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Zoe,
I’m always interested in how I am almost always too hot or too cold, whereas the rest of family (all male) seem to be fine.
https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2024/1112/1111894-why-do-women-feel-the-cold-more-than-men/
This article suggests some reasons why women feel the cold differently to men! I always would tell my class to take their jackets off, or they wouldn’t feel the benefits when they went outside – now I have a reason for it – by staying warmer they actually felt the cold more!
Ciara,
you’ve something for everyone there! Another junior school that engages with Space Week every year is Renmore Jnr in Galway https://junior.renmoreschool.com/
You can see the type of things that they got up to by looking at : https://junior.renmoreschool.com/Space/Index.html
Now – they don’t have an astronaut visiting every year!
Andy,
you’ve described a clear example of the inquiry framework applied to a creative design and make activity.
There’s plenty of science supporting the decisions that the children have to make about their imaginary planet. You could share some of the Nasa exoplanet posters if you really wanted to spark their imaginations – these are based on what we do know about planets around other stars.
This site even has colouring page versions of the posters
Elma,
Curious Minds agree with you on the use of language, and one of the support they have for this is a “new words” chart, very simply made as a laminated poster that you can use a whiteboard marker to note any new words as you go along.
It would be very straightforward to make your own version of it.
Niamh & Eimear,
I do like your activity(s) with mixes of story, song, discussion and craft. It might be possible to add in a sprinkle of science if you look at why we don’t always see stars, because of light pollution.
This video might be a bit much for Jnr Inf, but I have used it with older classes:
Audrey,
thanks for sharing the recommendation of a new to me book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIxj5qpYbfQ
and poem: https://poetry4kids.com/poems/id-like-to-meet-an-alien/
they make super connections to the theme of Special Life.
Fiona,
I really like your questions about Beegu – I’m smitten with the alien and love the language that Beegu uses.
The key to bring the science is for the children to match the conditions to the alien – and I like that you have listed the possible conditions
What if they lived on a hot/cold/windy/ watery planet etc.
Grainne,
don’t forget that Research Ireland and Curious minds offer CPD throughout the year, either on a whole school basis, or for individual teachers.
Read more: https://www.sfi.ie/engagement/curious-minds/professional-development-for-teachers/
Zoe,
this activity has plenty of maths and can be made into an inquiry led investigation if the children have a chance to make predictions of what they expect to happen and then can explore if those predictions are valid.
Mathematically confident children could draw scale diagrams to predict the various sizes.
I’d offer a variety of torches to give unexpected results – a point source light casts quite different shadows than a LED torch – where each LED acts as its own point of light and multiple or fuzzy shadows arise.
Eimear,
I’d add in the image of the child on the Earth with rain falling on their head and ask them to draw where the raindrops go – I find it a really nice way to check their understanding.
It was in the older version of Gravity and Falling Things, and a version is in the ISS Education Kit, in chapter 1 on pages 12 and 13 https://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/primedukit/en/PrimEduKit_ch1_en.pdf
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EHEvQcEWJj1jTv8SgeKkPDiPC05SaqQq/view?usp=drive_link
Victoria,
I’m interested in the language you have used “different resistance to gravity” – are you talking about inertia? or about air resistance or other drag forces.
In 3rd and 4th children should “investigate falling objects” so it might be easier to explore the effects of gravity with 1st/2nd class children by using ramps or slopes, as suggested in the curriculum:
observe and investigate the movement of objects such as toys on various materials and surfaces
level and inclined surfaces
rough and smooth surfacesToys will roll down the slope due to the force of gravity, but the speeds are much slower and it can be easier to distinguish the different effects of the various forces on the toys.
Air resistance does act to slow down objects. In air, more massive objects are less affected by the air resistance and so fall faster. Less massive objects are more affected by air resistance, so fall slower. In the absence of air, both will fall at the same speed.
Hi Eimear,
we do free planning visits for teachers! Just email ahead of time to check that the education crew are onsite (I tend to work from home during summer course season!).
Ciara,
thanks for sharing a detailed look into the work that you do with EAL students. Irish seasons may be a new experience for children from other climates. A friend of mine used to do orientation for new international students at UCC and said they would often suggest postponing tours if it was raining, or suggest umbrellas. She’d have to explain – too windy for umbrellas, get a coat with a hood!
Hi Eileen,
you’ve used a different inquiry structure to the one we mention in this module, but there are plenty of similarities:
Engage: for the prompt would you just use the question, or would you have images/ show a video?
You then go into seed germination – which is bit tricky, since what a seed needs to germinate isn’t the same as what a plant needs to grow. I’d suggest splitting this into two separate investigations. You can get the seeds to germinate, and then with the baby plants you might look at conditions for growth.
The children do need to have some experience and background knowledge to draw on, so be sure to let them share what they know by wondering and exploring before they make their predictions.
Children might know that you need to water plants, so could look at “does the amount of water make a difference to how well a plant grows?” and be encouraged to set up a fair test to find out the answer in their investigation. If different groups have different types of plants, there could be a very useful sharing of results.
I like your next step – try juice!
Zoe,
I visited a planetarium in Portugal years ago, and they had run an arts event with local schools, where each participating class had created a giant planet to a particular theme. The planets were at about 1.5m across – and imaginatively decorated. I cannot find the pictures I took at the time (argh) – and would love to see the “teddy bear planet” & “the plastic pollution planet” again.
