Michéal Coughlan

Subject(s):

Science, History, Geography

Curriculum Strands:

Story (History), Local Studies (History), Early people and ancient societies (History), Life, society, work and culture in the past (History), Eras of change and conflict (History), Continuity and change over time (History), Human environments (Geography), Natural environments (Geography), Environmental awareness and care (Geography/Science), Living things (Science)

Counties catered for:

Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo

Classes catered for:

All Classes

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Michéal was born a farm in rural Ireland and has had an innate affinity with nature, the environment, local history and geography from an early age. He has also lived in some of world’s major cities and understands the importance of urban green spaces and a city, or town's, historical heritage.

With a biology degree and previous life experiences (as a travel writer, hiker, teacher and journalist etc.) Michéal has garnered a wealth of knowledge and understanding across a wide range of areas - nature, biodiversity, biology, habitats/eco-systems (bogs, coastal, riparian, mountains and forests), the environment, climate change, history and geography.

Michéal is a great believer in the power of storytelling to engage children and young adults by making it fun and participatory. He takes a more holistic view of school’s local area and creates a fun learning space for pupils to appreciate the natural environment around them from a nature, biological, geographical and overall heritage perspective. He promotes the ethos that we are all part of nature, not separate from it.

Helping children become more aware of the natural world around them is so important in this attention-absorbing digital age. Michéal stresses how vital it is for us to live in a healthy eco-system and how this benefits us - from the food we eat to the air we breath and from a mental health perspective.

With the onset of climate change and related biodiversity loss, Michéal promotes a positive message to young people – we can all play our part, no matter how small, to help our natural environment mitigate against the effects of climate change.

Michéal is also a qualified 'Leave No Trace Awareness Trainer' and has a post graduate diploma in 'Design Thinking for Sustainability'.

Testimonials

• "Would highly recommend to anyone - Micheal was able to engage all children in the activities - he was brilliant." - St Eunans NS, Donegal

• "Delighted Micheal came - he was flexible- had materials ready so that despite bad weather in the middle of the day an environment lesson could take place anyway" - St Kevin’s BNS, Dublin

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• "Excellent hands-on learning experience. Michael is passionate about the importance of restoring and preserving our bogs and he communicated this message to his audience." - St. Joseph’s NS, Sligo

• "Michéal imparted his wealth of knowledge on biodiversity and wildlife to the children in a relaxed, easy manner. He is a great storyteller. They, along with the teachers learned a lot which will stay with them for years to come." - St Pius X BNS, Dublin

• "We were very happy with Michéal. The children were very engaged with him and he had a very engaging nature. Full of knowledge. The children really enjoyed the experience of using our local park and learning local knowledge about our park and hedgerow. They even enjoyed the very simple leaf print activity back in the classroom. Very positive experience." - Rathcoole ETNS, Dublin

• "Fantastic day very well delivered. Children really enjoyed the experience." - Scoil na Carraige, Donegal

• "The Blanket Bog workshop was most educational and enjoyable all round. It was very engaging for the children and well structured. We would definitely recommend this to any school!" - St. Patrick's National School, Mayo

• "Michael delivered his excellent presentation at the children's level. The weather was against us for the first part of the day and we went on the field trip in the afternoon. While we waited on the weather to clear, Michael kindly offered to deliver his presentation to the middle classroom pupils. The senior children really enjoyed and learned a lot from the field trip during the afternoon session." - Glencastle NS, Mayo

• "We had a great day out in our local bog and enjoyed a picnic there. Beautiful surroundings and the rain stayed away! Great experience for the pupils." - Scoil Mhuire, Donegal

• "Excellent!" - Largy NS, Leitrim

• "The children really enjoyed Michéal's presentation in the school and their visit to a local bog where they learned about preservation of our wild blanket peatlands/bog. Very informative and extremely relevant to the children and their environment." - Castlerock NS, Sligo