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Describe how you would involve your pupils in an art, music drama or creative writing project based around your local natural or scientific heritage
I am so lucky to teach in Birr and because of that it is a no brainer to use Birr Castle and gardens as a stimulus for the above.
After visiting and exploring the grounds, gardens and wildlife there are so many ways to involve our pupils in art, music, drama and creative writing.
I would get the children to bring sketch pads and sketch their favourite images from our walk. They could also collect some leaves, flowers etc and we could create a gallery wall (a suggestion from another post).
As a creative writing process I would get the class to discuss the historical figures who would have made their way throught the hallways and gardens of the castle and gardens. Every child would take on a different role and perhaps do a diary entry for their day in the castle from a lowly servant to a member of the Parsons family. This would lend itself easily to a drama lesson where we could do some role play based on the diary entries. I think the class would really enjoy this idea.
Love this idea and 6 weeks is a great timeframe. I work in the Birr area and think this is very doable especailly with the unique facility that is Birr Castle.
Using the suspension bridge in 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.
I teach in Birr and this coming year I will have 5th class so this question was of particular interest to me as I hope to carry out some of the ideas from this course in September. I think the above would be a very worthwhile idea for my class.
I would start by giving the class different recyclable materials such as straws, paper, craft sticks and give them the challenge of bridge building working in pairs. The idea would be to create the strongest bridge using the aforementioned materials. We would test which bridge could hold the greatest weight incorporating our skills learned through Maths. The class would use their estimation skills throughout the lesson along with problem solving. Each pair would record their findings, note problems and solutions and ways to make their builds better. This incorporates literacy skills, oral language and art.
Getting each group to present and talk through their own designs would lead to class discussion on where each pair succeeded and maybe where they could improve. Using Digital technologies I think creating a short photostory of each build/construction would be very worthwhile and could be shown to different class levels.
I think this is a fantastic idea for a whole school project on an area of local interest and beauty. Simple discussion across the school would spark great conversations and letting students use their own voice and ideas is what we aim for.
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?
This was a really practicle and worth while module with so many ideas and resources to conduct a sesonal biodiversity project that I feel would work from Juniors to 6th class and beyond. A whole school approach would be the ideal way for a project like this to succeed and thrive.
Spending more time outside ( which I love the idea of) would be my starting point giving students a great chance to observe local habitats for both animal and plant change on a weekly basis. The Birdwatch resources look really user friendly and maybe one class could take this on as their particular area of interest. The cross curricular opportunties are many and varied. Keeping records and tallys links in with Maths while drawing observations and writing reports links to art and literacy. Our own locality offers so many interesting and beautiful areas to explore. I am teaching in Birr, and Birr Castle is an amazing area to to explore and examine along with the 2 fabulous parks located even closer to our school.
A whole school approach is really the best way to ensure interest and involvement both for staff and students. I love whole school approaches and I think this is the perfect project.
I’m considering my senior infants last year when coming up witth a plan for map making and incorporating some of the online tools discussed in this module.
We would start with a discussion based on our classroom, their playground and the bigger school itself. I think it would be important for them to work with somewhere familiar. Pupils could make up their own simple map keys, title, symbols and colours. As the teacher I would lead the lesson and model ideas for my class. I would give all pupils a chance to come up with ideas and discuss with their peers. I would use Google maps to show the class an aerial view of our school and surrounding areas. They would love this and it would help make the connection between map symbols etc and somewhere real like their school.
This is an absolutely brilliant idea. I really love it and will be bringing it to my staff in September as an fun and effective way to engage pupils of all ages and ability. I think it would be particularly beneficial for newcomer children throughout the school along with the new junior infants. Integration across the curriculum would be natural with art, maths, oral language to name but a few coming into play straight away.
I am happy enough with the teaching and participation of STEM in my classroom in recent years. I do however, know there is always room for improvement and new ideas. I read through the above paper and even though my classroom already ticks the boxes of effective STEM education in that pupils are encouraged to investigate problems and work collaboratively, I would love to see them develop more resiliance by learning from their mistakes. Cross curricular students really hate to fail and would rather not try sometimes than get it wrong. I would also like to further develop integrated learning opportunities. It is definately something that I really focused on when teaching in the Junior end of the school and not so much on my return to the senior end. It makes life easier for everyone as well as allowing students to use their knowledge in a better way as they themselves make the connections between disciplines.
Having reviewed the paper Unravelling STEM: Beyond the Acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (Liston 2018) reflect on what STEM education looks like in your classroom.
I am happy enough with the teaching and participation of STEM in my classroom in recent years. I do however, know there is always room for improvement and new ideas. I read through the above paper and even though my classroom already ticks the boxes of effective STEM education in that pupils are encouraged to investigate problems and work collaboratively, I would love to see them develop more resiliance by learning from their mistakes. Cross curricular students really hate to fail and would rather not try sometimes than get it wrong. I would also like to further develop integrated learning opportunities. It is definately something that I really focused on when teaching in the Junior end of the school and not so much on my return to the senior end. It makes life easier for everyone as well as allowing students to use their knowledge in a better way as they themselves make the connections between disciplines.
The Curious Minds website is really lovely and is very teacher friendly. I will definately be using it in September. I had previously used the Discover Primary Science and found that very practical also with some great resources for both the junior and senior ends of the school. The lesson plans are explained very well and managable for even the most nervous.