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Question – How does sea pollution affect marine life?
Sea Pollution Demonstration
Ages – This would suit children between 5 to 8.
Materials Needed
A clear bowl or vase
Plastic fish
Black food colouring
Litter
Shells or sand
Water
How to set up a sea pollution demonstration
Use a clear vase or a large jar and pour water into the jar. This will be the ‘Ocean’. Talk with your students what they see in the jar. Is it clear? Could fish live in this ocean?
Add some rubbish(empty sweet/crisp packets) and black food colouring (to represent oil/sewage).
How different does your mini ocean look after the pollution has been added? Could fish/marine life swim in the ocean without harm? What would happen if they tried to eat this litter/rubbish?
Whilst doing this activity you can talk about how litter and pollution might impact fish and other marine life and where we had seen litter recently.
What can we do about pollution?
Buying local products reduces the need for items to be shipped around the world.
Buy cleaning products that use natural/biodegradable ingredients.
Recycle as much as you can and never drop litter. Things like plastic bottle tops or balloons can be fatal to animals who may mistake them for food.
Can you think of anything else you can do to help save our planet from the enormous amount of rubbish and pollution humans create?
At the end of the lesson the children can take a ‘Plastic Pledge’. This can be as simple as I will recycle my rubbish or I will turn off the lights at home.
I really enjoyed observing these satellites. The majority were Starlink (Elon Musk). This is great for students to use Ipads/laptops to research satellite information.
Satellite Observing Opportunities – In-The-Sky.org
STARLINK-4788
Launch Details
Launched 19 September 2022
Flight ended –
Status Operational
Categories Starlink
Active satellitesLaunch site Air Force Eastern Test Range, Florida, USA
Owner United States
GENESIS 2
Launch Details
Launched 28 June 2007
Flight ended –
Status Operational
Categories Assorted bright
Engineering
Active satellitesLaunch site Dombarovskiy Launch Site, Russia
Owner United States
STARLINK-30834
Launch Details
Launched 29 October 2023
Flight ended –
Status Operational
Categories Starlink
Active satellitesLaunch site Air Force Western Test Range, California, USA
Owner United States
STARLINK-30267
Launch Details
Launched 22 August 2023
Flight ended –
Status Operational
Categories Starlink
Active satellitesLaunch site Air Force Western Test Range, California, USA
Owner United States
NORAD ID 57663
COSPAR ID 2023-124A
STARLINK-1059 across Dublin at 21:37 IST on 11 August 2024.
Launch Details
Launched 11 November 2019
Flight ended –
Status Partially operational
Categories Starlink
Active satellitesLaunch site Air Force Eastern Test Range, Florida, USA
Owner United States
I think HOME’s allows the viewer to understand that the Earth is our home and it is our individual responsibility to look after our planet we live on. However it can be quite intense and is probably not suitable for children to view. I think this may be the problem with understanding and teaching lessons about Climate Change. There is irrefutable evidence that the Earth is warming however there seems to be a fear aspect that if nothing is done now then there will be no Earth in years to come! I think it is important for children to have a broader understanding of the damage that Climate change can have but also the important steps they can take to help. I would probably show a video like the Paxi Video as a starter and then discuss the various items raised during the video. For example, a lesson about the Greenhouse Effect etc.
Hi Hannah…I agree with your point. It was a little overwhelming at times and I also feel people like Greta Thunberg can be incredibly frightening for children! My 8 year old was wondering why Just Stop Oil ‘protesters’ threw soup over Van Goughs painting..or why a man put a cable tie around his neck and tied himself to a football post at a Premier League match..
In my opinion, I think TEAL is a great resource that allows students to explore climate variables for the past 40 years. I would use Tealbot with my students to research these variables and contrast and compare the results between differing countries. For example, in Tealbot you can compare precipitation levels between Spain and Ireland over the past 40 years. The results are displayed on a graph which is a great cross curricular links to Maths.
The Paxi Video was interesting as it describes how Greenhouse effect makes human life possible. It is very informative as it explained how human activity increases C02 gases e.g cutting down trees. Unfortunately, Earth’s temperature is rising due to the Greenhouse effect. We can help by conserving water, cycling not driving and by turning off lights/tablets and unplugging any appliances. It is important also to Recycle everything that is recyclable, e.g cardboard, plastic, paper etc.
Is it weather or climate? Pupils analyse different statements about weather and climate and examine images of different places on Earth with different climates. Pupils learn the difference between weather and climate and understand that the Earth can be divided into climate zones with different.
I think this is a very nice way for the children to learn about weather and climate. In my earlier teaching career, when teaching Science, I probably rushed through a lot of the scientific skills such as making a prediction etc. Questioning is such an important scientific skill, and this lesson enables children to question and discuss the differences between climate and weather. A simple question such as ‘What is the weather like today’ is a good starting point. While discussing how climate is the weather of a specific region averaged over a long period of time.
Weather Detectives Students collect temperature data for a period. Afterwards, collected data is graphed and averages are calculated. Pupils learn skills in data collection and practice handling data mathematically.
I like this lesson as again they get to discuss in pairs what is needed to measure temperature. There are excellent cross curricular skills here too as the data collected is graphed and to extend learning, children can work out the average temperature over a certain period.Create a class plan for Space Week – Sourced from Spaceweek.iw
Astronaut Dressing up race with helmets and wellies. Drama and Dance based on sunlight travelling to Earth. Space Cinema: Watch a movie with the theme of space (Wall-E, Space Chimps, Fly me to the Moon, Space Buddies)
Sing the song ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’ with the children drawing their attention to the words: ‘How I wonder what you are?’ – Link to Stars.
Song Suggestions: The Planet Song for Kids https:// youtu.be/ mQrlgH97v94 Sesame Street: I don’t want to live on the Moon https://youtu.be/kIq8jLj5TzU
Have the children work in pairs and close their eyes. They take turns to pretend that their partner is a Martian who has landed here to find out more about humans. They have to ask each other what the physical appearance of a Martian looks like. What size are you? What colour are you? Do you have arms/legs/eyes just like humans?
Online Resources and Tools
Stellarium-web.org.
This is such a brilliant resource. The students can navigate and view different planets, stars and constellations. For example, I zoomed in on ‘Vega’ and it gives information on Vegas distance from Earth (25 million light years).
Milo and Marvin
Falling Bubble
Fill a bottle with water so it is very nearly full
Put the lid on tightly and throw the bottle in the air. Watch it carefully on the way up and down
The air inside the bottle will form a spherical bubble as it’s falling!
When the bottle is in free-fall, surface tension forces the air into a bubble with the least possible surface area – a sphere. In space, the same effect can be seen with liquid drops in air.ESA and ESA Kids
Could we live on Mars
In this activity, students compare Earth and Mars in the context of geography and science, while also designing their own life forms that could thrive on Mars.
Astrocrops – Growing plants for future space missions | Teach with space – This is a great lesson ( I saw the film The Martian and the main character who is a Botanist has to grow his own food as he is stuck on Mars). This activity is part of a series that includes “AstroFood”, where students investigate other possible future space foods, and “AstroFarmer”, where students explore growing plants in space and factors that affect plant growth.
A good idea for Junior and Senior Infant classes would be to use Aistear as a way of teaching Space and Aliens. These would be some cross curricular ideas for the class to do.
Stories: ‘Space Story’, ‘A Space Adventure’ and ‘Astronauts..A Kids Guide.
Songs: ‘The Planets Song’ and ‘The Planets of our solar system’ ‘The Moon Song’
Writing station: Space passport and log book, practiced counting down from 10 and tracing the numbers.
Construction: Design and build a rocket.
Art: Made space helmets from cereal boxes and play-dough from scratch.
Small world: Alien-landing scenarios in a small village.
Role-play: Variety of imaginative scenarios including landing on different planets, rockets crashing etc.
Play-dough: Made stars, asteroids, craters on the moon, aliens, planets, rings for Saturn and rockets with flames.
