[Carmel Wright]

Hi Amy,

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the course!

I see you have put some thought into observing the Moon with your class and have dates earmarked that work best for school times. The Paxi videos work very well, especially with younger learners and cover a lot in a short space of time.

It’s an excellent opportunity to develop new vocabulary, pitched according to their abilities, with a host of new terms for the Moon that can be added to a new STEM vocabulary poster or similar in the classroom.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Lora,
Welcome to the course, and thanks for your post!
Your plan is a great way to encourage bats to your school, and the addition of bat boxes will provide them with much-needed support in the form of habitat.

In our bid for a clean aesthetic, so often not even a leaf is left on the grass, or the grass is not allowed to grow a little wild, which is a great pity for the wildlife it can support and, in turn, the other native species these bugs become a food supply for. There is so much that can easily be done to help native wildlife thrive.

I think it is great that you also plan for a bug hotel, as it also teaches an important lesson that biodiversity does not occur without a web and that each species in this web has a role to play, including bugs, bats, and hedgehogs, to name but a few!

[Carmel Wright]

Hello Anne,

Thank you so much for your post. What a wonderful way with words you have-“ we look up to the night sky in the hope that we can find ourselves.”

The night sky is certainly a font of inspiration for many, and you have chosen some wonderful examples from an eclectic mix of genres.

There is a lot of potential to further engage in the theme of the night sky with young learners with prompts like those you mentioned as an opening to the activity or as a follow-on cross-curricular link to art, poetry and music. The Owl and the Pussy Cat is a classic for good reason, with its fun tale and repetition, and is a terrific choice for younger learners.

I’ll leave you with one of my favourite quotes by the late and great Carl Sagan,

“Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.”

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Martina,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course!

Dr. Liston covers a great deal in her paper. It is certainly an eye-opener, moving away from siloed thinking about STEM subjects and incredibly practical in its approach to solving problems, and it certainly sounds like you have a firm grasp on conducting meaningful STEM activities in the classroom.

You raise a good point about learners needing to know both definitions at the end of the lesson about climate and weather, and I would encourage out-of-the-box thinking and cross-curricular links to help these concepts stick. Could your learners create a poem about weather and climate or art? A vocabulary sheet/poster can help revisit definitions.

Best of luck setting up a weather station in your school this coming academic year. It is a superb STEM activity with scope for ongoing observations and much more!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Emma,

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

It is great to see that you are placing a strong emphasis on STEM in the classroom, developing a broad range of skills and engaging the learners in activities with real-world applications. Dr. Liston’s paper provides great guidance on what STEM really is, and means for those delivering activities.

The activities outlined in this module certainly support learners STEM journey, and I am delighted to see that weather and climate is something that you have already covered in your classroom, and that these resources will be put to good use in the coming academic year!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Ciara,

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the course!

There is so much to take from Liston’s paper, and I see through your reflections on the activities that you understand the value in STEM projects for skills development, with your example of learner-led engagement-getting the children to reflect on where to place the thermometer, the time of day to record it, ensure that it is not tampered with. It allows the children to take responsibility.

This hands-on, learner-led approach leads to an enriching STEM activity. Of course, these activities can be a springboard for learning so much more about weather and climate, leading to discussions from learners from other countries in your classroom  contributing on how their country compares to Ireland in terms of climate, and so on.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the course. I see you are encountering a common problem on this forum- extraneous material when pasting. Please right-click and select “paste as plain text” to avoid this issue going forward.

I am delighted to read that you have a very active school garden-what a great resource for your learners! It sounds like a fitting location for your weather station, but of course, let the learners loose in your schoolyard area, and they may have some ideas for a location of their own!

There is a lot to factor into the choice of site, and there is so much learning to be had from designing, marking, monitoring, recording, reporting, reflecting, and presenting this activity!

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Séamus,

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the course!

You have made a thoughtful plan for how to make this activity work in the classroom, with consideration for understanding where the learners are at in terms of background knowledge on the topic.

For anyone conducting this activity, and especially for the first time, it is important for both learners and teachers to reflect after it is carried out on what went well and what could be improved upon. Did I allow enough time for each stage? Would I ask different questions, etc.

It is also a great starting point for looking at the local community and seeing changes underway that are climate-positive. Are there more solar panels in the area? How can the school become more environmentally friendly?

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Jane,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! I can see you have put thought into how to make this work with your young learners, and Paxi videos are a great place to start. They are easy, accessible, and engaging. As a technical tool, I think working as a class is better for juniors, and focusing on colours rather than numbers is a practical way to make it accessible.

For young learners, it is essential to focus on how we can all care for the environment, and programmes like the Green Schools are a great place to start, as well as projects to reduce energy usage in the school. This activity can be a terrific starting point for conversations about making changes.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Padraic,

Thanks for your post, and welcome to the course! Adding Kahoot or other quiz apps to the activity is a superb way to elicit prior knowledge and to get a baseline of learners’ understanding of climate change as you delve into the topic.

There is a growing wealth of resources available for tackling climate change, and one that I think is worth checking out is from the Climate Ambassador programme run by an Taisce. What I like about it is the Irish context that it provides, and accessible facts and figures. Here is the link: https://climateambassador.ie/resources/

[Carmel Wright]

Thanks for your post, John. I am very glad to see that you enjoyed the module!

I see that it has spurred you on to reflect on the differences between the STEM activities you conducted in your school and how much more impactful they can be when learners undergo STEM teaching in a true sense, as you say, through the weaving project.

The great thing about the topic is that here in Ireland, we all talk about it so much. It’s a national hobby! Getting a firm understanding of the differences can be a foundation to build upon and is an important stepping stone for beginning to understand climate change.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Colm,

Welcome to the course, and thank you for your post. There is a lot to take in, but the HOME video really is an exquisite piece of work to showcase the breathtaking beauty of nature and how we have changed our world so rapidly in the context of this planet’s existence.

I think you have the right idea in using the video as a springboard for learners’ curiosity that can then lead to research into the topics covered, and the carbon footprint tool is a great way to see how changes we all make add up. While every minute of the video is worth watching, it can be helpful to show segments covering the topic you want to focus on rather than the full video.

It is also important to be mindful of eco-anxiety in young learners and focus on the positives underway. Here in Ireland, there is a lot happening, from solar panels to offshore wind farms, recycling food waste, the new (and somewhat controversial) bottle scheme, etc.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Brendan,

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

There are a lot of new terms for learners(and teachers!) to get to grips with, but of course, as a teacher, you can adapt to the level of your learners. None of the lessons are prescriptive by nature, and teachers are the experts on the unique ability of their class. There are great options as opening prompts for this activity, including photos of the moon during its various phases, etc.

Using an app is a great way to incorporate tech skills while keeping up to date with current moon phases in challenging Irish weather! It can also be fun to make a game out of the phases by cutting out each phase of the moon, including an image, and see if the learners can work in groups to put them in the correct order.

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Una,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the course. I can see you have created a plan that is pitched appropriately for your class level and abilities.

You make some important points when reflecting on this activity, and I agree with you on the point of weight. This can be incredibly sensitive subject, even at a young age, but where there is a will there is a way! Consider some out of the box thinking for this activity-instead of learners in the class could it be how much a car/rocket/dog weigh on the various planets? Or perhaps each group creates an image of an astronaut that they name, and then you give a weight for each? That way, it is not personal.

This news of Ireland’s first astronaut, Dr. Norah Patten, from Mayo, could make an excellent addition to the lesson or even starting point trigger-Norah is going to space, how much would her rocket weigh on the moon, etc, creating a narrative to add to the experience. Here is the link to this great news: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0620/1455670-space-dr-norah-patten/

 

[Carmel Wright]

Hi Micheál,

Welcome to the course, and thank you for your post!

You have put thought into how the sundial activity could be applied to your class, and I am glad to see features of your plan include giving the learners “thinking time” for challenges of your sundial site, empowering the learners to consider options and creating solutions.

It can be fun to see if you can make the sundial from waste recycling materials to give this activity an environmental angle, and using ICT can enrich the learning experience and options for presenting results and findings-learners could photograph the sundial on the hour, create graphs comparing actual time to that shown on the sundial, etc.

[Author]

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