[Una Halpin]

Hi Yvonne

Welcome to the course and it is great to hear that you found the first module and the websites so useful.  Curious Minds is a rebrand of the Discover Primary Science website that you used in the past and many of the new activities incorporate aspects of the ones you would have been familiar with before.  Both the Curious Minds and ESERO website aim to make it easier for teachers to find practical resources that align with the curriculum and that can be adapted easily for different class groups so it is good to hear you highlight that aspect. You will also find that most of the resources needed to carry out the lessons are readily available and apart from a few like the telescope, you will need to buy very little specialist equipment or materials

[Una Halpin]

Hi Michael

Welcome to the course. It is great to hear that Maeve Liston’s paper has got you thinking about and reflecting on your own classroom practice and that you are thinking about ways to change your approach. I hope that this course will give you many more ideas for putting your thoughts into action in the classroom and lots of resources that can be adapted to provide ideas for interdisciplinary lessons. You will find this approach very useful when it comes to implementing the new STEM curriculum which values skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration.

 

[Una Halpin]

Hi Dervla

Welcome to the course. Combining school and home observations is always a good idea as the children get to observe the sun over a longer part of the day instead of just during school time. It is also a great way to involve parents and make them aware of the learning that is happening in school. Asking the children to make observations and record patterns for themselves heps them to understand the movement of the Earth. Graphing the positions and using it as a practical way to link with maths is a great idea.

 

 

[Una Halpin]

Hi Dervla

Welcome to the course. Combining school and home observations is always a good idea as the children get to observe the sun over a longer part of the day instead of just during school time. It is also a great way to involve parents and make them aware of the learning that is happening in school. Asking the children to make observations and record patterns for themselves heps them to understand the movement of the Earth. Graphing the positions and using it as a practical way to link with maths is a great idea.

 

 

[Una Halpin]

Hi Dervla

Welcome to the course. Combining school and home observations is always a good idea as the children get to observe the sun over a longer part of the day instead of just during school time. It is also a great way to involve parents and make them aware of the learning that is happening in school. Asking the children to make observations and record patterns for themselves heps them to understand the movement of the Earth. Graphing the positions and using it as a practical way to link with maths is a great idea.

 

 

[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.

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