Teachers' Resources

The hedgerow toolkit includes lesson plans with information on curriculum links and integration, learning activities, objectives and outcomes along with resources such as a classroom wall poster and hedgerow plants identification sheet.

It demonstrates the huge possibilities of designing and developing the school grounds into a highly stimulating and interactive educational resource, with organic food production and biodiversity as its central themes.

The book has unlimited cross-curricular potential. It particularly ties in with Social, Environmental and Scientific Education (SESE), Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE), Wellbeing, Art, Languages, History and Maths.

It sets out practical projects on growing local food, creating biodiversity and native habitats in the school grounds, and encourages healthy eating, nature-based activities and getting students active.

Available to order from the following sites:

The example of an old tree is used in this tutorial. The activity encourages children to consider questions about past, present and future through personification and the creation of an unusual pictorial poem at the same time. The activity can be applied to other local features, a road, an old building etc.

Taking a very practical approach, the book details projects to help wildlife of all kinds under a range of headings, with tasks suitable for everyone from the total beginner to the more ambitious DIY enthusiast. With clear instructions and step-by-step drawings by illustrator Barry Reynolds, the guide offers the gardener lots of options to help our biodiversity.

A colouring book for children using the beautiful garden wildlife illustrations by Barry Reynolds has also been produced.

Protecting Farmland Pollinators is a European Innovation Partnership (EIP) project funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020. The project is coordinated by the National Biodiversity Data Centre. The National Biodiversity Data Centre is an initiative of the Heritage Council.

The Explorers Education Programme™ aims to build on Ireland’s marine and maritime heritage by increasing awareness of the value, opportunities and social benefits of our ocean wealth and identity. This ocean literacy and engagement guide provides ocean facts, evaluation tools and ideas for the classroom.

https://oar.marine.ie/handle/1...

Nature and biodiversity is something that Bord na Móna is investing in as part of our day to day work. This is why Bord na Móna created Eco Rangers- Guardians of the Land an initiative for schools that gets children outdoors and connecting with nature and learning about the importance of protecting it. See more at https://www.ecorangers.ie/.

What do Water Explorers achieve? Water Explorer supports 8 -14 year olds on a student-led mission to rescue our waterful world. Water Explorers are supported to:

• Complete water-based challenges on key water issues
• Collaborate with other students across the world
• Hold community water festivals and win points and prizes
• Develop a range of transferable knowledge and skills

What impact will Water Explorer have? By the end of the two-year programme (Sep 2016), the programme will have resulted in the following (among other) benefits:

• 1,400 Water Explorer teams
• 9,000 Water Explorers trained
• 90,000 students with increased water awareness
• 475,000 students and community members engaged
• 240,000 m3 water saved = 95 Olympic swimming pools

Discover a range of Nature Detectives activities for all ages from the Woodland Trust.

Things To do
1.    Tell the time?
You will need:

• A bowl, a straight stick, some small pebbles, rocks, watch or clock

Directions:

• Find a sunny spot in the grass and put the stick in the ground (make sure it is straight).
• Throughout the day, place a rock for each hour indicating where the shadow falls at that time.
• Now your sundial is ready to use. When you want to tell the time, just look for the shadow

2.    Download and printout the Sundial Worksheet below on card and make a sun dial.
You will need:

• Cardboard, scissors and sellotape.

Directions:

• Cut out the dial plate and the gnomon.
• Cut a slit in the dial plate along the dotted line.
• Score alone the dotted lies on the gnomon. Fold along these lines. Slide the folded gnomon into the slit in the dial plate and stick the gnomon flaps to the bottom of the dial plate with sellotape.
• Take the sundial to a sunny place and place it in a north-south direction.
• The gnomon should cast a shadow and you will be able to tell the time (Don’t forget to calculate in daylight savings time where appropriate).

Skills and concepts development
Children should be able to:
1.    Time and Chronology:

• Describe events as before/after/ later/earlier
• Use a simple timeline

2.    Change and continuity:

• Identify features that have remained the same, for example the houses and the bridges near the river
• Identify how the River Nore has changed

3.    Cause and effect:

• Examine the reasons for the flood and the effect it had on Kilkenny City

4.    Using evidence:

• Photographs of the river today
• Photographs of the flood
• Edited version of articles in the Kilkenny People

5.    Synthesis and Communication:

• Communicate an awareness of the story of the flood and stories associated with it, in a variety of different ways such as drama and art.

5.    Empathy:

• Imagine and discuss what it was like to be rescued in a boat on the evening of the flood.
• Imagine and discuss what it was like to have your home destroyed by floodwater.

Methodologies

• Among the methods which may be used are:
• A story lesson based on the accounts from the Kilkenny People
• Examining a photograph taken of the flood
• Listening to personal memories of the flood (oral evidence)
• Integration with other subjects: the river (Geography)

Assessment

• Teacher observation
• Outcomes of pupil-pupil and teacher-pupil discussion
• Teacher-designed tasks
• Work cards designed to help children examine the evidence

Each show sees host Neil Delamere risk life and limb to celebrate the greatest ‘Eureka Moments’ of our time – he channels 4 million volts of electricity and shoots lightning out of his fingertips (and a couple of other places while he’s at it), he creates an earthquake in Westmeath, undergoes astronaut training in a human centrifuge and goes freediving in a freezing quarry – all in the name of science.

Eureka! The Big Bang Query was made with the support of Science Foundation Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

The guide is organised in four parts. Part 1 explains why you and your school should take on a whole-school approach to climate action. Part 2 outlines how your school can plan, put into practice, and evaluate your own strategies and visions for reducing climate change. Part 3 provides six guidelines that suggest how to concretely include climate action in your school governance, teaching and learning, campus and facility management, and partnerships with the community. The guidelines are accompanied by examples showing how schools around the world are taking action. At the end of the guide, in Part 4, you will find a table to help you monitor action in the thematic areas along the six guidelines.