and will definitely be more aware of light pollution and hope to teach my class about it in the coming year!
I was lucky enough to grow up in rural Kerry and still spend a lot of my summer there. It is perfect for stargazing, identifying planets and constellations due to the lack of light pollution. I teach in a school in Dublin and notice a stark difference between the night sky, where much light pollution occurs from street lights, outdoor lights, residential and light from businesses and cars. This light pollution has an effects on astronomy in that stars and night sky cannot be fully seen and appreciated. I was shocked to discover that 50 percent of Ireland cannot see natural night sky. Light pollution also effects wildlife, nocturnal animals as well plants interfering with natural photosynthesis processes. Finally, light pollution can effect human natural circadian process in turn contributing to poor quality sleep and even mental health.
This is a topic I found very interesting and would definitely use it as a topic in the classroom. We would discuss the term light pollution and I think that ESERO activity 9 based on Light and Darkness could be used over 2 lessons to explore the topic. I think the Light Pollution map is a very useful tool in showing children where light pollution in most prominent in the country. Exploring what we can do as a community to limit the amount of light pollution could also be discussed.
We have a buddy system in our school and I think getting the older children to teach topics like this is a fantastic idea. Younger children respond well to their older peers coming in and the senior pupils will get a great sense of achievement and self confidence. This will also consolidate childrens own learning this is something I will definitely try to enforce in school for Science/Space Week in our school this year!
2. Create a short teaching resource using Stellarium/ WorldWide Telescope
I would firstly engage children with the topic of The Night Sky by brainstorming the components of the night sky: What we can see, stars, moon, planets, satellites.
I will ask the children how can we identify stars vs planets vs satellites. (direction in which they are moving, distance etc)Once the children are engages I would open the Stellarium app on my desktop and we will explore the night sky as a class. I will show them how we can adjust time/date/location and we will look at the different planets visible. Children will also be introduced to the term constellations and we will explore some of these together as a class on the Interactive Whiteboard. This could tie in very well with The Ancient Greeks for History and some of the stories related to the Greek names for constellations could be explored. We will look at the Ursa Major and focus in on the Plough as a class.
For the next lesson children will recap on what we learned about constellations, Stellarium will be opened again and children will be asked can they see plough. Children will then work in groups to make the plough using string foil and star map from DPSM activity. Children will explore the distance of stars from planet Earth and this model will help children understand that stars look different when looked at from different perspective.
Children could alternatively make their own constellations using The ESERO 34 Draw your own constellations.
Katie, I love how you have laid out this lesson, It caters to all learning abilities and styles with your multi modal approach will definitely save it for use in my own class this coming year!
One year on Earth- Understanding the seasons
Trigger- Pictures of the seasons displayed on the board- Discuss.
Wondering- When it is summer in Ireland is it summer everywhere else in the world?
Christmas in Ireland- weather, colours, clothes vs Christmas Australia- weather, colours, clothes. Why is it different?
Why do you think summer in North/ winter in South and vice versa?
Exploring- Using video of day night and seasons to show children how the seasons work. Question children to assess understanding.
Introduce vocabulary such as equator, axis, meridians, Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
Ensure children understand that everyday Earth rotates on its own axis= 1 Day and that one year = one full rotation around sun. (Use modals to illustrate this)
Carry out experiment with children, putting them into groups. Each group will Use model of Earth (polystyrene ball) and sun (torch).
They will pick a point on Earth and mark it with cocktail stick, then complete rotations around sun, while Earth is tilted on access.
Discuss findings as a group.
Use video Paxi- Day, night and the seasons to consolidate information.