[Carmel Wright]

Hi Amy,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course.

I am delighted to see that you are looking forward to using these resources in the coming year.

This module certainly provides plenty of options for teachers to choose from. You are prudent in your planning to carry these out over a number of weeks. This is especially important if you plan on setting up weather station-monitoring results over a period of a week or more, which will generate a lot of data that learners can then use to create charts and graphs and interpret with averages, etc.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Karena,

Thanks for your post.

What an interesting site to have nearby! There are lots of great ideas for bringing this site’s unique history, views, and landscape to life through a series of engaging creative activities.
I really like the idea of carrying out these activities around Halloween, given the history of the site and its legends. Improvised drama around this site is a wonderful way of bringing the history of this unique place to life for young learners, with the creative freedom to express how they imagine what it was like to be there years ago.

[Carmel Wright]

Hello Maire,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

You are most fortunate to have such diversity on and near your school grounds, and it will make for very interesting maps with lots of different materials for your learners to represent on the 3D version.

I can see you have put considerable thought into your plans to do a series of lessons on mapping the school grounds, followed by a series of lessons on mapping the local walking trail. It’s great to see that with each step, the learners will be improving their skills and understanding, from the opening prompt of how we could show others what is on our school grounds to 3D maps and Google Maps imagery, introducing scale and biodiversity features. There is lovely progression, and it is wonderful to see you plan on allocating time over a series of classes to complete this.

 

[Carmel Wright]

Hello Catherine,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course. Reading over your reflections on Liston’s paper, it is clear you actively apply its principles in your approach to STEM in the classroom. By cultivating joined-up thinking and a holistic approach rather than siloing disciplines, we can create meaningful connections, developing curious minds with robust skills that will be needed for their future in whatever career path they pursue.

I was most impressed with your mention of itime another post. What a great idea to cultivate the learner’s interests and research skills by providing them with the autonomy to choose the topic to investigate. By empowering learners to lean into their interests, they will engage more in the topic and, I have no doubt, be the most animated and expert presenters on the topic.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Eithne.
Thanks for your post and plan to explore biodiversity in your local area and the possible impacts of light pollution on local biodiversity. This plan has great cross-curricular links and a fun interactive game to engage learners while deepening their understanding of the challenges migrating birds face, including the issue of light pollution.

Engaging in citizen science is a wonderful way to empower learners to contribute to a database and get a better understanding of how to record data and the importance of citizens monitoring species. Inadequate resources are allocated to this work at present to provide the monitoring required, but this data is vital to shaping our understanding of the population changes underway.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your post. What a wonderful assortment of songs, art, and poetry for all ages! I had never heard of Aikendrum, but it is a great and fun fit for younger learners. Disney songs like When You Wish Upon a Star are always so popular and will help young learners connect with the night sky and its beautiful stars, beacons of hope in the dark.

Beautiful choices for the senior cycle, and it’s great to see an Irish poet feature on the list. Patrick’s work is so vibrant and visceral that it will captivate your learners. It also makes a great reference to the constellation Cassiopeia and is a nice prompt for leading into an activity, like finding this constellation on Stellarium, etc.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Niamh,
Thanks for your post. Your experience as someone who could appreciate the night sky is tragically becoming rarer, and I think sharing your stargazing stories would be a wonderful prompt for this activity and for senior learners, perhaps even introducing the concept of shifting baselines.

The light pollution map really shows the extent of our impact and where Dublin’s artificial light emissions are almost seven times higher than any other county in Ireland.

ESERO 9 is a fun and interactive way to think about darkness and light and explore in a dark setting. Not all learners may be comfortable being blindfolded for the obstacle course activity, but they can instead direct their partner in this activity and learn from their insights afterwards.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Niamh,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
What a wonderful way to integrate learning on this, bringing together stories, art, and an understanding of constellations by using Stellarium.

It sounds like you have enthusiastic and passionate senior classes. By embracing their passion for legends, you will engage them fully in the exploration of the constellations, too.

It’s great to see that your classes had the opportunity to visit the Armagh Planetarium a couple of years ago. I hope you get a chance to refresh your memories with a visit this year, too!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Cathy,
Thanks for your post. I really like your plan to engage learners in the topic of light pollution in their area, providing learners with a point of comparison from 100 years ago and building their understanding through watching the video resource on light pollution.

It’s a wonderful idea to get the learners to act on their newfound understanding of the topic by reaching out to Dublin City Council. This is a way for learners to empower themselves by becoming activists and help them realise the power of their united stance. One letter may never get a response, but 30 or so will.

It’s wonderful to see so many great ideas for cross-curricular links outlined in your plan, including art, English, SPHE, and geography.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Catherine,

Thanks for your post. You are very lucky to have such a great facility on your doorstep. What an interesting excursion for your young learners to see the creation of technology we enjoy today!

You have great choices for learners to develop their literacy skills with procedural or explanatory writing about microprocessors.

A KWL chart could be a worthwhile starting point for this visit. Some of your students may have parents working in Intel who may have insights to share about microprocessors. I am sure learners will expand their STEM vocabulary during the visit, too, which could be worthwhile capturing on a poster/in a notebook.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

I can see you have put thought into running this activity in your school and are fortunate to have a suitable location to create your sundial. The orange and torch are a great way to demonstrate how the sun’s position relative to the Earth changes throughout the day and provide learners with a meaningful demonstration of what is happening on a much larger scale.

This activity is rich in mathematical concepts, such as angles and the use of a protractor. It’s great to see how it can be adapted to include more challenges for senior learners, making it a versatile project. For instance, you could explore the accuracy of the sundial compared to a regular watch, or the average difference between them.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Meadhbh,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

I am glad to see this is something that you see as a good fit for your class. Whether you end up with 3rd class or not again, the great thing is that this activity can be readily adapted to the class’s abilities. You mentioned the chalk outline, which works very well with junior classes right through to senior classes!

This can then be built upon by creating the sundial, and I am delighted to read that you have a sundial on your doorstep. What a great prompt for the activity and the excursion rolled into one! You may be surprised by how many learners don’t know what it is or does despite it being a feature in your local park.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course. You make a good point about the abstract nature of time. By reflecting on the cyclical nature of the seasons, it will certainly give rise to interesting insights, and questions like how to tell the time without a watch are great prompts to get started into this activity.

I like your idea of doing a survey. To add to their ICT skills it could be designed and completed on Survey Monkey if you are dealing with senior students.

A sundial is a great way to engage further with this topic, with accessible materials and the good fortune of a sunny day! It does not take too long to make; even monitoring twice or three times in one day is adequate to give learners an understanding of this rudimentary technology.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for your post. The Home video does serve as a powerful reminder that we need to focus on what remains, not what is gone. It’s a lot to take in in one sitting, (even as an adult! ) but depending on class age, some segments may serve a purpose in deepening understanding about the current crisis and its solutions.

Some other posts have made reference to the “circle of control”, and I think that it is important because students have limited capacity to make choices at this point in their lives. Parents/guardians determine what they eat, how they travel, they are too young to vote, etc, but we each can do little things and together, these little things can have a big impact, inspire further and greater acts of sustainability, and influence others to do better.

The worksheet for the Ice is Melting is a great hands-on activity, providing a series of robust questions for learners to answer, and a great add on to your class plan.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
Dr Liston’s paper is an insightful read and a reminder for us all of what STEM truly means and should include in an authentic learning experience. It can serve as a useful benchmark for how to deliver in the classroom, and I am glad to see it gave rise to your reflection on including more engineering.

You make a great point about how the activities don’t require fancy resources- this can be a real barrier to participation for schools.

Fortunately, most STEM concepts can be explained/demonstrated or designed with minimal resource investment. Often the contents of a recycling bin is what is required- a great reminder for learners of the importance of reusing, too, and being resourceful. Integrating topics is a great way to add more time to complete activities, especially with a jam-packed curriculum!

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