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Hi Margaret,
I also love that fact about stars – and since stars last for billions of years, most of the nearby ones are still there.
With the volcano activity, asking
Ask the children what they think will happen when you mix the baking soda and vinegar together.
will only build on their science if they have some background in mixing and chemical reactions.
I’d be inclined to do the demonstration as an amazing prompt – and then ask the children how they think they could make the eruption bigger/ or quicker / or last longer… and let then apply their new understanding in a testable way.
I did this with my Brownie Guides last year- and many of these 8-10 year old girls had seen a similar eruption, either in school or from a book/video. It meant we could have fun building on their ideas – so we made a paper volcanoes and looked at the difference the volcano shape made to the eruption.
Rachel,
this is very much about forces and materials – the egg is strong, but if it hits the edge of something it will break. Nice twist and addition to the dropping materials activity from the module.
Anne,
I like that you have incorporated listening to the children to first gauge their knowledge. I do this when groups come to me at BCO, where classes might do a “Mars” workshop. I ask them to talk to each other and choose their favourite Martian fact, and to have one in reserve in case another group share that same fact. If they have no facts I ask them to identify something that they would like to know.
There are a good set of planet images that are card sized as part of this ESA resource, the images by themselves are here.
Áine, you have a lovely plan to engage infants. And I’d reward the child who spots the exaggerated science in the story.
(https://www.ashlea.notts.sch.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Whatever-next.pdf)
HINT: the Moon is closer to the Earth than any star.
Louise,
both Venus and Jupiter will be very easy to see in the evening sky this October, so you could add some stargazing of actual planets too!
I like your wide approach to the theme of Planets and how you have really focused on the playful needs of young children.
I’ve reminded my colleague of the certs – we definitely used to have them on spaceweek.ie for teachers to use, but I had a quick poke around and didn’t find them for this year.
Sarah,
the Planet game is great fun – I have played it with 8 and 9 years olds, as well as with the much younger crowd. It helps to have a list of words ready, since you will run out of “astronaut” “moon” “star” etc as you try to have those words between the planet names.
Mary, glad to see that you are working out ways to incorporate this course’s science and space ideas into your own classroom and linking it to existing units.
Michelle – if the Plough, with 7 stars to position is too challenging, you could try Cassiopeia, and that is described as activity 5.4 on page 149 of Universe in Box.
In that version, the stars are held on sticks.
Mary, thanks for your thoughtful consideration of this resource for your class. Measuring out the lengths would need some good fine motor skills – and practice with placing one end at zero etc — I have had second level students who didn’t know how to measure out lengths!
Sinead,
making boats is a lot of fun, but the science can be a little bit tricky. I find it best to start with rafts – where they have to float on the top of the water, and in later classes look at boats that displace water and hence float.
For those type of boats you can make a simple currach out of plain printer paper and it will last long enough to be tested a few times.
Alyson, I really like how you have linked Space to many areas of the curriculum. I think maths could sneak in there too.
There is this lunar mission timeline – but it’s pretty wide.
Depending on the age of the children you could find a mission that launched when they were born and have them track what their personal time line has been as it travelled across space.
Or you could use JUICE which launched last year and will do several gravity assists before getting to Jupiter in 2031 and have the children think about what they will be doing in 7 years time.
NOTE: this was made in response to a post that has now moved to Module 5 forum.
