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Martina,
as I have commented earlier, dropping objects has a great link to objects rolling down ramps, and ramps has the advantage of slowing it all down so that children can really compare the effects of different masses, different materials etc and how gravity pulls them down.
If you use marbles or balls of similar size but different mass, the air resistance will be minimal, which will allow the role of gravity to come through more clearly.
This is a complex topic, and was not well understood for thousands of years, so children do need time to explore and develop their own understanding.
See Peeps (https://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/en/educators/teaching-strategies/1/family-child-care-educators/2/learning-environments/17/ramps/) and and example in a class (https://wondersinkindergarten.blogspot.com/2015/04/ramps-and-pathways-play-based-learning.html)
all of which use the ideas from Iowa Regents Centre for Early Development Education. (https://qappd.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/fun_physical_science.pdf)
Shauna,
for night time observing I’d suggest waiting until December, since the sky will then be dark early enough that they could do this before 6pm.
You could share sky maps of the month (a great free source is here, but they only publish a few days before the start of each month. August is not yet available.) and then they really could spot the constellations. In Cork, we reckon to have 50 clear nights per year, so you may have to schedule this in late November and keep your fingers crossed!
Mary,
what a lovely set of observation guided weather activities. So fitting for junior classes, with a connection to Science/Heat Infants – recognise the difference between hot and cold in terms of weather, and also for 1st/2nd: measure and compare temperatures in different places in the classroom, school and environment.
and by linking to senses you have included Living Thins/Myself: use all the senses (touch, smell, sight, taste, hearing) to become aware of and explore
environments.There is even the option to include Materials: observe and describe materials when they are wet and when they are dry (soil and paper).
Mary,
making a human orrery is a great learning activity, particularly if you include some comets (they have much bigger orbits, and some go much closer to the Sun) to show the various different shape orbits. If you try to be slightly to scale you will need a large field.
The mnemonic I learnt was this rather old fashioned one:
Man Very Early Made Jars Stand Upright, Nearly Perpendicular – which one would you use as the “traditional” one? (see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_mnemonic)
By including nine planets, would you discuss dwarf planets and how Pluto was reclassified in the light of the dwarf planet Eris (and the others) found beyond its orbit?
Cillian,
I really like the
Small world: Alien-landing scenarios in a small village.
since this is a science fiction staple. You could show movie posters of alien landings that are both gentle or slightly more scary.
Here is a list of the nice ones: https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/friendly-alien-invasion-films
although, Close Encounters scared the beejeebers out of me when it came out ( I was 11!), when the toddler was taken.
and ones with a more child friendly vibe:
Josie,
you might include the Moon Calendar that is shared on spaceweek.ie each year. We use a few different shapes to show the phase of the Moon, rather than have it exactly matching the phase in the sky (which is constantly, albeit slowly, changing).
This is the 2022-2023 one. and the 2023-Sept 2024 one.
I’d also note that phases of the Moon do not appear in the primary curriculum, so your idea of
We’ll experiment with light and discuss how it changes the Moon’s appearance.
is spot on.
Maeve,
Looking at how stems are like straws is a great example of inquiry. You have offered a suitable prompt that helps the children get interested, and given the analogy of ‘straws to stems’ so that the children have a scientific explanation that they can test.
With an older class, they might have further ideas — what happens if the stem is bent? what happens if you make a little nick in the flower stem? what happens if you split the stem and put half in one colour and half in another?
Steve Spangler has some suggestions around this: https://stevespangler.com/experiments/colorful-carnations/
Catherine,
have you a particular Sun documentary you would choose?
Tracing shadows is great fun – do you have a suitable light source in your classroom and can you make the room dark enough? I have tried it inside my new classroom at Blackrock, but I have three small windows to one side that I cannot easily block, so I always have extra light sources. I have learnt to keep a big piece of cardboard to cover them up. The old room I had was a complete no-go for shadows, big windows on all sides and the blinds did nothing!
This is an activity that is best in a darkened room, or you could create a “light and dark cave” as suggested in this ESERO activity: https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/09_Light-and-darkness.pdf
Margaret,
that sounds like a super Design and Make, and I love the way you provided simple materials, and let the children think through all sort of possibilities without you constraining their ideas.
Sharing their trap at the end gives them the opportunity to discuss their science understanding and reflect, which is key to inquiry learning.
Hi Breeda,
Are you thinking of exploring the model of the earth as an orange and which way the people would stand from Gravity?
The diagram is from the ISS Education Kit, (Chapter 1 – page 11) where children are asked to draw raindrops falling on the children who are holding the umbrellas. This resource has some really nice additional background for teachers and suggestions for questions for the children to help them frame their thinking.
Mark,
the stars and beach of sand analogy has been wonderfully visualised by Randall Munroe (of XKCD) as
“Our Sun isn’t a grain of sand on a soft galactic beach; instead, the Milky Way is a field of boulders with some sand in between.”
Breeda,
here is a video (and article) about this!
https://www.watchmojo.com/articles/how-long-would-it-take-to-cruise-the-solar-system
and you might like to explore this scale model of the solar system
https://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixelspace_solarsystem.html
Shauna – you saw the northern lights! Lucky you, we were so clouded out here in Cork!
There are range of activities on the Northern Lights in the PolarStar project that BCO participated in a few years ago. I had help with the translations (not having any Irish myself), so you might find them useful with Irish as well as English.
The suggested age range is older than this course’s focus, but adaptable.
See: https://polar-star.ea.gr/content/northern-lights-0
Hi Celine!
Roaring Rockets is on my so-so list, since the glossary at the end includes some rather scarily-bad science.
Its a useful prompt for inquiry, but please skip over the “gravity boots” that ‘grip the ground’ to stop you floating off the Moon.
