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Your post is very interesting Rosaleen and would be very useful for pupils to investigate as plastic waste is so problematic for the environment.
How does travelling to school by car affect our carbon footprint, and could more pupils walk, cycle or carpool?
I believe this Climate Detectives investigation into school transport and carbon footprints would be useful and appealing because it connects climate change to something pupils experience every day. Many pupils travel to school by car, but they may not fully realise the environmental impact of the journeys made to and from school each day. Pupils could investigate how much carbon dioxide is produced by different forms of transport and consider how walking, cycling or carpooling could help reduce our school’s carbon footprint.
I would encourage participation by beginning with a class discussion about how pupils travel to school and why they use that particular method. Pupils could complete a survey of their class, or potentially the whole school, recording how many pupils travel by car, walk, cycle or carpool. The results could then be presented using graphs and percentages. Pupils could investigate the approximate carbon emissions associated with different types of journeys and calculate how many car journeys are made to school each week.
Pupils could work in small groups to:
•investigate the environmental impact of different forms of transport;
•calculate the approximate carbon footprint of journeys to and from school;
•compare individual car journeys with carpooling;
•investigate how many pupils live within walking or cycling distance of the school;
•explore the benefits and challenges of walking, cycling and carpooling;
•calculate how much carbon could potentially be saved if some families shared car journeys or changed how they travel to school.I would also like pupils to investigate if there are practical ways our school could encourage more sustainable travel. They could survey parents and pupils to find out what prevents people from walking or cycling, such as distance, safety, weather or lack of suitable paths. Pupils could then use their findings to suggest realistic solutions, such as a Walk to School Day and a cycle-to-school initiative.
Pupils could work together to create posters, presentations or a digital posts to share their findings with the wider school community. They could also present their evidence to the Green-Schools committee and make recommendations based on their research.
I feel this would be a very worthwhile Climate Detectives investigation because it would allow pupils to collect and analyse real data from their own school. It would promote scientific inquiry, mathematical skills, collaboration and responsible citizenship. Most importantly, pupils would see that climate action does not always involve major changes; small changes to everyday journeys, when made by many people, can have a positive impact on reducing carbon emissions and creating a more sustainable school community.Helen, I also came across the OKEAN-O and found it very interesting in how it can monitor the oceans.
Quite a lot of satellites have passed over Ireland recently. It took a while to try and use Orbitrack so I also searched some tracking websites which became a bit easier to navigate. Here are five;
1.NOAA20: Is a weather satellite that collates information about our earth’s atmosphere as well as cloud formation, the state of our oceans and land areas. The data gathered by NOAA20 helps meteorologists understand weather patterns and climate change.2.Starlink satellites: Starlink is a group of satellites operated by SpaceX. These satellites give high-speed internet to towns and cities around the world and provides internet access to very remote areas.
3.NOAA21 : Gathers information about the atmosphere and surfaces on earth. The information it gathers helps scientists monitor weather & environmental conditions.
4.Suomi NPP: This satellite is a joint NASA/NOAA mission to monitors earth’s oceans lands and atmosphere. It is very useful in weather forecasting, environmental monitoring and for monitoring lon term changes on earth.
5.International Space Station (ISS): The ISS is one of most famous to track and is one I have spoken about with 6th class before and they knew a lot about the ISS. It travels around the at about 400 km above the earth. On the ISS astronauts carry out scientific experiments. From my research online I believe it can sometimes be seen from Ireland during the night as a bright object moving in the sky.
I like your idea Michelle of using report writing as a way of getting pupils to explain their understanding to the wider school audience. This is something I will be doing with 6th class in term 1.
My thoughts on the film ‘HOME’ is an excellent and informative portrayal of the interconnected relationships between human activity and the natural world. Most of the film is made using aerial footage/images of the different landscapes across our globe and explain the impact of climate change in a simple way that sparks many emotions and questions among the viewer. From beginning to end this film/documentary explores many important environmental issues such as deforestation, pollution, over consumption of resources and greenhouse gas emissions. It showcases how human behaviour is having a major impact on the earth and fuelling climate change. This documentary has made think about the theme of biodiversity within my own school context and how my school has been promoting the teaching of biodiversity in recent years. Having watched this documentary I am much more aware of the interconnectedness if biodiversity not just locally but nationally and globally.
Overall this documentary has brought home for me the importance and value of educating children about the issues connected to climate change so that pupils understand how closely humans, animals and the environment are connected. Most importantly the choices we make both big and small impact on the wider world.
The Climate Aid 2020 promotional video in the module would be very useful as an introduction to concepts such as greenhouse gases, rising temperatures, deforestation and the impact of human consumption. With 6th class pupils, I would introduce these climate change facts through short video clips from the documentary Home and talk about and discuss the issues. Pupils could then identify practical actions they can take and understand that their choices can contribute to positive environmental change.I agree Owen, that a short quiz activity would be useful in terms of assessment for and of learning and also agree on with the vocabulary support in terms of child- friendly definitions as many children need support in understanding the meaning of subject specific (tier 3) vocabulary.
Activity 3 gave an interesting introduction on greenhouse gases and climate change. The Paxi video explained the science behind this in a pupil and teacher friendly manner, which supports in my opinion the principles of UDL through the engaging visuals making it accessible to pupils of all abilities. I thought that the video was great in highlighting how greenhouse gases impact on the earth’s temperature. It also explained in clear language how increased emissions contribute to global warming.
I found that the future temperature prediction tool would be very good to get users to visualise the likely impact of climate change over the coming decades. This could be used to help pupils think critically about how human activity influences the environment we live in. It also provides opportunities to integrate STEM skills through observation, prediction, data interpretation and discussion. I could use this activity with my 6th class when teaching about climate change and environmental awareness.
One improvement would be to have an activity where pupils investigate local climate issues in our county e.g. flooding in recent years. Another improvement could be to make explicit links with SPHE on citizenship and being responsible global citizens.I agree with Máirín that both these activities provide great opportunities for child led learning and this is something that should always be at the heart of STEM.
Having gone through Liston’s (2018) paper I reflected on how STEM is present in my own classroom in many different ways and links with many other subjects in different ways. STEM is my classroom is about giving pupils the freedom to creative, problem-solve their own problems and questions without always finding the answer, pupils working together to solve and investigate, critical thinking and inquiry based learning to investigate real-life issues. In my classroom in recent years I have become better at integrating across the curriculum through projects where pupils, investigate issues, research the information and present possible solutions. However, Liston’s paper has made me think deeper about STEM and makes be look at STEM in a new way.
The Weather and Climate activities would be great for pupils to engage with STEM.
Activity 1: Is it weather or climate?, would be a good way to develop pupils’ understanding of the difference between short-term and long weather patterns. This activity would create talk and talk and discussion around the main differences in senior classes. It could be enhanced further by researching the science/theories behind recent global weather events or local weather events in Ireland such as flooding in our local area.Activity 2: Weather Detectives, would be good to teach pupils about observing and recording weather and information related to local weather. I could use this activity in my school when setting up a school weather station at the back of the school. My class could collect data over the course of a school term or terms.