[Una Halpin]

Hi Saoirse

I like your point about eco anxiety. Greta Thunberg is a good example of how young people can take action to help combat their own fears around climate change. It can be my making their voices heard and raising awareness like Greta Thunberg and all of the young people involved in campaigning or it can be through positive actions like planting trees in school, growing some of their own food, reducing energy use or cutting out waste. Your idea of the green action plan is a good one but ensure that if you are creating posters that they are just reminders and are accompanied by concrete measurable actions and that teachers are modelling positive change through actions such as turning off whiteboards when not in use, opening blinds to reduce the use of artificial light, and using recycled materials for art.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Louise

It is a very good idea to spread this activity out over a few lessons and to include your KWL chart and lots of discussion. the topic of Climate Change shouldn’t be rushed as it is very important that children understand what greenhouse gases are and how they cause climate change. There is so much misinformation being spread about Climate Change that children have a lot of misconceptions and it is good to take the time to address these. Your use of the Paxi video to aid discussion and the Kahoot Quiz will help to reinforce the science around Climate Change and help address misconceptions.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Laura

I agree that the film Home is too long and detailed to show in its entirety to primary school children. Some people have suggested using clips from the movie when covering particular topics which can be effective. The main target audience for this film should be adults as we are the ones making decisions that affect children. It is very important that all teachers and educators understand the realities of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss so that we can help children to understand at an age appropriate level. As you said there are lots of good shorter videos that are very good to show to children to get across some of the points that are illustrated in Home. Combining these video clips and discussion around them with practical activities such as ESERO’s Earth Under the Lid and positive action around saving energy, planting trees or other positive actions.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Aoife

I like the combination of homework and school observation here in your recording of the moon, starting out with the children learning about the moon in class and observing the phases at home at night and then moving to classroom observation once the moon becomes visible in the morning after the 24th September. It would be nice to resume the recording at home agin for a while after the morning observation in school as children who may have struggled with doing the homework task at first, might be more enthused and motivated to try again after observing the moon in school.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Martina

I like the open ended task of asking the children to sort the animals. I really like this kind of sorting activity as it is interesting to see what features they observe in the animals and what criteria they use to sort them. As you said, some groups might think about sorting into nocturnal and diurnal animals but if not you can set this as a task.  Moving on to focus on Irish animals is a really good next step and one that is often forgotten. I find that most children are very aware of animals that live in other countries that they may know from the zoo, from TV or from books but not as many can name native Irish mammals, birds, amphibians, invertebrates and our one native lizard.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Amy

That sounds like a great idea to work through the list of animals and list questions about them before going out to find the answers. Science is all about asking the right questions and then finding the answers. You might find the Biodiversity maps website useful in compiling your list of animals. https://maps.biodiversityireland.ie/Map If you click on the Reports tab you can choose an area on the map and generate a report of all plants and animals that have been recorded in the area. Of course it relies on information being recorded, so there may be lots of other animals in your area that do not appear on the list but it could be a good starting point. It is fantastic that you have someone working with the children once a month on discovering Biodiversity and I’m sure he would be delighted to get involved in helping the children answer their questions.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Amy

Welcome to the course and I’m happy that you are getting some good ideas for use in your classroom. I like the way you have placed such emphasis on group work and getting the children to problem solve about ways to represent gravity on the different planets. I’m sure it would be a really enjoyable activity for your class and having the different groups consult to learn from each other is a nice touch.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Barry

I like your focus on picking celestial objects that are easy to view through binoculars. You could still use your Planetarium wheel and the Stellarium app to explore where the planets should be seen and the children will enjoy using Stellarium  and finding what is above them, but picking out some things that should be easily visible is a good idea as there will be a great satisfaction for the children if they are able to spot the stars and constellations they have explored in class.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Rachel

Observing the moon when the children line up on the way into class in the morning is a great idea as it starts off the day well and the children will enjoy looking at the moon and taking turns to record it. Using the super moon as a way to introduce the moon observation is a nice way to introduce customs, history and culture and also a nice way to introduce discussion about the moon’s orbit and why the moon appears larger during a supermoon

[Una Halpin]

Hi Maria

That sounds like a lovely lesson, where you introduce the topics and the websites and tools to find information and then give the children the freedom to work in groups on their projects. allowing them the space to research climate change and find information for themselves and come up with solutions will give them ownership of their project and make them more likely to retain the information than if you had simply presented it to them.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Amy

Thank you for sharing your insights into all three activities here: use of the satellite tracker app and the EO Browser as well as the practical activities from “Nose High Up in the Sky”.  I’m glad that you appreciated both of the online tools and can see their value for use in the classroom. I like how you linked satellite coordinates with maths. The weather proverbs and weather descriptions provide a great cross curricular approach to looking at the weather and I agree that making a weather station is a great way to get children involved in recording the weather. Perhaps they can then compare the results from their own instruments with those from standard weather equipment and from published weather data.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Odhrán

From your answer, I assume that you are talking about the EO browser although you haven’t specified. I’m glad that you appreciate the tool and find it user friendly. Once you are confident in using the EO browser it can be a great tool to use in your classroom as you will be able to guide the children at the start and then allow them to pose questions and explore the answers for themselves and most children will get to grips with this type of technology relatively easily. Good luck with your explorations.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Adam

A project based on transport to school is a great idea. It is focussed on a local climate problem and makes use of readily available data on the average emissions from cars and other forms of transport. You also have a clear plan for how to carry out your project. I would however rephrase your question slightly. For a Climate Detectives project you should remove vague terms like “help the environment” and  don’t use very broad terms like “Carbon footprint” as it would be extremely difficult to calculate your school’s carbon footprint. A question that fits your project better would be “How can we reduce the Carbon emissions resulting from our travel to school?” You can find average emissions data for cars in the Data and Insights section on https://www.seai.ie/. You will also find some basic transport statistics on https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/004a9-your-journey-counts/. You would then need to conduct surveys on the ways children travel to school and the average length of their journey.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Fiona

That is a really good question that is based on a local climate problem, is not too broad and makes use of readily available data. Because your question is well defined, you have a clear idea of what data you need to gather to answer your question. The website https://waterlevel.ie/ can give you recent water levels on any local rivers that have a monitor installed and for older water level data going back as far as 1972 you can use https://waterlevel.ie/hydro-data/#/overview/Waterlevel

 

 

[Una Halpin]

Hi Padraig

This is a very good question based on a local climate issue that is directly related to the children’s own experience. It would be a good to ask the children about their own experience of the weather over the summer holidays compared to previous years before checking up the actual rainfall and temperature data to see if their perception actually matches the reality. Another nice addition to this activity would be making the weather station from module 1 and encouraging the children to gather their own weather data to compare to the published data. I’m glad that you enjoyed the resources in this course and feel that they can add to the work you have done in previous years when teaching children about climate change.

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