[Claire O Riordan]

I think “Winnie in Space” would be a great lesson stimulus. I wonder if there is a full bank of space themed picture books available anywhere?

[Claire O Riordan]

Engage

Use video of Chris Hadfield as a stimulus. Discuss the purpose of spacecraft and showing examples of rockets and satellites. Encourage pupils to predict what features a spacecraft needs to travel safely and complete a mission.

Investigate

Children work collaboratively to design and build a model spacecraft using junk art materials. They will select from a range of materials e.g. tinfoil, bubble wrap, cardboard, cartons, egg cartons and make choices about which would be best for the structure of their spacecraft.

Take the Next Step

Ask pupils to peer reflect on the designs of other groups. Ask them to “magpie” a feature or idea from another group and add it to their design.

[Claire O Riordan]

I think that cross curricular integration is a fantastic way to help solve the issue of curriculum overload. I think that using the ESERO bank of resources is a great starting point to build teacher resources and collaborating with colleagues to share resources helps to reduce teacher workload. Asking for ten minutes at a staff meeting to share ideas and resources from this summer course with colleagues would be great too.

[Claire O Riordan]

SSE and the new STEM curriculum specification

It is an exciting time for our education system at the moment as we see the new groupings of subjects as well as brand new subjects such as technology and engineering. CPD will be an important element of implementing the new curriculum.

1. Identify focus: our school has chosen STEM as our focus area from September onwards. It is important to identify current good practices at our school, plan for CPD and identify areas that require further development. Having a staff meeting where we use Start-Stop-Continue to gather our thoughts would be a beneficial activity.
2. Gather evidence – it’s important to gather evidence to confirm areas for development and this could be done through teacher questionnaires, pupil focus groups and a parent survey.
3. Analyse evidence/make judgements- the implementation of the new curriculum is plotted up until 2032 so we need to identify and break down our actions over the next few years and refine our focus. Match these areas to the new specification.
4. Write our SSE plan which could form the basis of our STEM whole school plan. Identify resources that will be needed. Set realistic targets for each class level and identify realistic timelines. Ensure all teachers have had input and are clear on roles and responsibilities. A focus on different skills/outcomes per term might be identified.
5. Put plan into action – have a specific focus and draw attention to this eg cross curricular opportunities for design thinking. Create a noticeboard dedicated to this. Have a STEM team within school for troubleshooting and supporting teachers.
6. Monitor impact/evaluate. This needs to be an ongoing process to identify and solve any issues and to create a supportive environment.

[Claire O Riordan]

Hi Megan, I like your lesson outline as it poses logical thinking challenges for pupils by asking them to think what would be needed to survive in space. They can then use their creative thinking skills to invent an alien and design a spaceship.

[Claire O Riordan]

I would use the Stars set of resources with 1st class.

Stimulus: How to Catch a Star book and stars nightlight/projector

Elicit from pupils what they know about stars. Use some join the dot activities in the shape of planets, rockets etc. Draw parallels between joining the dot activities and doing this in an imaginary sense between stars in the sky. Show examples of star clusters and ask pupils to say what they see. Now show examples of constellations and see if they can come up with a name for them. Children use yellow chalk/oil pastels on navy paper to draw their own constellations. Create 3D models of constellations using cut out stars, skewers and bluetak. Allow pupils to view from different angles.

[Claire O Riordan]

This seems like a really child-centred, fun approach to shadows. The chalk shadow task is hands-on and would work so well for pair or group work. Repeating this at different times throughout the day to see if shadows have gotten shorter or longer would be beneficial too.

[Claire O Riordan]

Activity set: The Planets

Choice of materials:
In the past, I have used planet songs as a stimulus for lessons on the solar system with the junior classes. These songs focused on the order of the planets and their names. I hadn’t come across a song like the planet song featured in this module which contains the name of the order of the planets and some interesting facts about the planets. I think this is a better song to use as a lesson stimulus and it offers a chance to build on prior knowledge the students may have on this topic.

Paint
Paper/paper plates
Post-it notes
Planets song

Activities:
Pupils will use paint to create 2D versions of the planets. We will then order the planets using the song. Pupils can write a fact that they know about each planet and stick it underneath.

I find that children always like to discuss whether or not Pluto is a planet also.

• This reply was modified 3 months, 1 week ago by Claire O Riordan.

[Claire O Riordan]

Hi Olga, you have lots of lovely ideas here. The lesson could be a nice starting point before “The Snowman’s Coat” experiment focusing on materials and insulators.

[Claire O Riordan]

A journey into space
Engage:
Use the book “Man on the Moon: A day in the life of Bob” as lession stimulus. Create a word bank based on the topic. Elicit ideas about how Bob’s rocket might work and what he needs inside the rocket to be able to do his job on space.
Investigate:
Use “A journey into space” lesson materials. Look at a foam rocket/foam javelins and investigate they trajectory as part of a PE lesson. Pupils then draw a rocket for Bob. Next they will use junk art to make rockets. Linked lesson: explore materials, in particular insulators. Discuss the importance of insulators in rockets.

Reflect:
Pupils will use a simple checklist to assess their work:

Planning
I drew a labelled rocket design

Construction
I used junk art to create a stable rocket that stays together when I zoom it around

Creativity
I came up with some good ideas to customise the rocket for Bob

Rocket features
My rocket has some rocket features like a nose, fins, engines etc.

[Claire O Riordan]

Hi my name is Claire. I will be teaching a multigrade junior class this year. My favourite space fact is that it rains diamonds inside Neptune and Uranus.

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