[Carmel Wright]

Hi Helen,
Thank you for your post-it sounds like you are most fortunate to have such a site on your doorstep! I can see you have a wealth of ideas for bringing the arts to life for your young learners and celebrating the rich natural heritage in your locality. By creating a narrative it informs and entertains the young learners, and the idea of drama with a predator on the loose certainly will captivate your students!

You have some lovely ideas for creating prints of leaves. There are some great resources to help identify native trees and school resources at the following link: Native Irish Trees (treecouncil.ie)

By presenting their creative work to other learners, the students will improve their communication skills and instill in their audience an appreciation for the locality and its heritage.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Mary,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! I can see you have truly taken the time to reflect on Liston’s paper and its implications for delivering a meaningful STEM experience in the classroom.

The Curious Minds framework is a thorough approach to carrying out a comprehensive and holistic learning experience and will further strengthen the great approach you are already taking in the classroom, asking the learners questions, testing the vehicles, hands-on activities, etc. By adding a narrative and a real-life dimension: the tractor on the farm is broken-it enriches the learning experience, captivates a young audience, and is a great opener/prompt for an activity like this with young learners.

 

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Gemma,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! I am delighted to see how you are planning to use the resources outlined in this module in your special ed class. As you said, the materials can be adapted to your class and its unique abilities. With this approach, all learners can enjoy meaningful STEM experiences, developing their skills in this area.

I highly recommend the weather station as it offers learners an opportunity not only to capture data but also to take a break in the outdoors- something all learners benefit from, and it can form part of a schedule during the day for observation. It can be used by the whole school and is a topic that offers many cross-curricular links in terms of language, art, etc.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Karena,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course. The Paxi video is a great entry point for all learners and covers quite a lot in a short space of time in a fun and accessible way. A mind map is a great idea for eliciting prior knowledge.

TEAL is a really accessible tool, and with a teacher’s support and guidance will help consolidate learning in this topic. While it is most suited to the more senior classes, I think there is some potential to look at one of the variables with more guidance from the teacher.

How to Save Our Planet is a beautiful video, and through simple and engaging language, it helps learners get a snapshot of our planet and the sustainable approach that is needed for our best future.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Evelyn,
Thanks for your post. I can see you are encountering a common issue on this platform. When pasting written content from elsewhere, you must right-click and select “paste as plain text”; otherwise, extraneous material will appear.

This activity works well across a range of ages and abilities, and I like how you are supporting the learner’s discussion through sentence starters to get the ball rolling on fruitful discussions about similarities and differences. It can also be turned into a game- which team can identify/match the fastest, etc adding to the fun of this activity.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Edel,
Thanks for your post. A KWL is a great choice, particularly for this topic, where there can be some confusion. I particularly like how you plan this lesson to extend to the family home, where students can learn from the older generation about the weather long ago. Was the winter colder? Was there more snow? Etc. By the meticulous capturing of weather data worldwide, over time we can see how our climate is dramatically and rapidly changing.

This summer, the temperatures across Europe and beyond continue to break previous records and will continue to do so. Read more on this here: Hottest summer ever? Experts reveal what could be in store for Europe in the next few months | Euronews

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Michaela,

Thanks for your post. I can see you have a comprehensive plan for delivering this to learners, including an enriching discussion on predictions and climate change overall.

By developing an action plan to reduce carbon footprints, learners can gain empowerment and environmental values that will serve them well in the future they currently face.

Case studies are a great idea, and there are some startling examples of climate refugees, etc. Closer to home here in Ireland, we are already seeing an impact, with increased heavy rain and storms resulting in increased flooding, profoundly impacting communities. Read more on this here: Human-caused Climate Change Brings Increased Storm Rainfall – Met Éireann – The Irish Meteorological Service

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Dara,
Thanks for your post. Home really is an eye-opener to the level of devastation in our environment and how even the bounty of our planet has limits that we exceed every year. It is powerful, and may be at times overwhelming, depending on the age and maturity of the viewer, so teachers may choose to show a segment rather than the whole film, as It is a lot to take in in one sitting. The focus must be on growing awareness without eco-anxiety. It is also important to shed some light on the positives, of which there are many, particularly those at a local level. We are making progress here in Ireland and need to continue to do so at an accelerated rate, as reported recently in the Irish Times: Ireland’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2023 reach lowest level in three decades – The Irish Times

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Orla,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
I really like your collaborative approach to this activity, getting another teacher on board to extend the learning to more students in your school., and reaching the local community. It is an approach with many benefits, fostering curious minds throughout the entire community.

To further at-home connections with STEM, learners at the senior end of the primary cycle can also make a rain gauge at home as homework, as it only requires simple materials that can be found in a recycling bin. Learners can be given the task of measuring rain in their area, discussing challenges they encountered and reflecting on how they would do it differently next time.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for your post.

I am delighted to see that your class would really enjoy a sundial activity. It is one with so much potential for cross curricular links, uses very little by way of materials, but has the potential to teach learners so much.
It can be fun at the start of this lesson to get the class guessing as to how we told the time before, imagining a time before clocks and modern technology before introducing the topic of sundials.

You make a valid point about ideally having sunny(and dry!) weather for this activity. It also needs to be positioned away from anything that could cast a shadow on the sundial, and this is something the learners can decide on when planning.

I hope you get the opportunity to try this activity with your learners in the coming academic year.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Aisling,

Thanks for your post. I can see you are taking the time in your plan to elicit prior knowledge from learners. A KWL chart or similar is a great starting point for this topic to gain alignment on current understanding.

There are plenty of fun ways to engage learners with water’s refractive nature; I particularly like using an image of an arrow behind a glass or jar of water for demonstrations, known as the reversing arrow illusion.

It’s an entertaining and interactive activity that works across the classrooms when pitched appropriately, and I am sure your 4th and 5th classes will gain a lot from this activity.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the course!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Jamie,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
A KWL is an ideal starting point for this class, and your learners may surprise you with the extent of their prior knowledge as climate change becomes a more recognized concern for us all. The Green Flag programme is a great way to tie in the climate aspects of the activities outlined in this module and the real-life ways learners’ choices are making a difference. It can also be interesting to touch on any relevant stories from the locality that can be attributed to our changing climate, increased flooding, etc.

For cross-curricular links, the SEAI has a terrific ebook that can be downloaded in English or Irish and may suit senior learners. Follow the link here for more: SEAI | Schools | Climate SOS

 

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Christina,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course.

You make a very valid point about the limitations that young learners have in the choices they make-usually it is the parent/guardian who determines how they travel, etc., but by creating climate literacy in these young learners, teachers play an incredibly important role in providing a fact-based understanding of climate change, and humans role in this. Of course, there are also small and simple ways they can make a difference, too, and at the senior end of the cycle, they should be able to give some examples, like those mentioned in the Paxi video.

A KWL chart can be helpful for this lesson, as there are many misconceptions about what climate is and the extent of our impact, and TEAL is ideal for a senior class like yours and can help bring the topic to life on a dynamic and engaging platform.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Deirdre,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! I am delighted to see you have a sensory garden in your school. It sounds like the perfect location for a weather dial( as long as nothing nearby creates shade on the dial). By empowering the learners with the challenge of selecting the correct location and materials to use, they will develop their skills.

With the support of senior classes, there is considerable opportunity for peer learning, and by involving other classes to test the dial, it creates a whole school engagement in the activity and nurtures curious minds.

There are also many opportunities for STEM vocabulary development, such as gnomon, and it is worthwhile recording these new terms on a poster.
Best of luck with this activity in the coming academic year!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Fiona,

Welcome to the course, and many thanks for your post. I can see you have put considerable thought into how this activity would work in your school. It would be interesting to see if your learners could come up with a suitable location for the weather station themselves when given an understanding of the criteria that make a good position as outlined in the course. This can give rise to teamwork, discussions and presenting of the reasons why they selected a certain location, extending the activity and developing their skillset.

It’s great to see your extensive list to extend learning further, with plenty of cross-curricular links and the opportunity for learners to develop an understanding of real-life applications through visits from suitable parents/members of the community.

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