[Frances McCarthy]

Orla,

I’m curious why you have referred to the rest of the world’s usage of seasons and which months are in which season.

Spring (March to May): Milder temperatures, often wet.
Summer (June to August): Warmest season, but still rainy, average temperature around 15-20°C.
Autumn (September to November): Cooler, frequent rain and wind.
Winter (December to February)

When I moved here it took a bit of doing for me to learn that the first day of spring is St Brigid’s Day in February, but then it made sense that mid-summer is actually the middle of Summer. (so summer starts 1 May).

Weather diaries are suggested in the Science Curriculum for 1st/2nd class, as a topic where observations of gradual change over time can be made:

Skill: Observing: observe gradual changes in living things and familiar objects and events over a period

and observing weather can be linked to Materials in 1st/2nd with

become aware of and investigate the suitability of different kinds of clothes for variations in temperature.

And of course, appear as an explicit activity for Infants in Geography

record weather observations using a weather chart or diary

but the explanations behind ‘why the weather is as it is’ that are suitable for younger classes are much simpler than you have suggested

recognise that some weather patterns are associated with seasonal change and distinguish between summer and winter

In 5th and 6th class children would start to look at meteorological symbols and factors that influence weather patterns in Ireland.

[Frances McCarthy]

Pamela,

I recommend explicitly setting out the inquiry steps for children, and ask them to engage, (with a prompt, wondering and exploring) and then set up a starter questions that they make a prediction based on their own understanding.

If they are doing research from books, then they will have to refine their starter question and use the knowledge to verify their own mental models – this is different from doing research to find out facts.

So, in response to

What are the differences between the planets?

children might wonder: does the distance from the Sun affect the temperature of a planet? and predict that closer to the Sun will be hotter, and can then check that.

The next step could be finding out why the 2nd planet from the Sun is hotter than the closest planet to the Sun.

[Frances McCarthy]

Denise,

thanks for sharing your experience of children “taking the next step” and finding out something that interested them in relation to floating and sinking.

Having a bit of space and a bit of extra equipment that can be turned to this makes all the difference.

[Frances McCarthy]

Denise,

gravity always pulls with pretty much the same force, at least over the heights you can reach in the classroom. But, gravity keeps something accelerating as it pulls, since it keeps pulling.

So, in the first second that an object falls, it speeds up from no speed, to 10 m/s. In the next second it speeds up another 10 m/s, so is now going 20 meters every second – so has now gone much further in the second second than the first.

You can see this on the ramp in this video:

https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/nvmm-math-fallingbodies/galileos-falling-bodies/

[Frances McCarthy]

Conor,

you’ve shared a lovely set of cross curricular activities on aliens – thank you. The connections to maths and games as well as the imaginative aliens that can be linked to science understanding hits so many areas.

[Frances McCarthy]

Clodagh,

that video is really nice

https://youtu.be/cMDCZWTSZvc?si=dDDA6ew20AVa0Lxq

and acts a super prompt for the investigation with fizzy rockets. I really like how you have planned a guided reflection for the children to consider

discuss in the classroom things like how would we make this better if we did it again?

[Frances McCarthy]

Catherine,

You’ve reminded me of Story Time from Space where actual astronauts (and Mark Kelly was one) read stories.

https://storytimefromspace.com/mousetronaut-2/

There is a video of his twin brother Scott reading Mark’s story from the ISS.

Mark Kelly is now a US politician (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Kelly)

[Frances McCarthy]

Conor,

This Hot and Cold activity from ESERO was originally planned for the youngest classes, with a 1st class you could use it as a prompt and then the children could take the next step by considering if other factors affect the speed with which an ice cube melts.

This could be connected to the concept of temperature, which appears in Science for 1st/2nd class.

• learn that temperature is a measurement of how hot something is
• measure and compare temperatures in different places in the classroom, school and environment.

[Frances McCarthy]

Luke,

you can find a few ways to create a scale model of the solar system using the Solar System resource from spaceweek.ie, in English or Irish.

With a very young class, I’d just concentrate on relative sizes and the related language of big, bigger, biggest. Even for an older class, I’d determine a suitable scale for the size available.

The solar system is remarkably empty, so most scale models have to be over a very large space to get a sense of the distance to the furthest planets, or else the inner planets are almost all on top of each other.

 

 

[Frances McCarthy]

Emma,

there is a nice simple rocket launch sequence in the ISS Education Kit, (download from https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Education/Primary_level_ISS_Education_Kit_-_download)

Please register your class activity plan at https://www.spaceweek.ie/add/

[Frances McCarthy]

Ciara,

the article: https://www.esa.int/kids/en/learn/Our_Universe/Planets_and_moons/The_Solar_System_and_its_planets

would be good background reading for an older class, and I love the poster and use it all the time.

[Frances McCarthy]

Carolann,

could you check permissions on the google drive link?

Sorry, unable to open the file at this time. Please check the address and try again.

If you want to share an image, use the little image symbol ^^ and upload it to this forum.

Setting up an Aistear space station seems to be popular, please send me any pictures when you have so we can share them on spaceweek.ie

[Frances McCarthy]

Aoife,

it’s interesting that you have given the children everyday object to make their shadows ( compared to Luke who has used balls) – that will make a big difference to how the shadows appear.

I like that you have used a prompt ( Show examples of shadows in different settings (e.g., outdoors under the sun, indoors with a lamp).) and have explicitly elicited the children’s understanding by asking

the children what they already know about shadows and how they think shadows are formed.

If they then explain what they expect to happen (their prediction) as a result of their understanding then they are fully carrying out inquiry learning in science.

[Frances McCarthy]

Hi Clodagh,

I did an activity like this years ago when I was teaching in the UK, with second level students.

I asked them to keep a Moon diary of the shapes they could see (similar to this one : https://www.mayodarkskypark.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/MDSP-MoonJournal-v1.pdf )

and had one girl draw me out this shape.

I guess she had looked up the phases of the moon, seen 3rd quarter Moon and not done any actual observing!

[Frances McCarthy]

Mark, Thanks for sharing such a detailed rockets themed activity outline.

I also like the balloon rockets from Curious Minds, called Rocket Launch in the resources you can download from this module.

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