[Una Halpin]

Hi Lauren

That’s a great research question. It is well defined and not too broad and you have a clear path for researching your question. Another tool that you might find very useful in your research and for lots of other application in the classroom is https://www.geohive.ie/ from the Ordnance Survey. It has different aerial photos from 1995 as well as more recent ones and old 6″ and 25″  maps which would be useful for seeing what your local area was like in the past.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Emma

That’s a lovely idea to use the Paxi video as a pre-teaching tool for learning support before the topic of greenhouse gases is taught in class. The video itself is short but it can lead to lots of discussion around the topic of greenhouse gases. The TEAL tool would be great for older classes. You could start them off on some simple scenarios and see what they are able to discover for themselves.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Emma

Those are some really great games and activities to understand mirrors and the reflection of light. I’m sure your class will really enjoy all of them and have a really good understanding of reflection by the end. I love the idea of the group challenge using 3 mirrors to direct a beam of light. This sound like a fantastic activity to promote collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Naomi

Using Google maps satellite view is a nice way for the children to visualise their school at the start of a lesson on mapmaking. Switching from satellite view to map view would also be a useful exercise to shop that a satellite is a picture from above of what is there and the map is used to highlight the features that are most useful. It could also help to show how some features will not be seen on satellite view e.g a path through a wood won’t always be visible because the trees block the view. Setting boundaries for the map making exercise and explaining which materials they are allowed to take and which should be left alone is a very good idea to teach respect for the environment and for property.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Maire

This is a lovely idea to build on the mapping project to discover and record biodiversity in your school. I love the scientific approach you have used to the whole project and the fact that you have given the children so much autonomy and responsibility from giving different groups of children a different aspect of Biodiversity to record, to encouraging independent research online and in books, designing their own survey techniques and recording sheets and deciding how to present their findings. It is great that you plan to take them outdoors to carry out this work at least twice in each season. I would suggest 2 small additions to your plan: one would be the addition of group for wildflowers and the other would be a brief sharing session after each outdoor session  as well as a big presentation of their work to the other groups. This way they will better get to understand interdependence and the fact that seasonal changes in trees and wildflowers will affect the numbers and types of birds and insects seen.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Fiona

Those are 2 great videos. The video of the astronaut jumping on different planets and moons would be a great accompaniment to the planetary tubes activity to help explain the difference between weight and mass. The other video on the Gravity well is a lovely one to demonstrate orbits. I was fascinated watching it and I’m sure it would be a great activity for your class to try out and video for themselves. For your own original posts in future modules add them as new posts at the bottom of the forum rather than as replies to other participants.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Nicole

I love your virtual travel journal idea. It is a great way to combine literacy with geography and STEM as the children have to research the different countries, use online maps and tools to explore time zones and use their own imaginations in their creative writing. You could perhaps assign different regions of the world to different students or allow them to pick from a list of countries so that a larger number of countries and timezones are represented, and they can share their work and learn from each other.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Lauren

Welcome to the course. I’m happy that you enjoyed Maeve Liston’s paper and that the ideas fit with what is already happening in your classroom. Creating a weather station is beneficial in lots of ways. As you said, it’s great for teaching the difference between weather and climate and also for explaining how weather data is gathered for forecasting and also for compiling over a long period of time to establish changing climate patterns. The correct use and reading of a thermometer is also an important skill that could be useful for future science investigations.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Niall

That is a good question on a local climate issue. You have listed many of the ways in which Climate Change is affecting Dublin’s weather and you have also given some great examples of actions that the class can take to make a difference. For a Climate Detectives project, you need to think about how to get the children involved in gathering data. You might get them to look up data on past temperatures, wind and rainfall and see how they have changed over the past 3o years or more. A nice practical activity to go along with this might be getting the children to make their own weather instruments and record weather in the school as in module 1. This could lead to discussions on the difference between weather and climate and how climate change can cause changes in the expected weather patterns.  It can also help to explain how weather and climate data are gathered.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Niall

Those are some great simple ideas there. As you said, it is important to introduce the topic of Climate Change in an age appropriate way. For the younger children, using story books and simple explanations is a great idea. I also like the way you have included the topic through simple everyday actions. As everything we do contributes in either a positive or negative way to Climate change it should be part of our everyday lives and included in every part of the curriculum and you have outlined some great ways to do this. In the older classes, you can then move on to the explanations of what climate is and the science of climate change as you have outlined.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Catherine

That sounds like a fantastic engineering project using St Mary’s Cathedral as inspiration. I love the idea of using Minecraft to create digital models and incorporating research on history and architecture as well as the physical construction of their models. I really like the idea of the outdoor component as it would bring in elements of map making in scaling paths and benches to match the scale of the model cathedrals.

[Una Halpin]

That’s a very good point Kevin and the needs of local wildlife could be given as a scenario or as one of the criteria for a class bridge design project.

 

[Una Halpin]

Hi Conor

You have outlined a fabulous project there incorporating local history, engineering design, construction, maths and the use of IT to access online maps. I love the idea of calculating distance and speeds and making a rail timetable based on these. Having a display for the local community would be a lovely idea which I’m sure would be appreciated. There could also be a lovely link here with sustainable transport with some class discussion around the fact that Donegal is no longer served by rail links.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Serena

Sir Francis Beaufort would provide great inspiration for a cross curricular project. The weather journals that you mentioned would be a great inspiration for not only making and testing anemometers but also the idea of the children recording daily weather observations and keeping their own weather journals. His work on charting the oceans would be a nice link for the map making activities from Module 1 and the Beaufort Scale is also used for many Citizen Science recording schemes so is a nice link with Biodiversity from Module 3. I participate in the Garden Butterfly Monitoring scheme and have to record the wind speed each time I do survey as wind speed will affect the flight of butterflies and have an influence over how many are seen.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Kevin

Using John Philip Holland as inspiration for a lesson on floating and sinking is a lovely idea. It is great to be able to reference a local Scientist when carrying out science lessons. I like the idea of the story as a prompt for designing making and testing their boats. Another resource that you might be interested in is this one from the Explorer’s programme on making a submarine. It also references John Philip Holland.

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