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Susanne,
I did not know that ad, but mentioned it to a (younger) colleague who instantly knew it!
Full Moon, Half Moon, Total eclipse!
https://youtu.be/mQJutuutRII?si=b5k716n34PXoqzti
Aoife,
you have commented on a key aspect of inquiry type lessons – the children will be verifying and applying their understanding – so they need to have had some experience of the topic to have something to build on. In this case, they had examined (or explored) fingerprints in advance, so were building on their expectation that different people have different fingerprints to investigate the theft of the sweets.
Erika,
in this course we are specifically referring to the Curious Minds ESERO Framework for Inquiry. Using that framework, your suggested lesson plan for a 2nd class works really well.
Children will engage with an interesting scenario as a prompt: “What would it take to live on Mars”
They would then wonder and explore “How would we obtain water and oxygen? What would we eat? How would we protect ourselves from radiation?”
They can define their own starter question based on their interests and use secondary resources to investigate. If you would rather treat this as a design and make, then they can explore what is needed, plan a Martian habitat, make it and then evaluate their making.
Or they could Share: Interpreting the data / results.
And, as you have stated, reflect on their learning.
Hi Amy,
welcome to the course. There is a wealth of shared experiences in the forum posts, so please do take the time to browse. You are bound to find useful suggestions and recommendations.
Julie,
by asking them to make a “working” rocket, that adds a whole level of complexity. The fizzy tablet rocket with a vitamin tube is probably the best basis for this, and children would have to consider the weight of the materials they add, the aerodynamics (since this rocket will be launched from Earth).
A larger possibility is the fizzy drink bottle water rocket, but now these bottles have recycling value, this may be less likely.
https://youtu.be/UspRESye6JY?si=-HQ6s_M9LTtVa_TN
There is a commercial kit that can be used, I have one called Water Rokit. Get a decent bicycle pump, not one of the smaller one hand ones.
Hi Julie,
magnets are a favourite of mine as well. I find it is vital to give the children time to play with the magnets and notice the patterns in what is attracted to a magnet and what is not. Since many metals that are easily found in a classroom contain iron, some children may erroneously conclude that all metals are attracted to magnets. I find it useful to have some coins, tin foil and some jewellery (silver or gold) to offer for testing.
Once children have played, ask them to generalise what they have found out (ie Only metals go to the magnet) – and from that make a starter question (Do all metals go to magnets?) and then investigate.
A fun next step is to make ‘bugs’ from pipecleaners (that have steel in their centres) and make a bug maze. Use the magnets under the table to pull the bug along the maze.
Caoimhe,
numbers related to space are literally astronomical! A frequently shared “space fact” is that 1 millions Earths would fit into the Sun.
This is actually pretty easy to demonstrate — by putting a scale Earth next to a scale Sun on the IWB (I use helioviewer.org, which can easily generate screenshots).
Show that a 1cm Earth takes up a tiny bit of a 1m Sun (I enlarge the image and then get a cm rule and a m stick to show the size of the image).
Ask – what size would it be if we had 100 Earths this way (x) 100 Earths this way (y) and 100 Earths up (y) – and form a cube from 3 meter sticks.
100 * 100 * 100 = 1 million!
With your spatter stars, the children could be prompted to compare rich star regions where there are a lot of stars, to more sparsely populated areas, and this is actually the case in the Milky Way – there are places with more stars, and places with fewer.
Carolann,
Please note that the Moon can be seen at night some of the month – the Full Moon is only visible at night since it rises at sunset and sets and sunrise. All other phases can be seen in the daytime as well as when it is dark.
Today’s Moon is visible right now, in the west.
Linking to maths and shapes is a great way to include the Moon in your teaching.The surface of the Moon and how we weren’t too sure what it is like is an interesting bit of space history. You can read about this here: https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/moon-before-we-knew
Aoife,
there is a playdoh solar system that you could create with an older class who are happy with fractions and dividing into parts. We have used it with ages 8+
Here is one version of it: https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/sites/default/files/activ/playdohplanets/PlayDoh-Solar-System-Instructions.pdf
and the original one that we have used (we did write it up with pictures!) https://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov/classroom/scales.shtml
Laura,
I like how you have changed the emphasis from how high the rocket mice go (which is tricky to measure) to how far away from launch do the land.
Children who want to take the next step might check to see if those two aspects are related. This will be a very early exposure to angles and has lots of spatial awareness and location, and measure from mathematics.
Hi Dan,
where you have ‘students make guesses and learn from what they see- – this is part of the explore section of the Framework for Inquiry. When the children are carrying out their investigation, if they have no clue what will be happening and are just guessing – then their science understanding isn’t engaged. They need to have a bit of background to be able to build on.
I’d offer children a class plant that needs to be looked after – and you can do this as a class for a month. Then they might wonder — does it need to be watered every day? What if we do / do not water it? Then you might grow some cress seeds (and treat the germination as a separate issue) that they can then use to test their ideas.
Patricia,
we visit the Moon in module 2, so you may want to incorporate some of the suggestions that teachers have made in that module into this very nice activity for infants.
I like the comparison between seeing with eyes open and not being able to see when your eyes are closed, and making that connection to light being needed to see something. Then, the changing appearance of the Moon is linked to the lack of light on one side of it.
Carolann,
would you ask them to practically determine if the coat is better at keeping something warm? A common way to do this is to connect the insulating properties of keeping a warm thing warm by not letting the heat through, will also keep a cold thing cold, by not letting the outside heat through.
This then gives you the ice cube in different types of socks. Offer thin socks, tights, thicker sports socks and hiking boot socks. Which will keep the ice cube from melting?
Orlagh,
the construction video is really nice, and could be used with the 2-stage rocket challenge for children who have succeeded in the balloon rocket making.
