[Una Halpin]

Hi Catherine

Taking on a campaign to reduce car idling at the school is a great idea. I visit a lot of schools, both in the morning and for after school CPD and it is something I notice in almost every school I visit as well as every shop or business carpark. It is a big contributor not just to noise pollution as in your question, but also to greenhouse gas emissions. It also causes a concentration of air pollution around the school where children are going in and out, which has an impact on children’s health. Cars burn more fuel and produce more emissions when they are idling than when they are driving so this is a way to tie it in to climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Idling surveys are a great idea, and I love your ideas for poster campaigns and a rap to encourage parents to be more responsible. Surveys would need to be done at the time parents are arriving for drop off and pick-up to get the most accurate data, so having a group of children ready to take this on early in the morning and another group to go out a few minutes before school ends would be ideal.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Ronan

Welcome to the course. I like the idea of placing an object in the yard to predict and record what type of shadow it casts. It would be interesting if the children started with something straight like a stick on the first day and then chose different irregular shaped objects on the second day. They would learn about the sun’s movement on the first day and observe the changes in the height and direction of the shadow and on the second day would have fun predicting not just the height of their object’s shadow but what shape it would be at different times of the day when the sun is coming from different directions.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Daniel

It’s so great that you plan to embrace the natural world and bring the children out fortnightly to observe seasonal changes and to document what they see in a nature journal. These activities are so good for developing observation skills and fostering a love for nature and as you said they are also so good for wellbeing and improving engagement. You have a great plan for integrating other subjects also. Maths and language skills can be developed when you are outdoors and when collating and graphing data in the classroom and using the natural world as inspiration for creative writing. There is also a great link with the arts through sketching, model making, drama and music.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Diarmuid

Welcome to the course. I like your plan for using the activities in this module. Using the Paxi video and exploration of the Teal tool as a way to educate the children about the causes and consequences of Climate Change is a good plan. I like the idea of developing a reflection worksheet for children when exploring the Teal Tool and a series of questions to prompt group or class discussion would also be good. Using these tool before moving on to discussing what changes can be made in school and at home is a good idea. I find that children are often great at listing ways to save energy or making posters but often without an understanding of why it matters. Having a basic knowledge of the Science of Climate Change will mean that they understand why actions like saving electricity or walking to school can make a difference and their posters will have more meaning.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Brenda

That’s a great question and one that relates directly to the children and you have a very comprehensive plan for investigating it. Using the online data from the EO Browser and Met Eireann to see has the weather actually got wetter is a good start and by discussing with others and looking up old newspaper articles online, you can gather the dates for large storms and flooding events and check the rainfall amounts for those dates.  Linking in with local farmers or family members who were badly affected by flooding events is a good idea as it links the wetter weather to the consequences of excess rainfall. Finally I love the idea of using the school garden to not just record the weather but looking at things like wetter soil and effects on plants and animals. It would be great to note everything that the children notice and have those notes available for comparison in future years.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Mary

An outdoor lighting audit is a great way to get the children thinking about the problem of excess light. It is something that people often don’t think about until it is brought to their attention so getting the children to notice the artificial lights around them and to think about the types of lights, the types of light pollution they contribute to and whether they are likely to be on all night is a good way of drawing attention to the problem of light pollution. Designing their own shields for lights is a great activity. You could get them to make simple circuits to light up an LED light first, covering the Electricity strand unit and then have them designing a lamp post and a shield using their engineering skills.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Kate

It’s lovely that you have a living Scientist to base a project around. It is wonderful to be able to celebrate the achievements of a local Scientist. It would be great to be able to research Olivia’s work and to use this as a basis for design and make projects based around the theme of health care. I’m sure that Olivia would love to hear also that she is inspiring the scientists of the future. Getting the children involved in researching other local scientists, past and present would be a great project too. If could even include people that the children know who work in STEM.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Clodagh

Welcome to the course. I’m glad you enjoyed the first module and can see how to apply it in your class. Making and using weather instruments is a great practical way to observe the weather on a day to day basis and comparing the children’s own measurements to recorded weather data from Met Eireann is a great way to foster understanding of how weather forecasts are made and provide an introduction to how changes in the atmosphere cause specific weather events.  It is great that you have thought  about how to pair or group children for these tasks to ensure maximum engagement and understanding.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Andrea

Your classroom sounds like a great learning environment with children being given a chance to use their prior knowledge and focus on the STEM skills they have developed in order to develop and investigation to answer a question or design and make something to meet a need or fill certain criteria. I love that you mention “with support if needed”. This is where teachers can often struggle. It can seem natural to swoop in and help when we see children struggle with a task, but being able to step back and give them the space to solve their own problems and learn from their mistakes is an important skill that results in greater learning for the children and a much greater sense of achievement if they manage to work things out for themselves and complete their task. As you have said, being there to provide help when the children ask for it is also important. In this case you can gently guide them through a series of questions that help them to work things out and get back on track

[Una Halpin]

Hi Brenda

I love the idea of the Climate Awareness Day where children get to showcase their weather data and any investigations or design and make projects related to climate and climate change.  They could also showcase what they have learned from using the Teal tool by deciding what way they want to represent the information. The showcase could have examples of posters, creative writing pieces and dramas, as well as the practical activities they have done. This Climate Awareness Day could be your STEM showcase for Step 5 of the Curious Minds awards.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Joseph

This is s nice plan that focusses on owls, bats and other nocturnal creatures with progression from learning about owls and bats, to assessing the habitat, identifying threats and seeing what could be improved and then focussing on solutions. I love the idea of having the children make bat boxes in class and finding suitable locations to place them. Perhaps some of the children might have suitable locations at home and parents who would be willing to install them as well as placing some near the school.

[Una Halpin]

Hi David

That sounds like a lovely seasonal plan based around the FIT count. It would be worth doing some lessons over winter or early spring to help the children learn about the main groups of pollinators and how to identify them before they begin their FIT counts. You will find all the resources and lesson plans on https://pollinators.ie/schools/. For your FIT counts, you may not be able to use the same garden patch each month as the type of flowers that are blooming will vary from month to month. For example, you might be using Dandelions in April and Clover in May or June. You can use some flowering herbs or garden flowers, if you don’t have patches of any of the target wild flowers. It would also be a nice idea for different groups of pupils to use different types of flowers so you can draw your own conclusions about which types support more pollinators.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Colm

That sounds like a lovely cross curricular project centred around features of the local natural and built environment. It would tie in very nicely with your previous engineering project around arches and the construction of St Mel’s Cathedral. Having guest speakers who were involved in the reconstruction of the Cathedral is a lovely idea if you can get them as reconstruction of a historic building is very specialised work with an integration of history and engineering. Exploring seasonal Biodiversity along the river is a lovely extension. I would encourage you to invest in some identification books, chart sand swatches for identifying plants and animals or print out some free resources. While apps are a nice back-up for teachers to cross check identification, or as a little reminder, they are best used when you already have some knowledge. I would never recommend them for use by children as there is no real learning involved in the use of an app. With a book or key, the children have to use their observation skills to pick out distinguishing features and read notes on sizes, location and season and these skills can help in identifying similar plants or animal at a later date.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Niamh

Encouraging children to look at the moon at home early in the morning before school and then studying it in school once they get in to school is a nice idea. If even some children were able to look each morning, they could report back to the class on what they saw. You might even split the class into 5 groups and ask each child to try to view the moon early one specific morning of the week. Doing the recording in class as a follow up would be a great way to include everyone, so that those who didn’t have time in the morning could still do their observations.

[Una Halpin]

Hi Jovana

Welcome to the course. That sounds like a comprehensive and well structured lesson plan for studying the movement of the sun with your class. I like the idea of a large poster to stick the photos too and with space for their observations, so they have a record with everything in one place and can compare the different positions at different times of day and use it as a basis for understanding the Earth’s rotation. The sundials would feed in nicely with this too.

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