Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Clodagh, it was good of you to remind us of the beautiful skylines and multicolour sunsets which were visible in Donegal recently with the Northern lights. I actually took a few photos driving into Letterkenny and further west behind Muckish Mountain, Errigal Mountain and the Atlantic which I can not use in my own class project on light pollution.This can be a stark contrast with Light Pollution in Dublin where I live and teach.
Grainne your idea of constructing a model of the Solas System using clay would be a lovely idea for Art and Craft class. The children could construct and attach the various sized planets around the light on the classroom ceiling and paint them according to their idea of the planets and put them in their orbit positions. The younger children could use plasticine/styraform balls to constuct their own solar systems in pairs on their school desks, in an oval outline to make it an very enjoyable lesson.
I would like to engage the pupils in putting together their own planetarium 3D constellation, which would be taken from one of the Irish mythological stories such as The Children of Lir or Setanta for example. This would be aligned to the number of stars and the measurement distances of The Plough, so that it would be part creative and part scientific.
The pupils would work in four groups to agree to a design/ mythological character/ background which they would name.They would then draw the star outlines of their four group designs and then attach the sheet to the dark sugar paper and the tin foil.They would then punch out the holes and attach the black woollen strings to the paper and crumpled balls of tin foil to the measurement distances of the stars of the Plough from earth,using rulers, scissors and lastly cellotape for keeping stars in correct places on the sheet.
We would hang it from the schoolroom ceiling and get the children to take photos of the four costellations from different angles, upload to the interactive whiteboard, and the pupils would give their opinion as to the most interesting/unusual angles/ realistic ones, and perhaps draw them to do a class constellation calendar for the school year. The designs would be assigned to the calendar months September to June based on criteria which the children would devise / compose.
The lesson could be developed further by introducing the Stellarium for giving them a scientific based insight and useful tool to discover the dark skies. This would be done in a follow up lesson and they could compare their own designs to actual real, current constellations in the night sky.
I think that Aisling’s idea of using the Planetary Picnic idea through Aistear with the younger age groups would be a lovely, fun activity as they use sand and vessels for playing and measuring anyway.It would be easy to introduce a few tubes and give them the simple lesson of gravity.The video from Gaelscoil Bhaile Munna is perfect too for ideas for the younger ages in regard to Gravity.
Also, Emer’s idea of using 7 small groups of children would be a good way to ensure full class participation and encourage more probing, predicting and exploring, which is key to the Stem framework of learning.
The trigger I would use to introduce the activity on assembling the earth tube and the Jupiter tube , would be to show short enthralling video of Apollo 15.In this video Scott and Irwin test the Galileo’s theory by dropping two objects to the ground on the moon’s surface to see if the land at the same time and they do. I think that this would get the children interested in doing a similar experiment and then we would get the necessary equipment assembled to doing The Planetary Picnic.
The two concepts of weight and mass would need to be explained before preparing for the weighing process and the simple terms of force of gravity versus weight of matter would help the children to understand the two concepts. It would be beneficial to mention newtons versus grams/ kilograms too, as this would help the children to keep the mathematical measurements separate and different.
They relevant amount of sand or rice would be put into the Jupiter tube as it would be the heaviest tube and then compared to the earth tube, the children would understand the difference between the two.
The tubes would be decorated beforehand,as the children envisage for earth and Jupiter, and they would get the weighing scales. They could further develop this lesson by picking a few other planet tubes to compare with the earth and Jupiter planets. A final drawing lesson to show the position of the various planets in the Solar System could finish off the lesson.
The children would be invited to present this at a school assembly to get other children interested and involved in the subject matter.