[Una Halpin]

Hi Mary

The time spent thinking about this project has paid off. This is a fabulous idea for an engineering project that ties in so well with your local area. I love the way you are planning to also incorporate the social and environmental aspects of mining around the world and that you have given some thought into how to do this in a sensitive way given all of the local family connections to mining.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Conor

What a fabulous opportunity this is for your pupils to work so closely with volunteers in the community garden. It sounds like a fantastic opportunity to learn about sustainable food growing as well as biodiversity. I love the fact that you plan to visit twice per season for the children to observe seasonal changes first hand and that you can also access the updates from the volunteers visiting the garden in between those visits. If a wildlife camera is installed, this could be another great source of information. The idea of studying the changes that water features and other new additions to the garden will bring to Biodiversity is a great one and it is good to get the children thinking and planning for how to do this. Of course the results of any wildlife observation and recording your class can be shared with the community garden volunteers making the project beneficial for everyone concerned.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Geraldine

I love how you have integrated digital maps into this activity by using geohive and google maps to add digital layers to the maps they have created and creating digital versions of their outdoor maps. While certain features such as trees, plants, playground features, paths and water features in your school are local features that are easy to include on your local small map, they are unlikely to feature on Geohive. On the other hand, there are lots of other data sets available on Geohive that could add extra information to the map data the pupils have gathered themselves and could help to explain some of what they mapped.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Karena

I love the way you have integrated Geohive into this activity by using layers that are already included on Geohive and comparing to what the pupils have mapped on their own layers. As the scales are different, it may not be easy to find something that will show up on Geohive that can be directly compared but this is a great way to introduce the idea of different scales and purposes of maps. As the children are only mapping a small area that is unlikely to have been mapped in such detail previously, they are likely to record details that are not highlighted on the Geohive map. This can lead to great discussions on the purposes of different maps and the possible uses of their maps.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

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.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Fiona

I love your description of your STEM classroom as “a hive of activity and a buzz of chat”. This is a great description of what active STEM learning looks like as collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving require talk and movement. Integrating STEM subjects with each other and with other curriculum areas is the key to time management with STEM and the STEM skills are relevant to all areas of the curriculum and to the children’s daily lives. I love that your STEm activities are child led from 1st class on. Giving children a solid STEM investigation foundation in infants allows them to be more creative themselves as they get older.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Mary

It’s lovely to hear about all the positive things that you are doing in your own garden for Biodiversity. It’s fantastic that you have registered your garden with the All Ireland Pollinator Plan and great that your local tidy towns groups have also registered. It’s not that they had to register but by putting their actions on the map, they are joining with other groups in taking action for pollinators and helping to spread the word and the same goes for you. I hope you manage to register your school and get your caretaker on board. Mower happy caretakers seem to be an issue in many schools trying to improve biodiversity but start with a few small changes and you might bring him on board. A short flowering meadow can be really beneficial for pollinators and as you said, taking this initiative in school could help to spread the idea among parents and the wider community as building networks of places where wildlife can flourish is what is needed.

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