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Hi Eithne
That sounds like a great project on the sundial with lots of opportunities for both research and practical learning. I like the idea of the children making sundials at home to check in the afternoon and at weekends. Adding the ribbon to your sundial to measure the length of the shadow both in the first week and then periodically throughout the school year is a great idea and recording the data and graphing it are great ways of integrating technology and maths. I love how you have then integrated the sundial into a project on farming incorporating not only the timing of the farm day but issues around biodiversity, climate change and sustainable food production.
Hi Niamh
I love your idea of the children working in 4 groups to construct the different moon phases. These would then be a great visual aid to have in your classroom for further work on the phases of the moon and perhaps a reminder to look up at the moon from time to time. This would hopefully mean that when you ask them to look at the sky in the morning, they will be able to identify that they are looking at the third quarter phase of the moon or may even point it out without your having to prompt them. The idea of the movement game, where they use their bodies to make the phases of the moon sounds like a lot of fun and a great example of practical learning.
Hi Marie
That sounds like a well developed plan for class participation in the Rising Star awards. You have included so much in your plan with a detailed timeline to plan out when and how each action will take place. There is great progression in the first phase from having a speaker to spark interest in the topic to having groups explore the website and then research and present their findings to the class. The hands on aspects of exploring the night sky, conducting audits and creating materials to raise awareness and then the engineering design challenge are all activities that will contribute so much to the overall project and to the children’s enjoyment of it.
Hi Laura
I’m glad you share my belief that active outdoor exploration is the best way to learn about Biodiversity. You have also given 2 great examples of how that active exploration can continue in the classroom too. Creating models of the ideal night sky is a great hands on way to explore light pollution and I love the idea of your “Biodiversity Detective” game. All of the hands on activity will stimulate creativity and critical thinking which will provide lots of inspiration for their research into different animals and their responses to light pollution.
Hi Kevin
You are so right about the numbers of unnecessary lights on houses now. I really can’t understand why people feel the need to have so many lights. I have also noticed in recent years the huge growing trend for garden lighting with garden centres having multiple shelves of solar garden lights. I love the idea of getting the children involved in awareness raising around this issue. The creation of a flyer and the day of action are both great ideas to encourage people to change something in their home. I really like the idee of the survey. Perhaps parents and others could be asked to complete a survey before or at the start of the day of action and then repeat it afterwards so the impact can be measured.
Hi Catherine
You have some lovely ideas for Biodiversity friendly actions in your school. Just a word of caution on the butterflies and moths. Raising one or two butterfly or moth caterpillars found in your garden and then re-releasing them in the same area can be a great way of studying life cycles, but never buy or bring in caterpillars from elsewhere for release as this can be extremely harmful to local biodiversity for a number of reasons: imported insects can spread disease into local populations, there may not be enough food for additional insects and many species are specialists and the local habitat may not support them. The best way to increase the population of butterflies and moths is to plant native flowering trees and shrubs and reduce mowing to allow native species of wildflowers to grow. If you have the space to allow for a really wild corner, nettles are the food plant for many butterfly and moth caterpillars.
Hi Catherine
I love the idea of your reflective story. Just reading it here is a very powerful reminder of how much we have lost. Your point about the LED lights is well made. They are far more efficient but as with a lot of energy efficiency measures, the energy saving from the efficiency of the bulbs, is more than wiped out by the number of lights installed the vast majority of which are unnecessary. I think a survey at home of lights and a discussion on solutions would be a good follow up to your story as the children would be more aware of lighting after hearing you speak.
Hi Barbara
That sounds like a lovely approach to Greenhouse gases for a younger class. As you have outlined, it is important first to establish that they understand what a gas is before talking about greenhouse gases and then to introduce the topic of greenhouse gases in a very simple way through use of the Paxi video and simple discussion. Making the connection between our everyday actions such as travel, water use, energy use and recycling and the release of greenhouse gases is very important. Once you have given them this solid foundation, they can then build on this knowledge and understand more about the science of Climate Change and perhaps look at tools such as the TEAL tool as they get older.
Hi Fiona
Looking at the impact of your new solar panels on your school’s energy performance is a great idea for a Climate Detectives project. I would make your title a little more specific as benefitting planet Earth is a vague concept. Perhaps something like “How will our new solar panels reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our school?”. A comparison of your electricity bills from year to year will show the number of units of electricity used and should, also show you the resulting Carbon Dioxide emissions. SEAI also have data on Carbon emissions from electricity generation in Ireland in the Data and Insights section on their website https://www.seai.ie. You can also see your school’s energy performance data at https://psmr.seai.ie/Public although if the solar panels are new, you may not see the energy reduction reflected on your report yet.
Hi Brendan
That sounds like a lovely project and a wonderful way to illustrate the changes in your local biodiversity. I’m sure there was a big difference in the 2 canvases as in common with most places, I’m sure that parents and grandparents in your area have noticed a decline in wildlife since they were young. Extending your project out to consider the effects of light pollution would be a great idea especially as you are close enough to be able to visit Wild Nephin.
Hi Aisling
As you said, nature walks are great for stimulating discussions around Biodiversity. As your school are beginning your Biodiversity flag this year, perhaps you could go beyond simply a nature walk and use some of the resources in this module to encourage children to do some more in depth exploration and identification of plants and animals. I like the idea of getting the children to work in groups to research a particular species on the iPads and share their findings with others through posters. Instructing the children to choose a native Irish animal or plant will make it more relevant to them. You might be interested in a lovely resources from the Irish Schools Sustainability Network called Bitesize Biodiversity https://www.issn.ie/bitesize-biodiversity
Hi Catherine
That sounds like a lovely lesson on constellations, with children creating constellations. I like the idea of the children comparing their constellations to a display of actual constellations visible over Cork and also that the children are given time to present their constellations to the class, A nice addition might be a story or legend about a constellation as a prompt to begin the lesson. Children could link back to this when presenting their constellation to the class and some might come up with a story about their constellation and where it got its name
Hi Alison
That’s a good question and it sounds like you did a great investigation on it with your class this year. Connecting Climate Change to the children’s own lived experiences and seeing how it affects their local area is very important. This is why the main purpose of the Climate Detectives project is for teams to investigate a local climate problem to demonstrate that Climate Change isn’t just something far away that affects other people. Your question about local weather makes it relevant to the children and by making it relevant to them, they can then start to think about positive actions they can take.
Hi Breeda
You have highlighted the issue that a lot of students and teachers have with Climate Detectives, that of choosing a research question. You have really embraced the process of starting with an idea and narrowing it down to find a question that you can gather data for. Using a sample project is a good idea to explain the process of choosing a question and there are Mini Case Studies in the resources section on the website that show sample questions and demonstrate how they can be investigated. Once you have the right question it points the way to yoru investigation by showing what data you need to gather. Your own question is a good one that meets the criteria of being a local climate issue that is not too broad but yet provides scope for investigation. Counting the cars passing the school is a good way to gather data and this can be combined with emissions data on vehicles. The Data and Insights section on the SEAI website https://www.seai.ie/ has data on average vehicle emissions in Ireland or if you record makes and models of cars you could look up specific emissions data for vehicle types. Good research for yourself too.
Hi Orla
I love the idea of getting the children to observe the position of the sun at sunrise and sunset at home for a week before observing it in school at specific times. This gives the children a chance to discuss what they have observed themselves before investigating further in class. You might want to do a little research on sunrise and sunset times before the assignment as determining the exact time of sunrise and sunset from observation is very difficult. By looking up sunrise and sunset times for the week in their area, the children will know when they need to go outside to observe. The Paxi video https://www.esa.int/kids/en/Multimedia/Paxi_animations/English/Day_night_and_the_seasons would be a nice addition to this activity as would the ESERO resource https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PR45_One_year_on_Earth.pdf
