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I really love this idea, especially the suggestion of having the children recreate some of the famous landmarks, bridges and sections of the railway. It would make learning very practical and meaningful, while allowing the children to use their creativity, problem solving and STEM skills. I also love how it gives them an opportunity to see how engineering is all around them in their environment.
The famous engineer I have choosen is William Dargan. William was born in Killeshin, County Laois in 1799. He became known as the ‘Father of Irish Railways’ because of his important work in developing Ireland’s railway system. His work work involved planning routes, using measurements and solving problems.
I would use William Dargan as inspiration for a railway mapping STEM investigation. The children could learn about his work and then use maps and digital technology to investigate railway routes in Laois. The students could plot railway lines between local towns and identify features such as rivers, roads, hills and any buildings. The children could measure distances using maps and calculate how far a train would travel between different locations. They could then design their own railway route, explaining why they choose it.
This activity would combine Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Geography. It would develop the children’s problem-solving, measuring, mapping and digital skills while showing them how an engineer from their local area used these skills to solve real world problems.
I think the new greenway is a fantastic opportunity for a real-life design and make. It would be lovely for the children to use it as an inspiration to create their own when it is so relevant to their environement.
Using the suspension bridge at Birr Castle Demesne or a bridge in your local area as inspiration, describe how you would plan a class or whole school challenge to design and make a bridge. How would you integrate mathematical thinking and incorporate the maths skills appropriate to your class level.
Using the suspension bridge in Birr Castle as inspiration, I would set my enrichment group (SET teacher) a challenge to design and make a bridge that could carry a small weight. As our school is in a farming area, I would show the children the story of the farmer in Roscommon who created his own bridge to help him work on his farm, I think alot of my students will relate to this. We could also explore more famous bridges such as the Carrick A Rede bridge in Co. Antrim and discuss their different designs.
I would include Timahoe Round Tower as a local example of engineering in the past. Pupils could look at the small bridge and it’s structure/design that provides a connecting pathway to the church and village. I would encourage the children to thank about why bridges are needed to help people move safely from one place to another.
I would follow the design and make process: wondering, exploring, planning, making and evaluating through the lessons. The children would work together to develop their own designs. Maths would include measuring, estimating, comparing, calculating and exploring angles, shapes, symmetry and balance. I would discuss any new vocabulary throughout our lessons.
Early finishers could continue to test their bridges with extra weight or change their design to make it stronger and more stable.
I love your ideas Amy, I agree that registering the school with the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan is an excellent first step. I like the idea of inviting guest speakers, as their knowlege and enthusiasm would help the children understand the area more. I love the idea of a pollinator team, it would be useful to help organise activities, while making sure all pupils have opportunities to contribute.
Outline how you would use some of the course resources to conduct a seasonal biodiversity project to run throughout the school year. What resources and recording sheets would you need? How often would you bring learning outdoors? How would you integrate other subject areas?
Our school is very lucky to have the Abbeyleix Bog on our doorstep, I would use the bog as our main environmental resource for a biodiversity project throughout our school year. I would bring the children out along the boardwalk each season to observe how the plants, insects and birds change throughout the year. I would encourage the children to look for plants such as heather, bog cotton, sundew and gorse, insects such as butterflies, bees and all types of birds. I would use resources mentioned in this module from the Wild Connections Project at Birr Castle Demesne, the National Biodiversity Data Centre and the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan. I would encourage the children to use identification books, simple identification keys like the beautiful resource from carlowsports,ie, magnifying glasses and tablets or cameras. The bog also has a fabulous interactive resource on the entering the amentiy that students could also avail of. For each visit, students could complete a seasonal recording sheet including the date, weather, species observed, amount seen and a drawing or photograph. We could also use pollinator and weather recording sheets and compare our results between seasons. The project could link with Maths through counting and graphs, English through writng observations, Art through nature drawings, Science and Geography through learning about habitats, seasons and biodiversity.
As a SET teacher supporting 1st and 2nd class, I would use the CSO’ Ireland’s Top Motors dataset because many children in my groups are very interested in vehicles. I would aim to explore the most popular car makes in Ireland and use the information to create simple bar charts or pictograms. Students could compare which car brands are the most and least popular and answer questions on the findings. We could then continue to collect our own class data on favourite vehicles and compare with the national results. I feel using a topic that interests the students would encourgage more engagement while helping them develop their skills in collecting, organising and interpreting data. It would also show students that maths is used in everyday life to collect information, analyse it and make comparisons.
I agree Louise, that using real data can make maths more interesting and meaningful for students. As a SET teacher, I think it is very helpful for supporting children who may find maths difficult, as they can relate and understand the information better in most situations. Simple graphs, weather data and charts can help students to practise their basic numeracy skills, like counting, comparing and ordering.
I really like your point that STEM is about more than just the four separate subjects. I also agree that giving children opportunities to experiment, make mistakes and find their own solutions to help develop confidence and problem-solving skills. As a SET teacher, I see how these skills can support children across all areas of their learning.
Having reviewed Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Liston, 2018), I see STEM as much more than teaching separate subjects, which I have been guilty of doing in the past. It is about encouraging children to think, explore, solve problems and make connections through meaningful, hands-on learning.
As a SET teacher working with 1st and 2nd Class, STEM is part of my everyday teaching. In my numeracy groups, pupils often use practical materials to investigate mathematical ideas, recognise patterns and solve problems together. During literacy lessons, children develop their communication skills through oral language tasks and getting the opportunity to explain their thoughts. In my fine motor lessons, activities such as construction tasks, cutting, drawing helps to develop children’s skills needed for both learning and design. In my social and emotional groups, students learn to work together, listen to each other, share ideas and build confidence when completing activities especially in project type work.
Liston highlights that STEM should encourage creativity, collaboration and real-world learning. This is reflected in my classroom where children are supported to become curious, resilient learners who enjoy exploring new ideas and learning from their experiences.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1V5jKQzykCWz4WTUUBXHfERgo4prcrnoinirKS9d-l9Y/edit?usp=sharing
This year we are aiming to roll out Google Workplace with staff and senior classes and I’m looking forward to using the workplace tools and Meet to enhance teaching and learning inside and outside the classroom. I love the fact that all these tools are so easily accessible and all in the one area. The supported video links and the opportunity to join the GEG Ireland is excellent while striving to keep up with the pace of the ever changing demands of teaching and learning in our society. Google Classroom offers us the access to a digital classroom, while groups gives us the opportunity for various groups within our school community to remain connected like having their own noticeboard within the group. I find Google Meet excellent for accessing many CPD courses and we aim to use it with our senior classes throughout the year also, to familiarise them with this useful product. Through the pandemic, I felt we used various tools sourcing them separately and linking them into emails to parents etc. It took us awhile to find our feet with the best delivery of teaching. At times the remote teaching felt very disorganised and difficult to keep track of at times.
After familiarising myself with all the Google Workplace tools/products through this course, I feel confident to use it through teaching and learning on a daily basis going forward. These tools will really assist with collaboration, communication and organisation with my jobshare colleague. We have used Google Drive in the past but I feel I haven’t utilised all the excellent features Google Workplace has to offer up until now.
The idea of having a template would be very beneficial especially for those children who struggle to get started at a task.I will look at starting to use this also.
The idea of ‘Formative assessment and self- regulated learning’ provides students with the information and tools they need to manage their own learning. Dylan William’s explains how they both connect, with teacher’s checking learning while it’s happening and students taking charge of their own learning. Formative assessment encourages students to become more independent and motivated learners when done correctly. I love the tools like Google Forms for giving this instant feedback to students.
The Google forms quiz I created was a short literacy quiz assessing a second class group in the area of Vocabulary. (Link above) I felt it was a useful way to ease the children back into learning after the Summer. By keeping it short, I hope it will be more fun than overwhelming starting into the new school year. I am looking forward to using forms this academic year linking digital tools to blend assessment with learning. Also, having our assessment tools and records so easily accessible will really help the collaboration with my jobshare colleague.
I like the idea of using Google Forms to get to know our students in September. As a SET teacher (Job Sharing), I love the idea of my colleague having access to it also and not having a huge paper trail. We currently fill in ‘My Thoughts About School’ but I like how Google Forms would allow us to adapt questions for certain students learning needs and get a better picture of each student.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17WGD3aPLIHgdbYakuafm23Go8Jkao3TIEGuErUZ2agA/edit?usp=sharing
The 21st Century skill I focussed on was Communication through my workspace task document. This skill supports how children, learn, collaborate and express themselves. ‘Redesigning Education: Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century’ really highlights the topics that Dr. Deirdre Butler spoke about in our ever changing society. The idea that students must be prepared not just with knowledge but with the ability to access it, interprete it, analyse it and evaluate it in our ever changing environment. It’s important to recognise the skills that society require now and into the future, as the society we are preparing our children for will look very different.
While this task focussed on Communication, many other skills were also involved like collaboration, knowledge construction, self regulation, real world problems and the use of ICT for learning. I feel many students lack confidence to express their ideas and opinions clearly. I aim to continue to support children to develop their confidence in sharing their ideas, working with others and becoming effective communicators who can meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
