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Research Question: The ice caps melting and it’s effects on the wildlife- polar bears and penguins.
Most schools have a theme of winter in their school plans during the cold months. I also find children love to learn about the harsh environment of cold parts of the world.
Children always love to learn about animals that live in cold environments. Children also complete report writing on penguins and polar bears so I would like to incorporate an important climate detective question when I complete my report writing.
We would investigate through videos, documentaries and images taken from satellites and airplanes that show the effects of ice caps melting on the environment. We will look at measurement taken by thermometer to show the change in temperature. The children would also be allowed to explore and research the topic on line. There they will explore key words and terminologies regarding the causes and effects. The children will start the investigation by learning one of the causes of this situation is green house gases. The class will create a mind map together so we can write about what they know about the climate,
The children will learn that penguins are having to leap from higher points off ice to reach the sea when they are babies. They will also learn the effects of the ice caps are having on polar bears who need ice caps to hunt. The children will watch a documentary on Mickey the polar bear and his struggle to survive with his mam and sibling in the wild.
The children will share their results of their findings and record simple ways they can help by reducing green house gases in their daily lives- walk, cycle, recycle.
I agree the o zone layer is not really thought in Irish schools but in Australia where they have no o-zone layer over them. They are fully aware of this factor and schools have hat rules and areas with trees providing shade for play time.
Download the Teacher Guide & Pupil Activities for the ESA Resource ‘ Nose High Up in The Sky, carry out the pupil activities yourself and post your thoughts on the resource and if you would use it in class. (150 words
The activity I selected was “High Up in the Sky”. I carried out the activities.
Activity 1: Examined the Earth seen from the ISS. It looks at the international space centre. We would discuss what we think Earth would look like from space to astronauts. How the space station would look. We would watch videos and get information about the space station, astronauts’ daily lives in space. We would look at how they eat, drink, where they sleep, brush their hair, gravity and how they exercise. in space. The children love to learn about astronauts in space and their life. We would use the resources of the teach with space and the astronaut’s logbook.
Activity 2: Match the photos
We will examine photographs of space taken by astronauts on the international space station. We will match pictures taken on the ground of landscapes and attempt to match them with the pictures taken from space. The children will also look at maps from google earth and zoom in from a country and keep zooming until you get to a street.
Activity 3:
Photos taken from Satellites orbiting the earth. The children will again match photos and we can use their address to how their home or area. Children will love to look at Earth from another perspective.
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I agree this video could only be shown to an older class and children who were not anxious as we do not need to put burdens or worry on children who would not cope.
The video called Home by Yann Arthus-Bertran is a very powerful and evidence based documentary on the impact of human activity on this planet. It has one important message we need to take care of the earth and help in the fight against climate change. We must listen to the urgent warnings about climate change for future generations. I would also remind them that every person can help make a difference. For example Greta Thunberg. I feel we all witnessed this impact on wildlife and nature during the covid lockdown when humans were unable to travel, we saw across the world that wildlife returned to polluted areas. For example Dolphins swam in Hudson river. Smog disappeared from cities.
The video starts with the history of the world and beautiful images that captivate the audience. It provides lots of scientific facts from a gentle voiced narrator. It such as the earth has existed for 4 billion years while humans only appeared 200,000 years ago. I would use this video as a stimulus for teaching this topic to the children. Then I would place the children in groups to discuss the video and write down open ended questions.
I would get the children to create posters on greenhouse gases with some of their open ended questions on them. The children would then complete a kahoot quiz on greenhouse gases and ways we can help to assess their learning.. It is important to give children an opportunity to voice their opinions and I would use the TED talk which was delivered by Greta Thunberg to show the children that they have a role to play in trying to resolve global warming. The carbon footprint calculator seems like a fantastic resource to make the children truly aware of the impact they are having on the climate.
Activity 3 asked that we watch the Paxi video on greenhouse gases and use the tool for predicting future temperatures.
Discussions about greenhouses gases and its impact on the world are openly discussed on the media. Children will have heard discussions on climate change and ways we can help in their daily lives- for example the different colour bins, recycling bottles and cans in shops, electric cars, cycle a bike or walk etc. People are also predicting and engaging in conversations about climate change and its influence on the world. For example the heatwaves in some countries during summer and the flooding and cold in others.
In my class I would use the Paxi video as one of my stimulus to start the discussion on this topic. I found the video was very simple for children to understand and provided a simple and clear explanation to the greenhouse gas effect. I also liked that it ended with a positive outlook on how we can help individually to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases through simple activities. I feel this is very important as children should not feel burden or anxious that they alone are causing this problem. Every little step can make a big change.
The tool I would select is the temperature predictor. This tool can be used to show how temperatures can increase where we live and predict future temperatures. I believe all the children in my class would understand the prediction of hot or cold in areas
I agree there is so much to take from Liston’s paper for teaching stem in the classroom. I feel every school in Ireland teaches children about the weather and most infants day start by describing the weather outside their window but we don’t focus on climate as much
After read the paper Unravelling STEM: Beyond the acronym of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (Liston 2018). I am able to identify a variety of STEM ideas and activities that I use when teaching my class.
I feel my classroom encourages inspiring creativity, problem solving and team work. These are very important skills needed through out their lives.I also believe active learning and hands on approaches are invaluable for teaching and learning. Children learn through play and active learning and stem can be taught easily through active learning and hands on approaches.
Is it weather or climate.
I really enjoyed the videos in this course especially be a weather watcher, weather v’s climate and Nose up high in the sky. They are great for teaching children about the topic of weather and climate
Weather detectives- Aistear- weather station
We are very lucky in my school to have weather equipment- temperature- thermometer, rainfall- gauge. I would allow the children the opportunity to use these in the aistear area.
I would also gather more equipment such as a anemometer.
I would have a variety of weather pictures for helping to talk about the weather.
I would have a selection of cloud cover pictures to choose from.
I would have an area devoted to weather- it would have maps for telling the weather and role play for being the weather boy/ girl.
I would have an area to record the weather
Well done on creating a great list of activities for space week in school. I can’t wait to do the theme of space next year as I feel I have so many more amazing ideas and activities for completing with my class
I would start my lesson by reading the book “The way back home”.
We would discuss ways to get home from space- Children will hopefully identify rockets or spaceships.
The children will make a rocket using paper- they will design and make rockets using colours.
The children will create rockets using 2-d shapes and construction junk art.
Then we will examine how rockets are launched- We will watch videos of nasa spaceships being launched into space. We will discuss astronauts in the spaceships. We will role play being astronauts on the spaceships. We will pretend to be in completing the check list and count down to launch.
We will predict, investigate and complete an experiment called Rocket Mice and see which rocket mice will go the biggest distance.
We will record the distance and measure it.
Small world play in Aistear using Rockets, spaceships and astronauts
I will use the animals in the cold game with my class. I always feel children love to learn about animals and people living in the cold and looking at pictures from lapland and other cold areas
Weather- infant classes
We will start by discussing and identifying different types of weather.The children will become aware of different types of weather.
We will use power point presentation and videos to show the children different type of weather.
We will discuss the seasons and weather normally associated with seasons.
We will discuss the differences between hot and cold weather
The children will complete a variety of activities associated with weather and clothing. The children will identify clothing associated with different weather and materials. For example rain- raincoat needs to be waterproof, sun- sun hat and sunglasses, dress, shorts, etc.
We will also discuss the differences of living in a hot or cold place- eskimos live in cold places and wear warm clothes as the temperature is very cold. Hoods are needed to protect their heads from the cold.
1. Children will role play being on the weather boy or girl and provide the class with a weather forecast each day.
2. The children will have dolls and a variety of clothes. They will need to dress the dolls appropriately for the weather. The children will spin the wheel and see what weather they get sun- sun hat, sunglasses, shorts. The children will use both cards and baby clothes for this activity.
Art: The children create their own clothes using materials, Fashion wheel- children spin the wheel and create outfits.
Aistear- Weather girls/ boys in the news room and dress up after the weather forecast, Clothes shop.
