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Hi Irene,
I love the idea of planting and caring for trees and flowers. These hands on activities are just gorgeous in the infant classes. It is lovely to watch the children having something that they feel responsible for so they rush in, in the morning to check on it. My school has a school garden and the children learned to work collaboratively which, looking at it now, aligned well with the authentic STEM learning experiences.
Activity 3 is lovely. I enjoyed how it is clearly laid out, and how it could be adapted to the class in front of you. The Paxi video is an excellent resource. Age appropriate language and a clear explanation of which can be a challenging concept for children to understand. Most children would, after viewing the video being able to explain how greenhouse gases cause global warming.
Thinking of the class I had this year, I could imagine how they would have incorporated drama into the lesson. Like others have mentioned the children could work in groups exploring the temperature changes in various countries using Teal. They could report their finding back like a news report or a National Geographic video style reporting. Perhaps their presentations could be recorded and reviewed later as per of an oral language or critical thinking activity. They could engage the whole school in a poster designing competition to raise awareness school wide.
I absolutely agree. Sometimes it can be tricky to pair things back effectively for the infant classes, however it is important to remember that simple is powerful. I also love the focus on oral language and discussion. Often the emphasis can be on the written element, how classwork is recorded but there is such importance in giving adequate time to thought and discussion.
Liston’s (2018) Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths states that STEM activities and lessons use the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a systematic, orderly, open-ended way of approaching problems and designing solutions for those problems.
This paper reminded me of Leonardo da Vinci’s revolutionary drawings and designs in science and engineering, which were later invented. Bringing this thought process to my classroom, I can see how giving the children opportunities to be creative and placing emphasis on working collaboratively would allow them to be innovative critical thinkers and to be more able to make good decisions. To become a modern Leonardo da Vinci would allow them to embody authentic STEM learning experiences and create magic in the classroom.
I love the idea of the birthday weather lesson. I feel that the children with the same birthday month would enjoy pairing up and comparing weather. Perhaps we could then group them into seasonal birthdays and compare the weather seasonally.
