My name is Dan, and I just completed my first year teaching last year with second class. My favourite space fact is that if you take Earth, and shrink it down to the size of a snooker ball, it will be a more perfect sphere than an actual snooker ball, even taking into consideration the terrain of Earth itself.
An engaging inquiry-based activity for a primary school classroom is the “Plant Growth Experiment.” Students start by asking questions like, “What do plants need to grow?” In small groups, they plant seeds and place them in different conditions: some get more sunlight, some less; some get more water, some less. Over a few weeks, they watch and record how their plants grow.
As they observe, students make guesses and learn from what they see. They talk about their findings with classmates, helping each other understand why some plants grow better than others. This hands-on activity makes science fun and relatable, teaching kids about plants and how to think like scientists. Through this experiment, students learn to be curious, work together, and enjoy discovering new things about the world around them.