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Paddy – I’d be quite careful with this activity to make it clear that the reason objects float in water is very different to why astronauts appear to float when aboard the ISS.
See the ISS Primary Education Kit for a nice explanation of this – comparing the floating on the ISS to the feeling we get when we start downhill on a rollercoaster (or in my case – when I jump up as a lift starts to move downwards). In both of these cases, we are falling down at the same rate as our surroundings, so feel ‘weightless’ for a short time.
What does it feel like…
… when a car drives over a bump in
the road. And what it feels like on a
swing at the highest point, just as
the swing changes its direction.Astronauts practice for weightlessness aboard planes that dive downwards, giving a short spell of ‘microgravity’. Since that is expensive, often astronauts practice in buoyancy tanks – so that the upthrust of the water balances their weight and they float.
Here is a short video of Dr Niamh Shaw (a friend of BCO) on her microgravity training in 2017.
Grace,
I like your focus on Mars, and there are so many great images from Mars, and more coming each day from the rovers and spacecraft that orbit Mars.
A good place to find these images is via Google Earth, set to Mars, where you can “fly” into the images taken by some of the rovers.
Perseverance has its own gallery here.
Curiosity here
From orbit, ESA’s Mars Express has been working for over 20 years!
Niamh,
Investigating sounds (and in Irish) is a lovely theme for inquiry centred learning. The children can explore the sounds, and wonder what makes sound – and then apply what they think to their predictions.
I use tin foil with children to make aliens, and make a point of holding it up and rustling it so that they can hear the nice ‘chime’ sound of the metal. I add “metals tend to make nice noises when you hit them” – adding “that’s why they are good for musical instruments”.
With an older class you could use this as “mystery boxes” where they don’t get to open the boxes to see what is in them – but they can continue to try to work out the contents over the year – perhaps by testing with magnets when you do magnetism activities, or weighing them when you do measures in maths. Here is a guide to Mystery Boxes from the Science Museum London, and an article about using a different type with 3rd-5th grade US children.
Katie,
I like how you have structured this to look firstly at “cold places” of the Earth, without getting into seasonal change. That makes a lot of sense, since it keeps the ideas clear and simple for young children.
I’m less clear on what “We would test which shelters keep the animal or ice cube from freezing or melting.” involves — is the ice cube a source of cold and is outside – trying to make the animal inside cold? or is the icecube acting as the animal and to keep it from melting we need to stop heat flowing from the outside to the inside – which is more of a case of keeping something cold rather than warm.
Órla,
do you have a source for the photo cards of Irish homes? I found this one:
https://www.twinkl.ie/resource/roi-gl-17-types-of-homes-gaeilge-display-photos
and you could use this for older buildings:
and they have detailed architectural guides for different areas of the country at https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/publications/
as an example: East Cork: https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/app/uploads/2019/10/East-Cork.pdf
or would you take screenshots from google maps?
Noelle – the ad is just fun!
Fintan,
you can also do this with the chemical reaction of baking soda and vinegar. I make a little tissue package of baking soda, fill the bottom of the canister with vinegar (get a good quality vinegar – not the cheapest!), seal, turn and stand back!
Edel – a useful keyboard short cut is 8 – it brings the display back to the computer time and date.
I like the idea of screenshots to share the Stellarium view – use a screenshot from your own system – I think the Stellarium screenshot save still has a few bugs – I can never find the screenshots that I take using it.
Claire,
a former colleague had a lovely simple A4 sheet with lots and lots of stars on it – and children could create their own constellations using it as the “starry sky”. I keep hunting for it, but no sign of it anymore! Hard to find a commercial one, since you want the stars to be random.
Thanks for sharing Siobhan – I find aliens are really a lovely topic, although sometimes children can get frustrated if their ideas are hard to realise with the materials they have to hand.
I remind them that nobody has seen a real alien, so that whatever they make is ok!
Séan,
would you include a 3-D constellation to show that the constellations we see are based solely on our view of the sky from Earth?
I came across this video that shows what a constellation would look like if we could travel away from the Earth.
Laura,
how gorgeous. We had a bit of Holst’s Jupiter in church on Sunday – there are several hymns set to it. But, since it was used for the Rugby World Cup, that’s probably what most people would think of.
https://youtu.be/fQS3kzgLYkg?si=R_Ucfds-QUgUvG8p
Ciara – can you check if you have posted this from a different course? possibly from https://teachnet.ie/courses/discover-climate-space-with-esero-2/
Niamh,
the SEIA have some lovely material, I’d suggest one tweak to the worksheet –
“What I Think Will Happen” & WHY
Una Leader from Lifetime Lab has described to me how she carries out the warm sock around an ice cube activity – she says it really challenges children to explain where they think the heat is coming from that will melt the icecube.
