Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Do you know this song? 🙂
aw thanks! In this case, it’s my son who alerted me to the phenomena. He says of his grandmother, who passed away when he was 10, that “she was kind” – when asked to describe her. He recognises her in photos, but doesn’t have a mental ‘picture’ of her at all.
Sheelagh,
great description of how you used bubbles with your class. Varying the proportions is such an easy way to incorporate inquiry (since you already have the materials!) and lends itself to simple predictions.
Children could time how long the bubbles last with sugar in the mix and without.
This site suggests that the sugar slows down evaporation, so bubbles should last longer.
Niamh,
lovely plan, which rocket launch would you use? I do like the Starship integrated tests, particularly the first one that doesn’t work too well.
One slight physics bit of pedantry – the rocket gases push against the rocket body to make it move. “pushes down hard against the ground” – this is for people jumping, but the rocket gas is coming out of the rocket – it still works when the rocket is in the air.
If a child suggests that, you can ask them to try out what happens to the rocket balloon launched horizontally along a string. Does it move?
Patricia,
the beauty of inquiry is really when the children take ownership, as you have described. When one child is vigorously arguing their case, you know that they are invested and interested.
Letting the science come through means that you don’t need to be an expert on the topic – and indeed, I often find an air of slight befuddlement serves me well. I’ll say something like: “I’ve seen this with another class, but they did XX and you are doing YY so I’m not sure how it will turn out — what do you think will happen?…”
Lovely video
https://youtu.be/Smeg1KUa3qU?si=t-gBXfYhbUf9WY7q
I like the “aliens come from our imagination” and then links to conditions for life.
water, atmosphere with oxygen, food (mentioned with respect to soil, but note that plants use light and gases for food).
Interestingly, we think that life evolved on Earth without oxygen and the presence of oxygen itself (or might not!), since oxygen reacts with so many things, that if it is present in the atmosphere of another planet, it must be being produced – and one of the ways to produce oxygen is from plants/life.
Mystery boxes are great. Have you used them in the original sense? In that, the children do NOT ever open them, this is said to mirror Science, in that we can NEVER be entirely sure that we have it right.
The sound mystery boxes are a great prompt. From their initial exposure to the mystery sounds, children can explore the sounds that different materials make when hit, thumped, struck, bashed, clinked… so many words!
This also covers the whole Energy and Forces > Sound area of the infant Science curriculum.
Hi Catherine,
Design a space suit is a great example of a simple design and make for young children. Do you use the template from the ESERO activity: https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20_A-real-spacesuit.pdf
This offers the suggestion that the suit
the suit must be able to stop the astronaut losing heat;
so children might explore various materials to see which keeps something warm longest. A slightly safer activity (no hot water needed) is to see which material can keep an ice cube cold longest – and this really connects the material to how heat moves through it.
Leanne,
that sounds like great fun, trying to balance the initial push to give enough speed that friction will slow them down to stop at a given point.
Nice possible links to stopping distances for cars in the dry vs the wet, and lots of opportunity to look at how well the wheels turn on the vehicles.
I’d take care that the children realise that once they have pushed their car, it will keep moving unless another force (in this case friction) acts on it. I’d consider trying to make a really slippy table (furniture polish) and let them explore the frictionless world. It is all to easy for them to conclude that they have to ‘keep pushing’ to keep the car going. In fact, they have to keep pushing to overcome friction.
Hilary,
I’m interested in knowing how you structure Aistear in your classroom, and glad that you feel the Curious Minds ESERO Framework for Inquiry has similarities.
The fact that space is dark has been used as evidence that the Universe must have had a beginning! See this answer to “Why is space black?”
Deirdre,
bridge building as a design and make is a lovely way to let the children bring their understanding of materials and forces into play. I’m glad that you think it worth explicitly showing different styles of bridges and I would suggest that you offer a relatively weak material as the bridge surface (paper is good) so that they have to consider how to support it. The child who brings in a plank of wood for a toy truck to move over hasn’t really engaged to the fullest extent in the activity!
You can find the Curious Minds version of Make a Bridge in English and Irish, I’d expect the Irish one will soon be updated.
Mark,
the prompt for this could be pictures of icebergs in salt water — where the ice has obviously not melted. If they can make the connection between that visual and the activity, then they will be connecting to their science understanding. I suppose children could look at the movement of the hotter/ cooler water by watching the colour from the ice move through the water. That would push this very much to 5th/6th class as they are looking at heat transfer.
Here is an article that then connects this to oceans and melting icebergs.
Aoife,
thanks for your clear outline of how you have used a popular story with your class.
There are some additional related activities here: https://www.science-sparks.com/activity-ideas-aliens-love-underpants/
Aoife,
you’ve added some lovely touches that integrate several activities and build on the children’s understanding of weather and suitable clothing. Teddy’s personal shopper helping to decide the best coat is a nice inclusion!
On a much grimmer note, there are people who have suffered frostbite attempting to cross from the US to Canada in winter, so lack of clothing really is an issue. I wouldn’t necessarily share this with the children!
