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Sounds like a lot of fun, with maths and science and art all intertwined.
A really simple astronaut experience is to bring in ski gloves or work gloves and ask the children to do simple tasks with these big bulky gloves on.
They can see this image of Neil Armstrong’s gloves.
Hi Siobhan,
flour is a good surface for this, but needs to be disposed off afterwards (food source in the classroom). I tend to use different sands that I get from B&Q or other suppliers. The sand can be dried (so if you get sand, allow about a week for it to dry enough to use) so that it flows easily and makes simple craters. If you use wet sand the balls just drop and make a hole exactly the size of the ball!
This is lovely if you look at some of the craters that have clear ejecta – like Tycho.
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/tycho-crater-on-the-moon-labeled/
Hi Louise,
would you use the mystery boxes in the way that I have seen them presented – where you do NOT open them at all – they remain sealed for the whole year and the children can bring them out every now and then as they learn more. So, they can be brought out when you are doing magnets, so that they can see if anything inside reponds to magnetic force.
Hi Sarah,
knowing that the Sun is a star is something that many of us (who studied astronomy at college and love the topic) take for granted. My twin sister turned to me once, when we were in our 40s, and said “you know what, Frances, the Sun is a star!!” she hadn’t realised it until then. She has 2 masters degrees!
Naomi,
try to let the children tell you the science behind the experiments. In that way they are verifying that their understanding matches the real world.
In the case of the empty bottle and the full bottle hitting the ground, they both experience a force of gravity that is proportional to their mass – so the empty bottle has a smaller pull of gravity, but because it is lighter, it needs less to fall at the same rate.
The full bottle has a bigger mass, so a larger pull of gravity on it, but it needs that larger pull to get it to the same acceleration.
A slight difference may occur with the slowing force of the air on them – if they are the same size bottle then that force will be the same, and for the less full bottle that will affect it more.
Much more straightforward to start the exploration with two objects that are the same mass and have different shapes – in this case the air resistance force makes the biggest difference to how they fall.
Louise,
you can also check the wonderful ESA ISS Primary Education Kit, available in a selection of European languages. Scroll down the page to see the languages.
Also check out some of the European projects that have been implemented, they often involve producing material for children in the partner’s languages. I was involved with PolarStar, which has material in Irish as well.
Áine, I love how you started with their own clothing and looked for the waterproof symbol. They might also tell you that despite their coat saying it is waterproof, they still get wet.
I’m endlessly hunting for a good jacket.
You might include some maths with this by using Investigating Children’s Coats and in Irish.
Anita,
this could easily be extended by asking the children what they think would happen if they put on an extra coat? If they have their own coat on in the classroom – how warm do they feel? What if a child puts YOUR coat on over their coat?
I used to teach second level and I would bring in the reflective lining of my Canadian coat (good to -40) and one girl would wear it for a few minutes- she’d be so hot by the end of that!
Hi Chloe,
I’m afraid my brain gets tangled when I try to figure out how water wicks up a cloth.
It it is good at absorbing, it will soak up all the water in just a bit of the material and the line will be really small. (microfibre cloth or sponge)
It is not as good as absorbing, the water will go further up the material, since each bit of material can’t hold as much, so it keeps wicking up. (tissue or cheap paper towel).
If it is really bad at absorbing, none of the water will be taken up the material (plastic bag)
So the children will have to carefully work out what they expect to see for different absorbancy materials.
Suzy,
asking children to think what they might find out if they could travel in space is something I often pose to older children too. The new space launch systems are brining the price of rocket launches down dramatically, and satellites are getting smaller and smaller with the introduction of “cube-sats” – so making a satellite and putting it into space (as the Irish student team did with EIRSAT-1) is within reach for so many more people now.
So – what would YOU use space for to help the Earth?
What a great set of space themed activities that would make Space Week so exciting.
If you make a kahoot quiz, please share! (and don’t forget to register this as an event at spaceweek.ie)
Hi Lynn,
making a recycled space craft sounds fun. Your crew could also come up with a name for their mission. They could choose a famous place or a famous person to be their space craft. Or they could choose a space-theme name.
You can see the list of various missions here.
Thanks for sharing story suggestions Deirdre,
looks good for introducing the idea that planets can be quite different depending on their distance from their star.
We did a session on this with second level teachers as part of one of our teacher conferences with Dr Elizabeth Tasker – she added that in addition to the distance from the star, you need to consider what the planet is ‘wearing’ – as in, some planets have thick atmospheres, which keep heat in, and some have thin atmospheres which let heat out.
Louise,
this is a lovely way to structure a Science & Art activity with the framework for inquiry. May I share it with teachers in the end of course sharing document that I make each year?
I think that Science & arts would make a great theme.
Previous docs are at the spaceweek.ie site:
Space Week for Junior Classes, Space Week for Junior Classes & Aistear, Whole Week Plans for Junior Classes.
