In my children’s school (not the school I work in) this year as part of science week for one whole week for homework the only thing the children had to do was to make an experiment and bring it to school to show to their classmates. I thought this was a wonderful way to motivate and enthuse the child but also to engage their parents in their learning. My own children learnt so much from their peers and the depth and breadth of learning and variety of science topics and themes covered was fantastic. This for me was a wonderful way to bring learning to life. I believe these are the type of learning experiences that children will bring forward with them in life.
In my own school I made paper rockets and we used paper straws to propel them. We then measured the distance they travelled and discussed the designs that travelled the furthest and why we think this was. We also chatted about the designs that didn’t travel far and why we think this was. It was a fun and engaging activity which the children really enjoyed. It developed lots of skills such as design, making, measuring, hypothesis testing, problem solving etc. I love the rocket mice idea and think this would be brilliant to do with the infant classes in my school.
While I enforced the rules of a fair test last year, when I did this lesson I did not highlight this to the children. This is something I will discuss with them and draw their attention to in the future.
I love the idea of stimulating the children’s interest and imagination through story ones that spring to mind are
‘Aliens in underpants save the world’ by Claire Freedman,
‘Zoom Rocket Zoom’ by Margaret Maya
‘Alex Ayliffe’ or ‘Rocket says Look Up’ by Nathan Bryon.
‘The Way Back Home’ or ‘How to catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
I think it would be also interesting to use youtube clips of the various rocket launches down through the years to help the children link the past to the present and the relevance of what they are learning about and its practical application.
The topic of rockets lends itself very well to integration and cross curricular learning some ideas I have include – writing procedures for how to build rockets or writing a postcard home from space, history sequencing rockets over time, song singing – rocket man, Art construct an astronauts suit, dance – astronaut moves incorporated slow motion walking and jumping in zero gravity. I look forward to trying some of these ideas in school next year.