Hi there. My name is Leah and I will be teaching first class in September. I love this age group in relation to Science as they are so fascinated by space, living things and they can get very excited and engage well with experiments too.
A favourite fact about space is that precious metals like silver and gold are forged when dead stars collide. The remnants of exploding stars – neutron stars – will sometimes collide, producing and releasing vast quantities of precious metals among many other elements. It’s pretty cool to think that the precious metals we frequently adorn ourselves with are linked to the stars.
Inquiry Based Activity: Forces/Environment
Skills: Observing, measuring, investigating (what do we keep the same? What do we change?)
Equipment: Large tray, flour, newspaper, plasticine (or else different-sized spherical objects, e.g. marbles, balls, beads), drinking chocolate powder, metre stick, cm rulers, sieve.
Trigger Questions accompanied by 2 images on WB – swiss cheese/moon surface
Have you ever heard someone say that the moon is made of cheese? Does anyone know what those sunken parts of the moon that look like holes are called ? Craters – a crater is a hollow formed on the moon’s surface.
Even though the craters on the surface of the moon resemble holes in Swiss cheese, we know that this common myth is not true. (The children may already know about a crater being the hollow at the top of a volcano – so it is important to emphasise that the two types of crater are completely different).
Wondering : I will let the children know that we are going to consider how craters are formed and why they are different sizes.
Questions before the brainstorm: What happens if you drop something heavy onto soft sand on the beach? What happens if you drop something heavy on the kitchen tiles at home or a wooden floor? Will you get the same result ?
In groups with assigned roles, I will engage the children in a brainstorm to consider and come up with theories as to how they think that craters are formed on the moon.
After each presenter from the group has relayed their theories, we will discuss the following background information and which group’s theory was closest to these facts while commending all groups for their efforts and putting on their science hats!
Why does the moon have craters?
Craters are the result of a collision between the moon and asteroids or meteorites. These craters were formed millions of years ago when meteorites hit the Moon’s surface. The moon, unlike the Earth, does not have an atmosphere that can protect itself from the debris of space, so it happens much more frequently. The impact of the meteorites caused the hollows to form and some of the surface to be thrown up and out around the crater. This is called ejecta (because it was ejected from the surface). Meteorites are bits of rock in space, which people think may have been left over from the start of the solar system (the planets and moons). There also is very little geological activity on the moon, for instance earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, so the craters can remain the same on the surface for many years.
Next I will let the children know that they will work in groups, taking turns and modelling creating craters on the moon using flour, hot chocolate, marbles/plasticine balls.
Spread the newspaper onto the table or floor, put the tray on the newspaper and put some flour onto the tray, until it is about 5 or 6 centimetres deep. Make the flour as smooth as possible without packing it down. Hold the sieve over the flour and put some drinking chocolate into it and shake it until you get a thin brown layer on the flour.
Make different sized balls from plasticine (these are the ‘meteorites’). Use ‘meteorites’ of different weight and note if there is any difference in the craters.
Drop one of the balls onto the moon’s surface.
Draw what happens.
Drop a different ball onto the moon’s surface.
Does it make a bigger or smaller crater?
Drop some more balls and draw a moon surface.
My first class loved this for Science week last year and engaged really well. We completed the experiment in the classroom and once you have newspaper it is not too messy.
After engaging in the investigation:
Ask the children to reflect on how they dropped the rocks on their ‘moon surface’ and what variables they would change to gain a different outcome.
Follow-up activity: Throw the ‘meteorites’ (gently!) at different angles onto the flour and notice if the craters are any different shape./ Throw the ‘meteorites’ at different speeds to see if that makes any difference to the size of the crater./ What happens if we change the shape of the meteorite (easy if it is made of plasticine)?