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Josie,
I’m not completely clear on the shoebox constellations. I found this example of making one with holes punched to let light through, but I’m not clear on the string and tin foil with the shoe box.
Fionnuala,
we created a nice short activity on living in space and what would you take. You can find it at Mission to the Moon on spaceweek.ie.
I’m glad you name checked my fellow Canadian Chris Hadfield – I’m a big fan!
Fionnuala,
Stellarium (the main app) has a function whereby you can turn off the ground to see all the stars that surround the Earth – not just the ones above the local horizon. That would be useful for spotting Orion, since some of the time it is below the horizon, and in May/June it is behind the Sun altogether.
On stellarium web, look for the white shape of two trees at the bottom, and click it to turn off the ground.
Maeve,
You can bring inquiry into this activity by recording the children’s predictions about the conditions on other planets based on their understanding. They might think that planets that are close to their Sun are hotter than planets that are further away. They could then verify this – a simple and quick inquiry process adapted from the Framework for Inquiry.
Flying Tiger currently have a cute set of alien pencils and bookmarkers that might be nice items to have in the classroom when you take your Alien Worlds tour.
You could also share these exoplanet travel posters from NASA, which have guided tours (for example: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/alien-worlds/exoplanet-travel-bureau/hd-40307g-guided-tour/) a commentary on the art and also colouring pages that let the children express their own views on how the planet might look.
Hi Susanne,
you have the key point about the inquiry framework starting from the children’s interest – tractors vs trucks. My children lived on a train line when they were very young – so everything for them was about trains!
Maeve,
I like how you plan to look at
how the Sun lights up different parts of the Moon.
since even though Phases of the Moon isn’t part of the Ireland’s primary curriculum (but is in second level), it can be treated as an example of light and shadows.
It is also a subject of many misconceptions: https://ed.ted.com/best_of_web/XA7WNT0o
Cillian,
check your units – Vega isn’t that far away! it is only 25 light years.
Vega is one of my favourite stars and is so easy to see in the sky in the Summer – just look straight up when it first gets dark.
It is great to compare it to Deneb, which appears a little bit dimmer, but is 1400 light years away. This makes you think how bright it must be, if it is so much further away, yet looks only slightly dimmer.
Thanks for sharing this outline Siobhan.
I am not particularly familiar with Lámh, so thanks for sharing the video link.
I fairly recently learnt about aphantasia and wonder just how common it is, this article suggests ~4% of the population experiences it. My son (age21+) fullly completed school before he realised he has it!
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/
