[Una Halpin]

Hi Mary

Using a current scientist is a great way to engage the children and as a geologist myself, I think that Eamon Doyle is a great choice. There is no much to explore in the Burren with the formation of the Limestone rocks and the Karst features and also the species of plants and animals that are unique to the Burren. Having the work of a local scientist to inspire the children’s exploration will be a great bonus.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Christina

I love your idea of incorporating a project on stories and traditions of the night sky with Grandparents Day and making it a whole school project.  I’m sure the children will love collaborating with grandparents on their research and artwork both on the day and in preparation for the visit and giving an opportunity to children to present their findings and for the grandparents to maybe tell some of their stories in person to a whole class will be a great way to involve everyone, whether they have grandparents present on the day or not.

[Una Halpin]

You make a great point there about the caretaker. An important step in any school biodiversity project is to make sure that the caretaker is on board and knows what the aims are.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Mary

I love your approach here. Recording what you can find, making changes to the lighting and then recording again is a great scientific approach to a problem. Hopefully you will be able to make changes to night time lighting in the school which should hopefully have a positive effect on biodiversity. Your idea of focussing in on a sample area of 2m x 2m is a good one. Ecologists often choose smaller sample areas to survey that are representative of the wider habitat. I would however, consider expanding it out to more than one sample area as even in a school yard, there are likely to be variation in habitat, such as shorter / longer grass areas, planted flower or vegetable beds and areas with trees or shrubs. Perhaps consider selecting a range of sample areas and have groups of children survey each one.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Andrew

That sounds great and I’m sure your own enthusiasm for this project on the moon will communicate itself to your pupils and inspire them. The use of online resources coupled with actual physical observation of the moon is a great way to translate what they learn about on a screen to the real world scenario and being able to make those links is very valuable.  You have also emphasised the need for communication with their peers and discussion of what they have observed. This coupled with your sundial investigation from module 1 is a great way to get your class enthusiastic about further exploration of the universe.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Fiona

I love the idea of your bee and butterfly garden and your studies on the flowers that attracted the bees sound like a great combination of Science, Maths and IT and a great use of the children’s observation skills. Getting input from local businesses and grandparent involvement was a great way to engage with the local community. Observation of the life cycles of butterflies through rearing them can be a very positive experience for the children but it is important to do this only with caterpillars that are collected from the local area.  The butterfly rearing kits that are marketed at schools should never be used as these imported caterpillars can be very harmful to local biodiversity by importing disease into local populations or creating competition for scarce food sources. Also the habitat that the butterflies are being released into may not be suitable for the butterflies being released.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Tina

I love your idea of purchasing weather equipment and setting up a permanent weather station in your school. Getting other classes involved would be great as this sis something that all classes could engage with especially if different classes undertook to monitor the weather for a few weeks to complete a study of the weather throughout the school year. comparing the purchased weather equipment to the equipment they make in class will give a deeper understanding of how these instruments work. I alos love you cross curricular ideas related to weather.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Catherine

I’m glad you enjoyed the video Home and can see the value of it for understanding Climate Change. I like your idea of using Kahoot to assess children’s understanding of climate change before doing further work in the classroom and the digital KWL charts will certainly help to focus your classroom research and help you to decide what activities to do to help aid their understanding and get them involved in proactive activities.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Michael

That sounds like a great plan for exploring Biodiversity in your school and the wider area. BioBlitz events are a fun way to get children involved in exploring their local plants and animals and involving other local people is a lovely idea. this would be a great inspiration for exploring other areas for comparison. Exploring biodiversity at home, engaging in habit restoration including your idea for allowing areas of the school to become more overgrown to encourage biodiversity researching local biodiversity and inviting guest speakers are also great ideas for helping children to understand all of the issues around biodiversity.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Orla

Welcome to the course. That sounds like a nice step by step approach to using Worldwide telescope with plenty of opportunity for small group work and exploration. The questions are a good way to guide their exploration. Once they have explored the moon phases online, they should have a good understanding of the moon and its features, this should then spark their enthusiasm for going outside and looking at the moon.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Orla

Welcome to the course. That sounds like a nice step by step approach to using Worldwide telescope with plenty of opportunity for small group work and exploration. The questions are a good way to guide their exploration. Once they have explored the moon phases online, they should have a good understanding of the moon and its features, this should then spark their enthusiasm for going outside and looking at the moon.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Susan

It is such a pity that the existing hedgerows around your school were destroyed. This would have been an enormous loss to biodiversity and planning to plant a replacement hedgerow would be a great plan, particularly if you choose native flowering and fruiting trees. One of the newly developed Curious Minds resources https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/curious-minds-resource-investigating-hedgerow-habitats.pdf includes an exercise on planning a new hedgerow for your school. Using the cctv around your school is a good idea to investigate nocturnal wildlife.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Martina

I love the idea of using you empty classroom as a maker space. This must be a fantastic resource pupils and for teachers to have all of the resources in one place must save a lot of time in terms of resource and classroom management and allow you to fully concentrate on the learning. I’m delighted that you found the SFI resources so useful and that you plan to hang the Curious Minds / ESERO Framework for Inquiry on the wall of your maker space and engage in whole school CPD. I also hope that the tradition of design and make in your school will continue even if the classroom is needed for a class in the future.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Andrea

I like your approach to the indoor study of maps, starting with mapping a familiar area such as their classroom and moving on to identify familiar landmarks and places such as their school on online maps. As you say, technology can be a great tool for understanding geography but we mustn’t forget the role of real life exploration of our surroundings. Like many aspects of geography, no study of maps would be complete without bringing the children outdoors to follow simple paper based maps of the school or to create their own maps

[Una Halpin]

Hi Tommy

This seems like a very comprehensive plan to design and make bridges.  I like the emphasis on a field trip. This needn’t be an expensive or time consuming option as there are an abundance of different bridges throughout the country and looking at a local bridge that the children are familiar with may have as much or more impact than studying pictures of other bridges. I love the emphasis on maths. Measuring is a very important skill that is often underappreciated and is extremely important in any kind of design process. The emphasis on the weight of the load the bridge needs to carry and the importance of scale are also very valuable lessons and will help the pupils to understand what goes into the engineering design process

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