[Una Halpin]

Hi Sandra

That is a fantastic list of ideas for songs, poems and stories for Junior infants. I love the alterations to the poems and songs to highlight the importance of darkness for nocturnal animals and biodiversity in general. It is a lovely way to highlight the main messages about dark skies in a very accessible way for a younger audience. I also love your art ideas particularly the nocturnal creatures masks to be worn during story time.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Emma

I love the idea of the photos of the sun. Of course you will need to remind the children of the dangers of looking directly at the sun when taking photos of it but I think you should be able to manage to photograph the position of the sun.  Adding a prediction element is also a nice idea. Making a display and a movie and then using these to create pictures and models of the position of the sun is a great way to deepen their understanding.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Killian

I love the idea of discussing the best local places for viewing the night sky and linking that with the local weather forecast and the use of Stellarium. I can imagine all of that preparation and planning would capture the children’s imagination and the might make a family event of taking a trip at night to observe the night sky in a suitable location. Families might even link up and go together and this would be something that the children would remember for a long time afterwards.  Even observing the sky at night from home, if they couldn’t find the right conditions for a trip would engage them and if those who had taken a trip compared their stories and shared their findings in class, this would add to the excitement and encourage others in the class to do their own observation.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Niamh

Your think, pair, share idea is a great way to start off a lesson on maps as it encourages children to think about the maps they may have seen and the types of information that can be seen on a map. This will help them to consider the purpose of their own maps and the types of information they want to display on them.  I love the idea of the children drawing the features of the school to aid in their observation outside and their creation of the maps in the classroom. Finally the use of the iPads to link what they have drawn on their own map to online maps and aerial photographs of the local area will help to deepen their understanding of the use of maps.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Noreen

It is fantastic that you make such good use of the local park to compensate for the lack of green space in your school. Using the walk to and from the park as inspiration for map making is a lovely idea and one that can be built on throughout the school year as the children could observe and record different details on each walk such as shops and businesses; historical buildings, signs and landmarks; biodiversity aspects such as street trees or wild plants coming up through cracks in the footpaths.  They could then record this information in different ways such as Lego maps in the classroom or maps made from natural items in the park itself.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Robert

I like your ideas on the use of technology to further learning throughout the curriculum. Your animal projects sound great and I love how you included an Irish animal, as so often our native flora and fauna are overlooked in favour of research into life in far away places. Hopefully this course will provide you with both a range of Irish online resources to continue with projects like this and also inspiration for the hands on outdoor exploration of local habitats that will really bring these type of projects to life for the children.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Geraldine

Your school sounds like a fantastic example of how STEM thinking and hands on STEM learning can be incorporated into all aspects of school and I love how you are incorporating the local area into all subject areas and linking STEM successfully with all other curriculum areas, such as using Technology as a tool to further learning and recording, rather than as a standalone activity and using engineering to tackle real world problems. I hope the course provides you with more ideas and inspiration to build on what you are already doing.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Dolores

I’m happy that you loved the resources provided in this module and it is great that you plan to make such great use of them through observing and recording seasonal changes in Biodiversity through detailed and well structured recording sheets. One of my fondest memories of primary school was gathering items on the walk to school to bring in for the nature table and it is great to hear of your plans to bring the nature table back to your classroom. It is a great way of making that connection with what the children are observing and documenting outside

[Una Halpin]

Hi Louise

It is fantastic that your school already engages with whole school themes and that this course has provided inspiration for a new theme that fills a niche for your school. You have outlined a very comprehensive yearly plan with links to a wide range of curricular areas and lots of outdoor exploration and hands on work back in the classroom. Incorporating the activities that you are already doing and your ideas from working on previous themes is a great way to get this new one up and running. I love the idea of the Biodiversity showcase for families and a slideshow to show what has been learned and achieved over the year.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Rebecca

Using the Johnstown Castle estate is a lovely idea as it incorporates so many different areas of study. I love the idea of the tree character stories that include the scientific knowledge they have gained from observing and researching their trees and the ICT and literacy element sin creating the books. As you have mentioned that many of the trees are over 150 years old, there could also be a historical element to the stories if the children research the history of Wexford and think of the events that the trees may have witnessed during their lifetime.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Robert

Colonel James FitzMaurice may not have trained as an engineer but I’m sure it must have required a certain amount of engineering knowledge to fly a plane at that time, when I’m sure frequent on the spot repairs would have been necessary. He could be the inspiration for a lesson on flight and designing paper aeroplanes. William Dargan is a great inspiration for railway design and I love the way you have incorporated him into your bridge design lesson from Module 4 by using the video as a prompt and incorporating the wooden railway tracks into the bridge building criteria.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Orla

Tackling the problem of light pollution and its effect on wildlife is mainly a case of awareness raising. Of all our environmental issues, light pollution is probably one of the ones that people are least aware of. It has a huge impact on Biodiversity in many ways that Scientists have only recently started to research and measure. It is also one of the easier environmental problems to tackle if people have the will to do it and that all starts with awareness raising. By educating the children about nocturnal animals that they may rarely or never get to see for themselves, discussing the issues that light pollution creates for theses creatures and then asking them to assess their own lighting at home, you are helping to create that awareness among your pupils and hopefully among their parents. With Heritage Week coming up next week, there will be bat walks happening around the country. If you are planning to teach about nocturnal animals you might like to see if there is one in your area that you can attend to learn a little more.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Grace

That is a very good plan for incorporating night time animals into your school biodiversity plans. Reducing unnecessary lighting in school is something the school can have control of and by reviewing what level of light is necessary and then introducing measures  such as shielding, adjusting brightness, changing light colours and installing motion sensors, excess light can be reduced. You do not have direct control over lights that are outside the school, so creating sheltered areas with trees and shrubs is a great step towards reducing the impact of light from outside sources and creating bat boxes and bug hotels will help to provide shelter. If you install wildlife cameras and manage to capture pictures of nocturnal animals, I sure this will lead to great excitement among the children. I know I get very excited when seeing a visiting fox or resident hedgehog on our wildlife camera.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Orla

This is a really good research question that relates to a local climate issue and you have great ideas for carrying it out. As you said, children in the junior school will be limited in what research they can carry out but I love the idea of partnering with a 6th class for a trip to the river to sample the water. As you have connections with DCC perhaps someone from the water division could meet the children at the river or come into the classroom to talk to them about the type of water sampling they do and how they analyse the samples. One way that scientists measure water quality is by sampling the invertebrates that live in the water and checking the numbers of different species, as some are less tolerant of pollution than others. If there is a suitable location and someone to help you with it, this is a very enjoyable activity for children.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Susan

That is a great research question that is really relevant to the school and uses data that is readily available to you. I think it is really important when energy saving measures such as insulation or alternative energy sources such as your solar panels are installed in schools, that it is used as a teaching opportunity in classes throughout the school. You may be interested to know that as public bodies, all schools are required to submit yearly energy data to SEAI. You can view your school’s energy performance on https://psmr.seai.ie/Public. Unfortunately as your solar panels are new, they won’t show up in this data yet.  It should also be noted that data for ETB schools doesn’t show up in this website as the ETB would be reporting as a single body.

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