My name is Niamh. I will have 2nd class next year. I have had 3rd and 4th class for several years and they have always really enjoyed hands on science activities. Two space facts I found interesting were that about 14 tonnes of space dust falls on earth everyday landing on all of us and that precious metals like silver and gold are forged when dead stars collide.
Based on materials I already have and on the curriculum, I chose an enquiry based lesson on meteorites
Wondering : to get them thinking about what is in space and if space material lands on earth.
Exploring : A collection of different rocks. Background knowledge of space and planets using videos and the internet.
Starter Question : Which rocks could come from space / be meteorites?
Predicting : Encouraging the children to look at colours, marks, hardness to apply their knowledge of space to their guess.
Pick: Encourage the children to explain their choices and record their prediction.
I don’t actually have a meteorite but I think leaving it unanswered can be a valuable part of a lesson at times. It can promote curiosity and critical thinking without the focus on correct or incorrect answers. It can encourage the children to look at the world with imagination and to think of the magic in the things around us. Perhaps not very scientific but …It may also introduce the idea of hypothesis. We could develop the lesson by searching for meteorites on the internet and finding out how they were discovered. The connection to the extinction of dinosaurs could also be explored.