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Hi Emma
Encouraging your students to conduct night time observations on light pollution and to document, photograph or sketch what they saw is a good idea. They could include observations of the different types of lights, their numbers and colours, any nocturnal wildlife they have seen or heard, and also what stars they may have seen. As your pupils may be living in different areas, some more urban and some rural, light pollution levels are likely to vary so they can compare notes in class the next day to see how their experiences vary. This could lead to great discussions on the effects of light pollution. After then learning a little more about the types of light pollution and discussing general solutions, they might repeat their surveys and see what solutions would be necessary in their homes or local areas, such as turning off unnecessary lights, changing the colour of bulbs, shielding etc.
Hi Mairead
That is fantastic that you are already allowing wildflowers to grow naturally in your school by reducing mowing and you are so right that almost every school has the opportunity to do this even on a small scale. Not only are you helping to provide for pollinators and other insects and also for birds, but you are also providing a valuable learning experience for the children. and hopefully also spreading the message home to families about how to protect and preserve our native wildlife.
Hi David
That is a really great research question for Climate Detectives. It is focused on a local climate problem, offers great opportunities for data collection and is neither too broad nor too narrow. As part of your research, you could look into the work that is being done in other European cities to add more green spaces and reduce the urban heat island effect. As well as your field trips, it might be a good idea to see if you can replicate your temperature and air quality studies on a smaller scale in your school yard, if you have some suitable green spaces. The data collected from outside the school will be limited to times when you can get out and leave the school, but you could capture more data in school by simply leaving the classroom for a few minutes a day.
Hi Emma
I’m glad you enjoyed the satellite tracker app and I’m sure that the senior children in your school would have great fun finding out about what is passing overhead. When you really start to think about all the satellites that are orbiting above us, the problem of space junk becomes. I came across this website from the UK Natural History Museum that give some figures for space junk https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-space-junk-and-why-is-it-a-problem.html although I think these figures are out of date given the number of Starlink satellites being lauunched all the time. With the number of satellites being launched all the time we are not only cluttering up the night skies but in a world of finite resources, we are sending a lot of valuable metals and other mineral resources away from our planet and not retrieving them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hi James
That sounds like a lovely lesson for your senior infants class using the yard to draw chalk shadows and the existing circle to demonstrate how the sundial works during the time that they are in school. Partnering with an older class is a great idea too to help the children with carrying out and understanding the tasks. I love the idea of the children making their own sundials at home with parents so they can track the progress of the sun over a longer time such as when they are at home at the weekend and I’m sure they will enjoy sharing their results on the Class Dojo.
Hi Niamh
Integrating art, poetry and music into all of your STEM lessons is a lovely idea and it sounds like you have discovered a wide range of art, poetry and music while doing this. Encouraging your pupils to do the same might be a nice exercise too to see what they come up with. I remember my son doing a poetry assignment during school closures where he had to choose a poem to write about. For reference, he was given a website link with a wide range of poetry all listed by subject area. I took a look at the section on “Nature Poetry” for my own interest and was disappointed to find poems about farm animals and pets but not a single one about nature so I was delighted to look up and read your suggested poem Nature Trail by Benjamin Zephaniah. It is a great poem to go along with bug hunting and discovering Biodiversity and the reference to the owl in the garden at night is a lovely link with Dark Skies
Hi Cathy
You are so right about the importance of teaching children about Biodiversity. As you said, children in Dublin and other large urban areas may not have regular contact with wild spaces. Often gardens and parks are so manicured that there is very little wildlife to be seen. If we are not used to seeing wild plants and animals, we won’t notice them disappearing until it starts to impact our lives in other ways. Your plan makes great use of the resources in this module and I love the emphasis on peer learning with children researching their favourite plant or animal and teaching others about it. Incorporating the needs of birds into your sensory garden is a lovely idea and I’m sure the sound of birdsong will add greatly to your garden.
Hi Aoife
I’m happy that you got so much enjoyment out of this module and lots of ideas to bring back to your classroom. It is a lovely idea to do a 4 week block of lessons on space with lots of practical activities to introduce the features of the night sky before introducing the two websites and allowing children to explore them. I like your focus on energy use and looking at light levels across the world.
