Hi,
I already posted about why I’m doing the course and a favourite space fact, but I’m not sure how to find it now!
As regards Inquiry Based learning. I have done a few investigations here and there – never enough. One simmple one we did in Winter, was figuring out how to get rid of the frost and ice outside the front door of school. I started with showing them the ice and I wondered how to get rid if quickly to make it safe for everyone to walk in. The children brainstormed ideas and they wanted to make it disappear.
We came up with suggestions of what to throw on it. Hot water was a bit uinsafe for them to use, so we needed something else. One of the childrrn said they used salt, so we asked if throwing different substances on the ice would get rid of it. The children suggested different substances and we included the salt.
I brought in bowls of ice from the school fridge. We placed salt on one bowl clay on another and sugar on another. We compared the ice after a few minutes and the salt had melted it very quickly. Simple, but they enjoyed it.
We also tried to find the best material to keep teacher’s cup of tea warm and we found out why it is important to wear gloves when playing in the ice and snow – how it keeps our hands from freezing ! Everything was hands on and lots of chat.