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Hi Gráinne
Welcome to the course. It’s lovely that you have a sundial at home that you can bring in as inspiration for your pupils as well as discussing the concept of time and showing them images of other sundials. I like the fact that you mention ” I would hope that they would select a large area in our school field which has no obstructions near it and has exposure to the sun”. You can see yourself that this would be a logical place for the sundial but you plan to let your pupils work this out for themselves and to discuss and choose suitable materials. This highlights the importance of allowing critical thinking and exploration. If the children choose an unsuitable location or materials that are not weatherproof, then they will learn more through going through the process and finding it out for themselves that if you were to choose the location and materials for them.
Hi Aaron
That sound like a very comprehensive and exciting project, involving not only the school but the entire local community. You have incorporated group research projects, awareness campaigns, engineering design projects within the classroom as well as art, music and poetry with local consultation and night time events to celebrate the night sky. Of course, such a project would require a big time commitment but if implemented would be hugely beneficial for the pupils and a great example of how a school community could become leaders and influence their own local community in a very positive way. I hope you enjoyed the course.
Hi Claire
You make a very important point about the use of digital online maps. While digital maps are very useful tools not just for navigation but for studying changes in land use, many people rely on them exclusively and as such are missing out on some key skills and the tactile experience that will allow them to fully make the link between their surroundings and the map. I like your approach of first encouraging the children to create their maps and to then deepen the learning by using the maps to hide treasure. Moving from the classroom to creating or reading maps of the outdoor school environment would be an essential next step if you want to continue on to comparison with Google maps
Hi Niamh
You have some nice ideas there for using the Climate reporters resource with senior infants. I’m glad that you consider the Paxi video to be suitable for a younger class and that you have ideas for simplifying the worksheet with pictures and matching activities. Yvonne had suggested above that she would focus on just one country and one parameter a time when using the Teal Tool and just look at the changes in colours. You might like to use a similarly simple approach if using it with a senior infant class.
Hi Emer
Looking at the effects of deforestation on Climate is a nice idea but remember that the main objective of the Climate Detectives programme is for the pupils to investigate a local climate problem. Researching the role of forests in absorbing CO2 and then using satellite imagery to look at changes in forest cover in Ireland might be a nice way to make this a local climate issue. You could also compare forest cover in Ireland to other European countries to see how low our rates of forest cover are and to research the efforts of Irish people who are hoping to expand out forest cover especially native forests. I like your idea of interviewing older people about changes that they have experienced which would be a nice addition to your research.
Hi Brendan
While Polar Bears have become the symbol of Climate change and are no doubt affected by it, a focus on animals who live far away can make it seem to children that Climate Change is something that happens far away and therefore it isn’t directly relevant to their own lives. This is why the Climate Detectives Programme asks children to investigate a local climate issue. By investigating one of the many local affects of climate change children can see the relevance to their own lives and can also focus on awareness campaigns and local actions that can help to reduce its effects
Hi Carrie
Using the Gardening for Biodiversity book as inspiration for encouraging Biodiversity in your school is a lovely idea. I don’t know if you are aware yet, but Laois Education Centre now have a new Biodiversity garden created with a range of different areas to provide inspiration for schools of different sizes, with signage to explain each area. I haven’t seen it myself yet but the photos look amazing. It should be a great source of inspiration to you and other schools in the Laois area and hopefully something that other Education Centres around the country will implement too.
Hi Fiona
That sounds like a well thought out plan for studying the moon. I love the idea of the initial questions and bringing the children up to draw what the moon looked like when they saw it. This is a great way to start a discussion on the phases of the moon why, it looks different on different days and at different times of year and why it is seen in different parts of the sky. Encouraging the children to draw the moon when they go out to observe it might be a good idea as well as trying to use the iPads as photographing the moon can be difficult.
Hi Colette
That sounds like a lovely lesson on mapmaking. I love the way you have combined the story with the drawing and use of the map. The collaboration with an older class is a fantastic way for the younger children to practice direction finding and for the older children to refine their own skills by helping to teach the younger ones.
Hi Martina
It sounds like your school is in a fabulous location that should provide lots of inspiration for classroom explorations across all areas of the curriculum. I love your ideas for a history and creative writing project based on the bridge and the famine. Recording the sounds of nature and using them for a music project is also a lovely idea. The beach could be inspiration for many subject areas particularly geography and is a great place for creating 3D maps as the sand can be moulded to form terrain and stones, shells and seaweed can be used to create landmarks.
Hi Pat
Coastal erosion is one of the most easily visible effects of climate change and investigating it on your local beach is a fantastic idea for a Climate Detectives project. A visit to the beach combined with research on the causes, effects and solutions to coastal erosion and examining data from satellite imagery is a great way to go about the project. The Geohive map viewer from the Ordnance Survey https://www.geohive.ie/ might be a useful tool for you.
Hi Gina
That is a great question and is something that the children can directly observe in their school garden. It would help if you had some photos from previous years of plants that were harvested from the school garden but if not it would be a great idea to start a small database in school. You could record what was planted each year, along with the dates and the weather and some photographs and the same with harvesting whatever was planted. You could even keep a simple daily log of the weather, especially if you got other classes involved or could simply refer to past weather data. That way you would be able to track the changes from year to year and identify which were good growing years and which were bad.
Hi Maurice
I like the idea of recommending Home to climate sceptics. I’m hoping that you don’t have too many climate sceptic co-workers in your school as it is important for those involved in educating our children to be informed about the harsh realities of climate change and to be informed about the science so that they can help to guide children in positive behaviour. There is so much misinformation out there that the more you can do to help counter this among colleagues and parents, the more the children will benefit. I agree with your reasoning on not showing Home to the children, unless as some others have commented you select specific short clips, and that a more hopeful and solutions focused approach can be more motivating for children.
Hi Jacqui
Your sensory garden sound like a lovely place to set up a weather station and do some weather monitoring. As you have 6th class, you might be interested in another ESERO resource https://esero.ie/wp-content/themes/esero_theme/pdf/66_Class%20weather%20station.pdf which gives instructions for making a simple thermometer, a hygromter for measuring humidity and a different type of barometer. Another resource 46_Strong-air.pdf (esero.ie) gives instructions for making a simple barometer. While not all of these instruments will give accurate readings, making them will help students to understand how the different weather instruments work and why we need to record so many different variables when forecasting the weather.
Hi Jacqui
Your sensory garden sound like a lovely place to set up a weather station and do some weather monitoring. As you have 6th class, you might be interested in another ESERO resource https://esero.ie/wp-content/themes/esero_theme/pdf/66_Class%20weather%20station.pdf which gives instructions for making a simple thermometer, a hygromter for measuring humidity and a different type of barometer. Another resource 46_Strong-air.pdf (esero.ie) gives instructions for making a simple barometer. While not all of these instruments will give accurate readings, making them will help students to understand how the different weather instruments work and why we need to record so many different variables when forecasting the weather.
