[Una Halpin]

Hi Emma

Welcome to the course and thanks for your detailed post. It is fantastic to see how much you have taken on board from the first module and the plans you have for incorporating some of these ideas into your teaching in the coming year. Just a few simple ideas can make a huge difference, such as the prompt for beginning a lesson. By just having something like this to fire the children’s imagination at first, your think pair share or class brainstorm can form part of the wondering process and should yield more depth. I agree that Michelle and her colleagues did a great job on the Fingerprints lesson, taking a very short and simple activity from the Curious Minds website and turning it into a whole school lesson with differentiation for different classes and lots of opportunity for using STEM skills. I hope you find lots more inspiration in the remaining modules of the course for incorporating into your teaching this year and in the future

[Una Halpin]

Hi David

That sounds like a lovely project on a local natural heritage site. I love the idea of building on your scientific investigations and research to cover the different types of writing. Procedural writing on how to carry out a minibeast hunt is a lovely idea and could tie in well with your art idea if the children used natural materials in the forest to create pictures or models of the minibeasts they found. The recount writing on the life of a deer is also a lovely idea. For an older class, this could be expanded to include other forest animals with each child researching their animal before writing and would also tie in with your drama idea if each child played the role of the animal they had written about.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Brid

Welcome to the course. I am glad you are enjoying it so far. As you have said, the very simple idea of discussing the weather on children’s birthdays has so much scope for discussion on seasonal variations in weather but also the short term changes from day to day and leading on to a discussion about climate and longer term variations. It would be interesting for children who have family in other countries or who may have been abroad on their birthday on some years to compare the weather there to introduce the topic of climate zones. As you said, there is so much scope with recording of the weather for differentiations for different classes and abilities from simple techniques for reading a thermometer, to working out where to place thermometers or other weather instruments, when and how to collect the data and how to analyse and represent it.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Joanne

Welcome to the course and I’m glad you enjoyed the first module.  As you said the activities here are very child friendly and accessible for all children. There are so many great STEM skills that can de developed from recording the weather from making and using instruments, to recording their findings, analysing their weather data and comparing it to online readings from Met Eireann. Even the simple act of placing thermometers in different parts of the school and on light and dark surfaces on a sunny day and seeing the differences between the temperatures is a great way to demonstrate why temperature is always recorded in the shade.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Yvonne

Thanks for your post and I’m glad you liked the Paxi video and can see its application in your class. While tools like the Teal Tool can really add to learning for some classes, I agree that it is not suitable for all. The use of technology is great in the classroom but it should be done in an integrated manner and using tools that enhance learning for the class and not as you said just contributing to extra screen time. Having a polytunnel in the school is fantastic and it is a great practical way to model the Greenhouse effect. We got a polytunnel at home in February this year and one of the first things we did was install a maximum minimum thermometer to monitor the temperature variations. It is fascinating to see the maximum temperatures reached in the greenhouse and compare the temperature inside to that outside on both sunny and cloudy days. This is something that could be tracked in a class and even graphed with lots of learning on the energy from the sun.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Rebecca

Welcome to the course. I’m glad you enjoyed the resources in this module especially the Paxi video. It is a great way to get started on the topic of Climate Change as it explains in a very clear way, how Greenhouse gasses trap heat in the atmosphere leading to Global Warming and in turn Climate Change and as you said, it is a great way to begin classroom discussions and investigations into Climate Change. Temperature prediction and the Teal tool can then be used to lead on from this.  There is a natural progression from learning about Climate Change and its causes to brainstorming ways to make changes and this is important for the children so that they can feel empowered to do something about the problem.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Eoin

It is great to hear that your passion has been ignited my the content of this module. The more people who are aware of the threats to Biodiversity and are motivated to take action, the better it will be for our wildlife and ourselves. I love your approach here in splitting the class into 5 groups each investigating one of the 5 main drivers of Biodiversity loss. I also love your focus on an integrated approach to infrastructure planning, something that is sadly lacking in our decision makers. I’m sure your students will come up with many solutions, as I find that children are much more capable of rational thought and forward thinking on these matters than adults. Perhaps, as well as coming up with their own actions like turning off unnecessary lights, they could take some other actions such as using what they have learned to contact their local council.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Eimear

I love the idea of creating your own collection of stories and traditions by reaching out to the school children, parents and the wider community. Having a dedicated email to collect these stories as they com in is a fantastic idea. I love the idea of the school collecting and collating the information and assigning the stories to different classes to interpret through art or music. This would be a fantastic project not just for the whole school but for the whole community too. Perhaps a display or showcase could be arranged in the school or the local library.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Jennifer

That sounds like a lovely introduction to the topic of Biodiversity and light pollution for an infant class. You have planned a nice way to introduce the topics in an easily accessible way for a young audience, who might hopefully revisit the topic in more detail at a later stage.  Assessing prior knowledge is always a good idea. I have often found that some children in infant classes have a surprising amount of knowledge on local plants and animals as they are at an age to really appreciate wildlife without the aversion to insects, dirt and wild spaces that some children sadly develop at a later stage. These children can be great for sharing their knowledge with others in the class. Picture checklists are a great way for infants to start noticing the wildlife around them. I would also strongly recommend a simple bug hunt for infants as they get so much enjoyment from it and learn valuable observation skills. Pairing your exploration of local parks with some observation of street lights and other sources of light along their routes along with your classroom discussions is a nice way to make the connection between wildlife and light pollution in an accessible way.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Jennifer

That sounds like a lovely introduction to the topic of Biodiversity and light pollution for an infant class. You have planned a nice way to introduce the topics in an easily accessible way for a young audience, who might hopefully revisit the topic in more detail at a later stage.  Assessing prior knowledge is always a good idea. I have often found that some children in infant classes have a surprising amount of knowledge on local plants and animals as they are at an age to really appreciate wildlife without the aversion to insects, dirt and wild spaces that some children sadly develop at a later stage. These children can be great for sharing their knowledge with others in the class. Picture checklists are a great way for infants to start noticing the wildlife around them. I would also strongly recommend a simple bug hunt for infants as they get so much enjoyment from it and learn valuable observation skills. Pairing your exploration of local parks with some observation of street lights and other sources of light along their routes along with your classroom discussions is a nice way to make the connection between wildlife and light pollution in an accessible way.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Justine

That sounds like a lovely project to Design a Dark Sky Place. I love how you have structured the project using the 4 phases of the Curious Minds / ESERO Framework for Inquiry and have considered how your proposed activities fit into the framework. I also hope that it was a useful exercise for you in terms of planning a series of lessons. Using an existing map showing the area around your school and especially including the Phoenix Park is a great exercise for the children as on one hand, they have a large  green space but on on the other they have encroaching light pollution form the surrounding city so it is a nice way to consider the challenge of light pollution and come up with creative ways to manage it while balancing the competing needs f different groups.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Tommy

Welcome to the course. I like your idea for a lesson plan on waves, sound and light. It includes a nice balance of discussion and practical activities and investigations to keep the children interested and motivated while making connections between light, sound and other waves. Using tuning forks in water is a great way to motivate children. They love to see who can make the biggest splash and using the tuning fork to see how sound waves travel differently in air (a gas), in water (a liquid) and when the tuning fork end is placed on the table (a solid) is a lovely way to investigate waves.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Patrick

Welcome to the course. I’m glad that you enjoyed the first module and that it has got you thinking about STEM teaching and learning in a new way. It is great that you have a new focus for next year in using the steps of the Curious Minds / ESERO Framework for Inquiry to expand your lessons and make them more meaningful and engaging for your students. Hopefully you will find lots more inspiration for ways to do this in the other modules of this course and lots of ways that you can integrate other subject areas with STEM so you can give your pupils that enhanced STEM experience without losing out on other subject areas.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Evelyn

Welcome to the course. You have given a great example there of how practical hands on Science investigations such as those outlined in the the Curious Minds and ESERO resources can be really useful for Special Education Teachers to work on numeracy and literacy in a fun and hands on way. I love how you plan to use the sundial as a visual way to teach time and also to cover lines and angles in a practical way that might be more relatable to your pupils.  I hope you find lots more examples in the course of practical activities like this which will benefit your pupils.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Justine

Moon observation doesn’t fit under the Science curriculum but does fit under the Geography strand of Planet Earth in space specifically the learning outcomes “recognise that the Earth, its moon, the sun, other planets and their satellites are separate bodies and are parts of the solar system” and “develop a simple understanding of the interrelationship of these bodies, including day and night and seasonal movements”. It is also a great way to develop the working scientifically skills especially questioning, observing and recording and communicating. I love the idea of connecting the phases of the moon with the Islamic calendar to make it relevant to your pupils.

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