[Carmel Wright]

Hello Leanne,
Thanks for your post!

You’ve come up with some great learner friendly examples in your list.
I was most impressed with the poem choice of The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson, as it would be a perfect prompt for starting an activity based on nocturnal and diurnal creatures, with his mention of a bat, “The bat that lies in bed at noon, All love to be out by the light of the moon.” And also diurnal creatures like us humans,

“But all of the things that belong to the day
Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;
And flowers and children close their eyes
Till up in the morning the sun shall arise.”

[Carmel Wright]

Hello Katie,

Welcome to the course, and thanks for your post!

Your love of music has certainly come across in your response! You have created a great list of ideas, and as you can see, there is plenty of more inspiration here on this forum page.

What an amazing experience for your learners, connecting with Chris Hadfield-I am a big fan of his videos about life on the ISS as an educational tool.

The great thing about an assignment like this is that going forward, whenever you hear a poem or see art, you will be looking for the theme of the night sky! Of course, I am sure your learners would enjoy the chance to create a poem and art of their own, celebrating this theme as part of a cross-curricular activity.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Catherine,
Welcome to the course! Many thanks for your comprehensive post on how you would run this lesson with your class. I can see you have put considerable thought into making this activity a meaningful and accessible learning experience for your students with severe learning and physical disabilities.

By focusing on the senses it will help your learners connect to the world around them, and using natural materials to reflect what is present on your grounds is a wonderful way to connect what they can see/feel/hear/smell to the map. Photos of the area are a great tool to help remind learners of the layout and help them recreate the scene with Lego.

I find big sheets of card work best for this activity so learners have enough space to incorporate all the details, especially when using natural materials for the map.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Jane,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
What is great about your lesson outline is the focus on questions that the learners must answer/find an answer to. Through this approach, learners and teachers go on a learning journey together. It empowers the learners to find the answers and fuels their natural curiosity.

There are a lot of opportunities for further learning in terms of real-life applications with this activity. If you near to Birr Castle, Offaly, it is well worth visiting, or Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork. Alternatively, a parent may be an amateur astronomer who can come in and give a talk.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Barbara,
Many thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!
You make a great point about learners’ natural curiosity, which reminded me of a quote by Carl Sagan, “Every kid starts out as a natural-born scientist…” By harnessing that curiosity, STEM activities can be an engaging and exciting journey of discovery for the learners, who will learn much more than a set of facts but a means with which to explore, think and problem-solve.

Communication skills such as presenting can also be nurtured through presenting findings to the class, other classes within the school, or, on a larger scale, a whole school science fair/ESB Science Blast, etc.

It sounds like you have been very productive in the past year with meaningful and authentic STEM lessons, and that Liston’s paper will help shape your STEM activities for the coming year.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Valerie,

Welcome to the course, and thank you for your reflective post.

I couldn’t agree more with you on the Home film. It was made for the big screen! I also see that it could easily be too much or overwhelming unless shown in short clips.

It is so important that we focus on the positive, and as you said, there are positive changes and interventions in place. Learners may have already noticed some changes themselves in their locality, such as the bottle return scheme, solar panels on buildings, electric cars, better public transport, more cycle lanes, etc. It can also lead to a school project on energy conservation.

The SEAI provide some great free workshops on this-see this link for more information:Student Workshops | Community Energy | SEAI

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by Carmel Wright.

[Carmel Wright]

Hello Declan,

Welcome to the course, and thanks for the post!

I can see you have given considerable thought to how to engage learners in your junior class in this activity.

Teal is a useful tool and can be made as simple or as complex as needed to match the level of the students, with guidance from the teacher.
For such a young class, a teacher-led activity simply showing the solar radiation(sun icon) and how the planet is getting warmer over time in a given location, with a focus on the changing colours over the time span of 1950 to now could be more than enough, while putting a greater focus on the Paxi video resources.

Drawings, as you mentioned, are also a great way for learners to record information and demonstrate understanding.

Best of luck with this lesson in the coming academic year!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course. There is a lot to unpack from Dr Liston’s paper, and I see you are prudent in making use of the cross-curricular links to ensure your class has time to incorporate STEM into your schedule.

The weather station is wonderful for many reasons, including how accessible and affordable it is to set up, with many instruments possible to make from recycling bin supplies, but also for affording those who are observing the instrument readings, a movement break outside in nature, a change of scenery and a meaningful task to engage in.

The math opportunities are significant in this activity, from angles to results to graphing data and averages. It’s a worthwhile addition for all schools.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Aonghus,

Many thanks for your thoughtful post, and welcome to the course!

As a child of the 80s myself, I recall some activities in the primary classroom, but often, it was a hands-off, siloed topic exploration without using a framework of inquiry.

While STEM has been prevalent throughout history, its use as a buzzword today forces us to consider what it truly means and what an authentic STEM experience is.

I quite like this quote from the paper on engineering role, “If events are to be labelled ‘STEM’, engineering has to take centre stage during the activities. Engineering is the glue that integrates science, mathematics and technology and forces them towards workable solutions. STEM activities and lessons use the Engineering Design Process (EDP) as a systematic, orderly, open-ended way of approaching problems and designing solutions for those problems.”

Weather station equipment is an excellent investment and, as you said, could work well as a long-term project.

Best of luck with this activity in the year ahead!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Áine,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

As a teacher in a junior class, activity one is a great fit for your learners and is thought-provoking as they think about their birthday weather experiences. I quite like this simple video from NASA, too, as an additional learning resource: https://youtu.be/vH298zSCQzY

Once the weather station items are installed, the real fun and learning can begin, even at a junior level as they collect data. This can be made as simple as required for their abilities. For the rain gauge, it could begin with asking, is there water in it or not? and build from there to recording numbers.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Conor,

Welcome to the course, and many thanks for your post.

It sounds like you have taken a lot from Dr. Liston’s paper, and it is great to read about how you bring STEM to life in the classroom!

I applaud your ability to reflect on how the activity went and how it could be improved upon going forward; this is a vital and sometimes overlooked step in a framework of inquiry. It is not just the learners who need to pause after the activity and reflect on how it went and what they would do differently, but also the teacher! It means that your classes will continuously improve. With no two lessons or classes the same, there will always be some scope for improvement.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Eric,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

You have given considerable thought to running this activity and touching on important points, including ensuring learners have a solid grasp of what greenhouse gases mean. This will be new vocabulary for many, and a poster featuring new STEM terms will help the learners remember this over time.

It is an excellent opportunity to present ideas on how to reduce impact in the area but also see what is already underway-there are a lot of positive changes, and this is important to highlight in terms of our rapidly changing energy supply here in Ireland, more cycle lanes, solar-powered homes, etc.

You make a good point about games; they are a great motivator when learning! One option could be to make it a race to see who can retrieve a certain climate scenario first, etc., to add a competitive element once everyone is confident in using the tools.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Rebecca,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! The Paxi video is an excellent introduction to this topic, and there are many other great options online to prompt this activity and further learning.

There is so much that can be done at all levels to help improve the greenhouse gas situation, and it begins with learning about the issue. Armed with the how and why, learners will have a lot to contribute regarding how to solve it, and every small, practical example has a significant impact when done at scale.

RTE News are also an excellent source for climate news, with a climate tab in their app. While some stories may trigger anxiety and should not be shared, others offer hope in terms of the innovations and solutions currently being developed at a national level.

This activity that really shows the impact and importance of accurate data collection and its usefulness in creating models from which we can all learn so much! A great lead into geography projects, energy saving in the school, or monitoring temperature and setting up a weather station!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Claire,

Many thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

You make a great point about learners loving to leave the classroom, and this activity is a great way to incorporate a movement break throughout the day that all learners benefit from.

By having a few dials in different locations it will teach the learners a great deal throughout the day as shadows impact some of the dials and will fuel a conversation on dial positioning, and the broader topic of earth’s movement relative to the sun, which can easily be demonstrated, as outlined in the course.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Christine,
Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

Dr. Liston’s paper certainly provides food for thought, shedding light on STEM, the importance of its real-life applications, integrating subjects, and, like you mention, the definition of technology, with a far broader scope than we typically imagine.

Space Travel Agent is a superb, fun and narrative-based way of engaging young learners in this topic at an appropriate level.

The sundial is a simple activity and can be great for young learners while developing skills through its creation and monitoring. It’s an activity that, once the sundial is created, can be monitored on the hours for a school day. It’s also an opporunity for problem solving when things go wrong(as they invariably do, on occasion!)-what should we do if it blows over? How can we solve this problem? Where should we move it to if its tampered with during yard time? etc.

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