STE for 2nd Class

Curriculum Mapping Student Devices
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This course introduces primary pupils to core STE concepts through hands-on exploration of living things, materials, energy and forces, technology, and engineering design. Students develop observation and questioning skills, conduct investigations into plant growth, material properties, forces, sound, and simple coding with ScratchJr and floor robots. They learn to empathise with users, draft solutions, build and test structures and moving models, and complete a purposeful helper project, fostering scientific thinking, creativity, and environmental awareness throughout.
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Build on what 2nd Class pupils can already do (notice, sort, predict, record) to tell living, once-living and never-living apart, use the senses for careful scientific observation, see how food gives us energy to grow and thrive, identify local and wider Irish plants, run a two-lesson observe-over-time plant-growth inquiry, and follow an animal life cycle. Nature of STEM is woven throughout as 'STEM eyes'.

STEM Eyes and Living Things
STEM Eyes: What Does It Do, and How Could We Find Out? Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Living, Once-living or Never-living? Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Senses and Our Needs to Grow
Our Senses Help Us Investigate Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Food Gives Us Energy to Grow
Plants and the Plant-growth Project
Plants in Our Local and Wider World
Set up Our Plant Investigation
What Did Our Plants Need?
An Animal's Life Cycle

Deepen the Materials strand: natural vs synthetic, comparing and contrasting properties, asking a 'which suits the job?' question and finding out, gentle inquiries into how warming and cooling, mixing and Irish weathering change materials, and looking after materials and our planet.

Natural, Synthetic and Their Properties
Natural and Synthetic Materials
Comparing Properties
Which Material Suits the Job?
Changing Materials and Caring for Our World
Warming and Cooling Materials
Mixing Materials: What Happens?
Weathering: What Does Irish Weather Do?
Looking After Materials and Our Planet

Deepen Energy and forces: the jobs energy does in everyday life and how to conserve it for the planet, simple inquiries into how forces change motion (ramps and rolling), then sound: sources, the vibrations that make it, volume, and sound insulation.

Energy in Everyday Life
Energy in Our Everyday Lives
Saving Energy for the Planet
Forces and Movement
Forces Start, Stop and Turn Things
An Inquiry Into Ramps and Rolling
Sound
Where Do Sounds Come from?
Vibrations Make Sound
Volume: What Makes a Sound Louder?
Sound Insulation: Making It Quieter

Deepen technology: the purposes digital and non-digital technologies serve, the steps inside an everyday job, decomposing and debugging, deeper ScratchJr (repeats and a two-character story), one gentle 'big Scratch' taster, and a longer floor-robot program.

Using Technology and Unplugged Thinking
Technology That Helps Us
How Does It Work? Steps Inside an Everyday Job
Decompose, Spot the Repeat, Find the Bug
Coding: Scratchjr, a Scratch Taster and Floor Robots
Scratchjr: a Sequence with a Repeat
Scratchjr: a Little Story with Two Characters
From Scratchjr to Scratch: a Taster
Robots and Rules: Programming the Floor Robot

Deepen the design process at Stage-2 lightness: use empathy to understand a real user, draft a few ideas and choose one, build a stronger structure and a model with a moving part, then run a two-lesson make-and-share design-build for a real user.

Empathy, Drafting and Making
Use Empathy: Whose Problem Can We Solve?
Draft and Choose a Design
Build a Stronger Structure
Make Something That Moves
Design and Make a Helper
Plan and Draft the Helper
Make, Share and Reflect

Build on what 2nd Class pupils can already do (notice, sort, predict, record) to tell living, once-living and never-living apart, use the senses for careful scientific observation, see how food gives us energy to grow and thrive, identify local and wider Irish plants, run a two-lesson observe-over-time plant-growth inquiry, and follow an animal life cycle. Nature of STEM is woven throughout as 'STEM eyes'.

STEM Eyes and Living Things
STEM Eyes: What Does It Do, and How Could We Find Out? Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Living, Once-living or Never-living? Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Senses and Our Needs to Grow
Our Senses Help Us Investigate Investigation Journal Teacher Resources
Food Gives Us Energy to Grow
Plants and the Plant-growth Project
Plants in Our Local and Wider World
Set up Our Plant Investigation
What Did Our Plants Need?
An Animal's Life Cycle

Deepen the Materials strand: natural vs synthetic, comparing and contrasting properties, asking a 'which suits the job?' question and finding out, gentle inquiries into how warming and cooling, mixing and Irish weathering change materials, and looking after materials and our planet.

Natural, Synthetic and Their Properties
Natural and Synthetic Materials
Comparing Properties
Which Material Suits the Job?
Changing Materials and Caring for Our World
Warming and Cooling Materials
Mixing Materials: What Happens?
Weathering: What Does Irish Weather Do?
Looking After Materials and Our Planet

Deepen Energy and forces: the jobs energy does in everyday life and how to conserve it for the planet, simple inquiries into how forces change motion (ramps and rolling), then sound: sources, the vibrations that make it, volume, and sound insulation.

Energy in Everyday Life
Energy in Our Everyday Lives
Saving Energy for the Planet
Forces and Movement
Forces Start, Stop and Turn Things
An Inquiry Into Ramps and Rolling
Sound
Where Do Sounds Come from?
Vibrations Make Sound
Volume: What Makes a Sound Louder?
Sound Insulation: Making It Quieter

Deepen technology: the purposes digital and non-digital technologies serve, the steps inside an everyday job, decomposing and debugging, deeper ScratchJr (repeats and a two-character story), one gentle 'big Scratch' taster, and a longer floor-robot program.

Using Technology and Unplugged Thinking
Technology That Helps Us
How Does It Work? Steps Inside an Everyday Job
Decompose, Spot the Repeat, Find the Bug
Coding: Scratchjr, a Scratch Taster and Floor Robots
Scratchjr: a Sequence with a Repeat
Scratchjr: a Little Story with Two Characters
From Scratchjr to Scratch: a Taster
Robots and Rules: Programming the Floor Robot

Deepen the design process at Stage-2 lightness: use empathy to understand a real user, draft a few ideas and choose one, build a stronger structure and a model with a moving part, then run a two-lesson make-and-share design-build for a real user.

Empathy, Drafting and Making
Use Empathy: Whose Problem Can We Solve?
Draft and Choose a Design
Build a Stronger Structure
Make Something That Moves
Design and Make a Helper
Plan and Draft the Helper
Make, Share and Reflect

Curriculum Mapping

See exactly how this course maps to official curriculum specifications

NCCA STE Education Specification (2025)
Curriculum Area
Outcomes
Nature of STEM
S1.2.1
Living things
S2.2.1 S2.2.2
Materials
S3.2.1 S3.2.2
Energy and forces
S4.2.1 S4.2.2 S4.2.3
Technology
S5.2.1 S5.2.2
Engineering
S6.2.1

The curriculum does not include official reference codes for individual learning outcomes, so we have assigned a code scheme to make it easier to identify and track coverage.

What Students Will Learn

Learning Goals

  1. Develop observation and questioning skills to investigate living things, their needs, senses, and life cycles in local Irish environments
  2. Identify, compare, and test natural and synthetic materials, understanding their properties, how they change, and how to care for them responsibly
  3. Recognise different forms of energy in daily life, explore forces that affect motion, and investigate how sound is produced, changed, and insulated
  4. Break down everyday processes into steps, spot patterns and errors, and create simple sequences using unplugged activities, ScratchJr, Scratch, and floor robots
  5. Use empathy to identify real user problems, draft designs, build and test structures and moving models, then create, share, and reflect on a helpful engineering solution

Learning Outcomes

  1. Observe and classify objects in the school environment as living, once-living or never-living, and generate scientific questions about them.
  2. Conduct a fair test with plants to investigate the effect of light or water, record observations over time and draw conclusions about what plants need to grow.
  3. Sort materials as natural or synthetic, test and compare their properties, then select the most suitable material for a specific practical job.
  4. Identify energy uses in daily life, carry out an energy-saving audit and create rules and signs to reduce energy waste in the classroom.
  5. Design, build and improve a structure or moving model to solve a real user's problem, then present and reflect on the finished helper.

What You'll Need

Required Equipment

Equipment used in some of the lessons in this course. Items can be shared among students.

IWB/Projector/Large Screen
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

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