Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
<p style=”background: white; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0in 0in 19.2pt 0in;”><span style=”font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: ‘Arial’,sans-serif; color: #163c42;”>Irene, I think your plan is well thought out and extremely practical. It could probably be used for any school in Ireland, as we all experience heavy rainfall for much of the year! Practical activities like planting trees to help absorb water is a great idea and shows children a way of dealing with this problem that they will probably encounter as adults. Encouraging people to keep drains free from litter is also important, as it brings art and design into the project, and informs the school community how to help solve the problem, involving everyone in the practical solution. Mapping the areas where water collects will develop lots of skills, and will provide opportunities for cross-curricular links.</span></p>
<p style=”background: white; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0in 0in 19.2pt 0in;”><span style=”font-size: 9.0pt; font-family: ‘Arial’,sans-serif; color: #163c42;”>Extending the lesson to look at flooding in the county would be a wonderful way to encourage the children to become active citizens, in trying to come up with solutions for flooding in their wider community.</span></p>How can we use nature-based solutions to reduce flooding on our school pitch and make it usable for more of the school year?
Does the question fit the theme of “climate”? Yes, as our wet climate affects the quality of the pitch surface.
Is the question focused on a single problem or issue?
Yes, it is focused on the flooding on the school pitch. There is also flooding on much of our teacher’s car park at times, pooling on the playground, flooding on some of our local roads and towns at certain times of the year.
Re-draft: How absorbent are our school grounds, and how can we use nature-based solutions to reduce local flood risks?
Is the question too broad or too narrow? No, it is based on investigations we can carry out on our own school grounds, and the information we will gather can help all locals as the soil is similar in much of the surrounding area.
Is the question clear and concise? Yes
Is the answer to the question readily available? No, it will require lots of investigation and research.
Is the question feasible? Yes, we can use rain gauges to measure and compare rainfall in different areas of the school grounds, use MET Eireann data to track historic local rainfall, research natural ways to drain land, research trees that are commonly planted to absorb water, gather rain in rain butts to alleviate flooding on the areas of our yard that commonly get flooded and re-use that water in areas of our school garden that might need extra water from time to time.
There will be lots of opportunity for scientific measuring, recording, comparing, discussion, questioning, observing, researching, testing. It will be a wonderful learning experience for the children and valuable practical knowledge for them to gain for their future lives.
There is lots of opportunity for cross-curricular links: Maths, Science, Geography, History, Literacy, visual art.
The goal of making the football pitch more usable will appeal to all children, as they love to play on the pitch whether they enjoy football or not – it is a lovely big area that they feel a sense of freedom in.
Irene,
I found it fascinating how fast some of the satellites travel and how often they pass over us. I think that the children would love to monitor the satellites and investigate what they do. It is amazing to watch the view of the earth from the satellite, especially these days, when our skies are so clear and practically cloud-free. I think they would find it fascinating too, like looking down from a spaceship!
Ground control to Major Tom……..
Satellite Tracker: 5 satellites that pass over Ireland regularly. These are doing polar orbits.
The ISS is circling the planet every 90 minutes. It observes features, atmospheric phenomena and natural disasters in detail, and how space radiation affects material durability, how organisms adapt, and examines phenomena such as neutron stars and black holes.
Cosmos 1844: Currently inactive, orbits the Earth as a derelict object. Launched in May 1987, it belongs to the Tselina-2 series designed to intercept, map, and analyze military and civilian radio transmissions on Earth.
Spacemobile-002: Is part of a constellation built by <span data-copy-service-computed-style=”font-family: "Google Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);”>AST SpaceMobile</span><span data-copy-service-computed-style=”font-family: "Google Sans", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px; text-decoration: none; border-bottom: 0px rgb(10, 10, 10);”> designed to deliver direct-to-device cellular broadband.</span>
Intercosmos 25: Currently inactive. Was a 1991 uncrewed international scientific satellite mission. Its primary goal was to study the dynamics of electron beams in unconfined plasma and how streams of charged particles interact with the Earth’s ionosphere and magnetosphere.
Okeon O: Used to monitor sea surface temperatures, map ice conditions in arctic regions, forecast the weather, monitor ecology and phytoplankton, and map geological structures.
The inactive satellites are monitored in case of collision with other space objects.
Irene, I agree that this is a visually stunning and powerful movie, showing the most breathtakingly beautiful aspects of nature.
I like your plan of introducing weather, seasons and climate in that order as some children will be more aware than others of these concepts, and it is essential that they understand what climate is before starting to talk about climate change.
I also like your idea of using segments of the movie as it is extremely long, and having class discussions on aspects the beauty of the scenery and the harm people are doing to the environment.
I feel that it is extremely important to discuss how the children can take action to help the environment, to empower them, and to carry out these actions as you suggest. Without taking action, we can feel powerless and even become depressed thinking about the destruction that is taking place in our planet.
I found the film HOME very eye-opening in terms of making me think about my choices, particularly in terms of thinking about where I source my food. I am guilty of buying the cheapest food, regardless where it comes from. This is a change I can make, which would also benefit my local economy and help my own health.
To go about introducing the facts to the children, I would show them clips of the film to show the different aspects, then have a discussion about positive things they could do to minimize their carbon footprint.
For example, Deforestation accounts for 20% of global warming. We can plant trees in our school and our homes.
Children could be involved in responsible food shopping, by reading packages to see what country their food is coming from, to check ingredients to see if palm oil has been used in their manufacture.
Many of our homes are starting to install solar panels. Our school has them, and we have been monitoring how it helps our school financially as well as the climatic effect (the app shows how many trees we have saved).
Encouraging composting, recycling, growing our own fruit and vegetables, turning off lights, appliances and taps, keeping doors and windows shut in cold weather; all these are habits that we can help the children to form and keep, and can make a real difference to our future.
Hi Aine
I agree that the Paxi video is very effective. The very beginning may put off older learners as they may think it is too babyish, so I might skip that with older classes. The main body of the video is really clear and explanatory. Think, pair, share is a great idea and will give the children time to stop and think about what they have heard and ensure they’ve understood the content.
I agree that the Climate Reporters is an engaging activity for 6<sup>th</sup> class, and is a great way to increase awareness of the real effects of global warming and to springboard thinking of practical ways they can help to reduce it.
For this activity, it’s crucial to start by teaching the children about the greenhouse effect using the Paxi video, followed by a discussion to ensure understanding. Slides 4 and 5 of this module also provide great visuals that the children can replicate to reinforce their learning.
The “Earth Under the Lid” activity will allow them to see the heating impact of clingfilm on containers, making the greenhouse effect more understandable for them. Discussing the different results from various groups will encourage analysis of why those differences occurred. A natural follow-up would be discussing scientists’ predictions about future temperatures, which some children may already know from the news.
I find Teal a little challenging, so we would practice as a class with one country first, hoping the children could then use the prediction tool in groups and help me learn. I’d select seven or eight countries with varying climates, allowing each group to share their findings with the class, as each area will provide unique insights.
In her paper, Liston explains what STEM teaching is in and also gives compelling reasons for using the STEM approach, citing Jolly (2017) as she lists seven ways in which the STEM approach encourages children to think more critically and scientifically.
In my classroom, we carried out a STEM project involving designing and making a bird feeder. We talked about local birds and how we might encourage them to come and stay in our school garden. We discussed what materials we might use and used a basic design of a milk/juice carton. There was a lot of trial and error in discovering how we would hang the bird houses up securely, designing a door, where to locate them etc.
Weather VS Climate activities
Before beginning Activity 1, I would teach the children about the difference between weather and climate in terms of definition, and show them some different climates using maps, globes, internet photographs, places they have been on holiday.
In Activity 2, I would measure the temperature over a month during winter, and then again in summer.
I agree with your interpretation of Liston’s ideas, Michael, and I share your vision of trying to do more authentic STEM lessons going forward. Our school has chosen STEM as its focus for this coming school year, and I will be teaching the Senior classes one day per week so I’m looking forward to being able to carry out some projects that will link Green Schools ideals, science, geography, maths, engineering. We have done some work on the local environment and weather folklore already, and I would hope to build on this foundation to expand the students’ knowledge and understanding of what climate is so that we can better understand climate change and what that means.
I agree also with the idea of including places the children have been on holiday – this makes the discussion more relevant to their own experiences.
In her paper, Liston explains what STEM teaching is in and also gives compelling reasons for using the STEM approach, citing Jolly (2017) as she lists seven ways in which the STEM approach encourages children to think more critically and scientifically.
In my classroom, we carried out a STEM project involving designing and making a bird feeder. We talked about local birds and how we might encourage them to come and stay in our school garden. We discussed what materials we might use and used a basic design of a milk/juice carton. There was a lot of trial and error in discovering how we would hang the bird houses up securely, designing a door, where to lacte them etc.
Weather VS Climate activities
Before beginning Activity 1, I would teach the children about the difference between weather and climate in terms of definition, and show them some different climates using maps, globes, internet photographs, places they have been on holiday.
In Activity 2, I would measure the temperature over a month during winter, and then again in summer.