Dear DOME friends, after a year long implementation of project activities in your schools we would like to invite you to share with us some feedback on your activities. How was the experience? What worked and what didn't? What would you differently?
Thank you very much for your time and happy summer!
Dear DOME friends, after a year long implementation of project activities in your schools we would like to invite you to share with us some feedback on your activities. How was the experience? What worked and what didn't? What would you differently?
Thank you very much for your time and happy summer!Hi all, we took part in the DOME project in St Anthony's BNS. Boys from 5th class did the project.
Frances from BCO came in to help us. We also had help from our school caretaker with cutting the triangles.
The boys absolutely loved participating in this project. We learned so much.... how to work as a team, using our engineering and maths skills and also how to problem solve.
We did the project in stages. We set up an 'assembly line in the classroom where boys were cutting, folding and putting the triangles together.
We then found a space in the school to assemble the DOME.
This was the hardest part as we needed more clips and tape to keep it together. We used chairs them to give the DOME more height and lift it off the ground.
Once we had all this done, Frances brought her projector and set it up. All 30 classes in the school had a chance to use the DOME for a 30/40 minute session over a week.
The boys were absolutely thrilled with their success and we learned a lot along the way. Thank you very much for allowing us to partake in this project and a special thanks to Frances and BCO.
Margaret Donovan
Many aspects of the project were extremely successful:
- Students enjoyed and were motivated by hands-on projects and collaborative tasks, which allowed them to apply their knowledge in practical ways.
- These sessions provided real-world insights and enriched the learning experience, keeping students interested and excited.
- Incorporating multimedia and interactive sessions captured students’ attention and maintained their interest.
- Real-life problem-solving tasks were highly effective, and students appreciated taking ownership of their projects.
- The comprehensive online resources and materials provided excellent support for the activities.
However, we encountered some challenges along the way, too:
- Some of the digital tools were not as user-friendly as expected, leading to delays and frustration.
- Coordinating schedules for group activities proved difficult due to varying student availability.
- Some students struggled with the independent study aspects and required more guidance.
- Internet connectivity issues disrupted the flow of some activities.
- Limited materials and budget constraints hindered some project activities.
Based on our experiences, we intend to make the following changes going forward:
- Allocate more time for training on digital tools before starting the projects to ensure all students are comfortable using them.
- Plan the schedule more meticulously and create smaller groups to enhance participation and coordination.
- Introduce a mentorship system where more experienced students or teachers can offer additional support.
- Invest in better IT infrastructure and have backup plans for technical difficulties.
- Seek additional funding or partnerships to ensure all necessary materials are available and look for cost-effective alternatives where possible.
I am grateful to all the workshop leaders for sharing this wonderful educational project. Also, many thanks to our amazing DOME community for your all advice, guidance and support! I hope this helps, @echaniot. 😇
@paulprouse Thank you very much for your detailed report and feedback!!!!
Can you share some photos maybe?
Best regards,
Manolis
Hello Everyone,
Wow, that was a fantastic project!
We are a small school, St Luke's Mixed National School, of less than 100 students in Cork City, Ireland. We were in touch with Frances from Blackrock Castle Observatory. She asked us to amalgamate with another school nearby for teacher CPD. We were going to learn how to build a planetarium with our students!!
We all met (staff from 2 schools) after work one day where Frances discussed the Dome project with us, outlined how it would work and together we built a micro prototype to get the general idea.
The senior classes from our school soon got to work soon after teacher CPD. This was an amazing hands-on example of project based learning in STEM. They were required to measure, cut, collaborate, build using cardboard.
Our school has many limitation in terms of size and so the half built dome was dismantled and moved to the crypt of a big church next door. The results were amazing. After many hours of labour, the dome was completed. Younger classes from the school made contributions by creating space artwork as a contribution and to be a part of the wonderful project.
To top it all off, Frances visited our D.O.M.E. with an amazing projector showing students a variety of footage based on age. The Planetarium came to life. The students were blown away by the project.
The build did require a lot of support from the class teacher. He felt that it wasn't as sturdy as he had hoped and felt a bit disappointed/frustrated that it was top heavy.
Below is a link to our school website where you will find photographs of our work.
We were so grateful for the opportunity to partake in a project of the sort. Thank you to Frances and to you all for your hard work in making it possible.
https://www.stlukesmontenotte.ie/news/dome-/?p=2&tags=,1084,
