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Emma – hands on activities can be a powerful part of the Inquiry approach – they can be used to engage the children, acting as a “prompt” or can be used by the children to explore and wonder around a topic.
The hands on activities from this module were around the theme of weather
Where Do You Live? (ESERO)
Activity Set: Weather
Animals in the Cold (ESERO)
What Clothes to Wear (ESERO)
Investigating Children’s Coats (Curious Minds)
Hot and Cold (ESERO)is there one of those that you think could suit your new class of junior infants?
Love this Mary.
Another Martian option could be the little helicopter Ingenuity – and you could make paper helicopters from the Curious Minds resource:
and in Irish: https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/irish/col/curious-minds-resource-paper-helicopters-irish.pdf
Eliza,
I’d tweak your outline very slightly to add in predicting. When you have given the children time to explore, and you are “asking them to brainstorm in pairs or small groups whether they think the items will float or sink.” – ask them to give a reason.
If they really have no clue, then carry out the investigation/demo with a few items – let them see what is happening and then they can make a prediction about a different range of items. The second set might be bigger versions of the first set – so a bigger bit of wood; or a different shape – so a bit of foil crumpled into a ball vs laid out flat. Then they have some experience (they have ‘explored‘) so they will have some mental model that they can use to generate a prediction which can be tested.
Eileen,
do you make your own stomp rocket or use a commercial kit? I tried to make my own once – unsuccessfully – and when i tried to stomp on the soft drink bottle, the hose wasn’t big enough and the air didn’t flow – so I ended up on the ground!
Next time I’ll go to Smyths:
Emma – do you have a suggested video that you would use?
Paxi might work – but is more solar system centred – and I have to admit I haven’t watched all of these (yet)
Eileen,
great to see you using the shapes of the Moon as a way to connect to light and shadow. The maths shape activities add to this – a possible “next step” is for the children to observe and notice that the Moon can be lit up from the “left side” or the “right side” and they might wonder where the Sun is in respect to the Moon when that happens. This is easiest to notice when there is a crescent Moon at sunset, since the glow of the Sun is very clear.
I wrote about this for the Irish Times some years ago: https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/which-of-these-two-christmas-cards-gets-the-moon-wrong/30815281.html
Michelle,
your response really shows that you see the value of the Inquiry Framework – children can enhance their science content knowledge by engaging with a topic, wondering and exploring and then investigating. With astronomy and space as the topic, there aren’t too many experiments you can “do” on a star, so coming up with research questions where you can check your own understanding is the way forward.
Great stuff.
Fiona,
using globes is rightly one of the Geography skills – and I like how you have planned to include the little person to demonstrate day and night.
You can also get globes that look like the Earth seen from space – the ones I like are called “Earth Balls” and their website has a list of possible education activities here: https://www.earthball.com/global-handbook/
Niamh,
can you tell me a bit more about why you chose that video? It seems to be a demonstration of air pressure, with tipping a glass over and noting that the water doesn’t fall out.
Thanks for sharing the poem Leanne,
it is here; https://poetryroundabout.com/tag/rocket-ship/
Is this the rocket simulator? https://youtu.be/q5_Z5ZiNRYc?si=zI_Jrd5oblMOVyfN
the science in it is a bit sketchy! It could be fun with an older class to have them analyze the errors.
Niamh,
I really like how you are asking the children to link their aliens to the environment they are found in – this really pushes a creative and fun activity into a deeper demonstration of their scientific understanding.
Damien,
I did a similar activity for Space Week a few years ago with my Brownie Guides — we “climbed” into our rockets by lying on our backs (the same way that astronauts do before their rocket launches) – I called out the countdown, then described how we were being pushed back into our ‘seats’ and being shaken around. (All with actions the girls made up!) When we reached orbit, we got out of our ‘seats’ and ‘floated’ around the room for a bit, before strapping back in to head to the Moon.
Petra,
If you want the class to draw the Moon in the evening, be sure to start when the Moon is a small crescent – possible dates this year are a few days after new Moon, so
after: 23 August, 21 Sep, 21 Oct, 20 Nov, 20 Dec.By first quarter Moon they will be able to see it well before dark, in the mid afternoon, so won’t need to be out late to see it all.
In Module 4 we look at Stellarium – a planetarium tool, you might look at that to see what the Moon will be up to and plan a suitable time for your class to go Moon watching.
Keith – agreed with you on having to start this at an appropriate time of year. The first quarter Moon is visible before sunset – but if sunset is late …
Did you see it last night? – just gorgeous.
We publish an annual Moon calendar – look for it on SpaceWeek.ie, or you can use “timeanddate.com” to see the Moonrise time for your location.
https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/@7778678
Bear in mind that the Full Moon is opposite the Sun in the sky (and in space)- so in winter, when the Sun is low, the Full Moon is high – which makes it even easier to see.
Hi Una,
you might incorporate the really lovely ESA resources on shelters – adapting as needed for the age of your class.
It is part of a larger series of ed supports on “Moon Camp” which fits so nicely with this year’s World Space Week Theme of “Living in Space.”
You’ve described how to use the inquiry framework in a Design & Make context – use an interesting situation to engage the children, give them access to information that they can wonder and explore, then carry out an investigation where they apply their understanding and extend their learning.
