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We are also based close to the Shannon estuary and I’ve never thought to use this as a stimulus for lessons but after completing this course and from reading comments and suggestions of lessons based on climate change there are so many options for stimuli in our local area that I would definitely use in the future. This is a great idea and linking the river/estuary to pollution but also to preserving local wildlife would be beneficial for the pupils knowledge on the impact of climate change.
Question: How is climate change affecting the animals and plants in our local area, and what can we do to help them?
I would begin my lesson with an introduction of diagnostic question with a KWL chart and posing to the children a question asking ‘what do we know about how our animals and plants locally are affected by climate change?’
I would then continue on with direct teaching explaining how climate change is causing our planet to warm up, which can make life harder for animals and plants. In Ireland, this means changes in weather, loss of habitats, and new challenges for our wildlife.
The main activity would be centered around the three main things that we can do e.g. protect wildlife by planning more native trees like oaks and flowers that help attract bees, birds and other minibeasts. We would also ask our careteaker to leave us a section in the garden that can be wild so homes can be created for these creatures. I would ask one group to focus on this element over a specific time frame.
Conserving water is another action that we can incorporate into our lives, at home and by sending children around to check that the taps automatically turn off in school and also collecting rain water to water our plants and vegetable garden in school is another thing that this group can do.
Reducing plastic is another action we can take on by involved in community clean ups and ensuring the children are being taught how to recycle properly and also reuse plastic for STEAM activities and Art activities, Music instrument making etc. Educating the children of the dangers of plastic to animals as they may mistake it for food is important also.
I would work on this for a term as the children could alternate activities and get a block of time doing each one, e.g. three weeks at each activity. Depending on the age group I’d like the children to bring in elements of digital literacy and project based learning into this so I’d encourage them to record/document and display their work from start to finish. They could then educate other classes on the actions we can take. By the end of the time frame I’d hope for the children to understand that the onus is on us to do our bit for our local environment and by working together we can protect Ireland’s animals and plants from the impact of climate change.
I think this project using the research planner question can be used with children of all ages except on different scales for the younger classes and further challenging the older classes.
Similar to Olivia we have shown an aerial/birds eye view of our school to the children during orienteering activities and it’s interesting how quickly they can identify the different parts of the school/pitch/astro and yard. This paired with some problem solving and critical thinking activities is a great activity for the children and we have the templates for years. We have them altered from easy to difficult so that even the junior infants can participate.
Five satellites that have passed over Ireland in the past few months are 1.International Space Station (ISS): which regularly passes over Ireland but is often visible in the early morning or evening.It passed over Ireland multiple times in July and August. 2. Starlink Satellites: Multiple Starlink satellites from SpaceX’s constellation pass over Ireland quite frequently and are visible due to their low orbit. 3. NOAA-19 is a weather satellite and provides very important meteorological data. It regularly passes over Ireland and passed over several times in July 2024. 4. Sentinel-1A is part of the Copernicus Programme and is an earth observation satellite has passed over Ireland multiple times, in so recent as June and July 2024. Finally 5. Landsat 8 is also an earth observation satellite which is used for monitoring the environment, with passes over Ireland observed in recent months. The satellites I have mentioned all have different purposes, from communication and weather monitoring to Earth observation and all offer valuable insights into the world we live in. I found this very interesting as during use of the app you could see nationalities of people on board, stars and planets.
Similar to Dearbhla’s opinion I think it might be best for a teacher to view the video and write down the bits they would like their class to see, depending on their age group and overall wellbeing as the reality of it all can be quite frightening.
I would begin by giving a brief explanation of climate change, emphasising how human activity is accelerating it and ask the pupils how they have a role to play in this. When children of all ages are asked to self-reflect it hits home as they are naturally egotistic anyway. I’d ask them to watch this video and not how humanity has a detrimental impact on climate change. I’d ask them to take not of how our actions personally negatively influence the world.
I would ask the children to scan the video for important details while it is being played and maybe encourage them to make a mind map of what stands out to them. After that, we’d break into groups in order to discover on a whole the effect we have and then go over the key issues again as a class. Stress the significance of being aware of climate change and taking appropriate action, such as cutting back on waste or energy use, reducing the use of fossil fuels in the home, reduce food shortage etc.
I’d then ask probably divide the class intro groups and set tasks, one group to make a conscious effort to reduce water wastage, one to reduce their carbon footprint and conserve energy. I’d ask them to try it for a week and then rotate the tasks, this would surely have a positive impact on the pupils effort and their families also. The aim of this would be to encourage better choices and decisions in their daily lives.
I think what Olivia is saying is very important. We shouldn’t scare the younger children especially into thinking that climate change and global warming is very serious but also it’s important to educate them and build on this information each year. As they get older they will be able to handle more accurate facts about our world and the negative impacts we have on it. However, for the younger classes it’s best to focus on educating them about what we can do to help and that small changes do make a big impact.
To utilise this tool with my class I would start by asking the children what they know about greenhouse gases, creating a KWL chart and then showing the children the paxi video on greenhouse gases. I’d show the children the resource and the different areas it goes into detail about e.g. temperature, precipitation, wind speed, solar radiation and carbon emissions. I’d break the class into groups and ask them to record would each group would like to know about greenhouse gases and it’s impact on specific countries in these five areas. Meanwhile I’d have set up the tealtool.earth on the devices that we have access to for the children to do some exploring and ask them to come up with answers for the questions they originally posed after seeing the video. It would be ideal to bring maths into this lesson also in the future as the children could create graphs illustrating the results on specific countries. There is a lot of scope for this tool from both the younger classes to the older ones. The Green Schools Committee would also get involved as it could link directly to some of the actions we undertake in our school, e.g. walk to school, cycle, carpool, turn lights off, don’t let water run, recycle, reuse for art and STEAM activities etc. I picture this tool being used over a few weeks for project work as there is so much you can do with it and it would link/integrate into many more subjects also.
I would also like to create a weather station as each class would benefit from it but I think you’re right Grainne, it would probably be best to purchase one piece of each type of weather equipment and then the children can also make their own as it’s important for them to see the real thing in action and it would also be motivating for them. I did this before but just with rain gauges and with how rain is made and we brought it into our genre writing so next time I’d bring other instruments into our English depending on the genre we were completing at the time.
STEM lessons are interactive and enjoyable in my classroom and usually take place within another subject as I find it easiest to integrate them into SESE, English Genre writing, Aistear etc. Examples are science activities, planting flowers, fruits and vegetables with younger classes and the incredible years I have done in the past with older classes. Blending colours is an activity that I’ve explored with first and second class. Simple block/structure building was used as an activity in infants during engineering week. Digital storytelling and interactive educational apps are two examples of technology that we use during our ipad time on a Wednesday. Mathematics is integrated with counting games, sorting objects, and recognizing shapes in the environment and especially during maths week when we go on shape hunts. During Active schools week we bring in STEM into our orienteering also with problem solving being the main skill being worked on. In the past we have bought weather recording instruments however after this module I have google how to make them and it’s quite easy and the items/resources necessary are all ones we would have around the house. I’ll definitely use these ideas in the future as the STEM activities mentioned would be engaging for children of all ages and would foster curiosity and problem-solving skills too.
Activity 1: This is a great exercise to help students understand how weather and climate are not the same thing. I think using their everyday life e.g. days of the week, christmas, birthday, halloween, easter etc as a way to understand weather would help them but then using different countries/states/continents etc to understand climate might assist them.
Activity 2: Setting up a weather station offers the children a dynamic way to understanding weather. Homemade equipment is sustainable and as mentioned above after googling on youtube how to make the instruments it’s more cost-effective. Most importantly, students always love when they are given a job and will enjoy monitoring the weather, like tracking water levels in a rain gauge, recording what direction the wind is going in etc.