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Thanks for sharing that video link Laura – it has lots of information about the rovers.
I wonder if children today aren’t as excited, since there are so many functioning rovers on Mars that they are just common place.
We had Dr Fuk Li share an overview of the rovers 14 years ago! This was before some of them were delayed. I like seeing them all together so that you can get a sense of the scale of them.
Thanks for sharing this Barbara. Slopes is a great activity.
I vary it slightly by using pipe lagging, cut in half and given out in 1m lengths. Children can then make very long marble runs and really get a sense of how the height at the start of the tube affects the speed of the marble along the run
Hi Paula,
Your plan clearly references the Inquiry process as outlined in the Framework for Inquiry. The play with the plasticine is essential for them to be able to make a prediction, so I’d let them have some directed play at the beginning as they try to shape the plasticine so that it doesn’t sink – and then I’d say “I wonder if this could be a boat?” and then let them share their predictions about the boat shape and which boat will be best.
Hi Sean,
Mars as a topic is supported by some of the ESERO resources, and spaceweek.ie has a Mars resource in English and Irish. ESA have this excellent resource too.
Google Earth (choose Mars at the top) can let children view Mars up close and understand the environment that their habitat has to withstand.
A habitat is an example of using the Framework for Inquiry to support Design and make, so the plan is vital. This is how they will connect their science understanding to their design skills.
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Hi Sarah,
cooking as inquiry – brilliant!
I can see that children might try different amounts of melting time — does it get melted a lot, a little? … trying to quantify that is great maths.
What happens if you have too much chocolate and not enough rice krispies… again, really simple to predict and test.
Beautiful links to measures. I’d offer different pre-measured amounts for the younger children, and bowls and different measures for older children.
Hi Sean,
I like that space fact. I find even more mind blowing is the fact that a millions sounds like such a big number, but you can have a million of something in your classroom really easily.
I like showing a 1-cm cube and then make a bigger cube from 3 meter sticks (two on the floor and 1 at right angles to them – showing three sides of a cube – ask them to imagine the other sides).
How many cubic cm are in the cubic m….? (100*10o*100 = 1 million).
Claire,
I love the way you have brought interpreting the story to life with the simple task of “describe the aliens” from the description.
“they have strange hair upon their heads!”
Here’s Julia Donaldson reading her story – you’d have to be careful not to show the pictures though.
Mary,
is there a particular way you might use this activity in Aistear teaching?
The prompt might arise from tidying up the classroom, or you might place a plastic cup in a precarious position and give it a nudge when the time is right.
What materials would you have handy in the classroom or would you be able to get easily?
Hi Laura,
I love this space fact, and even more the riff on it from the science cartoon XKCD “What If?“
Hi Kate,
If the sun is moving too quickly
if we get a sunny day this week run outside and see how fast the Sun moves. I’ve found that you just about have time to get a full chalk drawing of a person before the Sun has moved enough that they don’t fit into their own shadow.
Depending on what is in your school grounds, children could place cones to mark the shadow of a tree – and for older children this could be linked to the directions South, East and West and how this shows us the time of day.
Sinead,
I like how you have consolidated several of the ideas of this module into a coherent plan for your class. All we need is a sunny day! This might be a good thing to have in your planner and if the Sun cooperates, outside you go to play with your shadow!
Ursula,
I really like the CBeebies clip you have found, really nice at showing the stars and it connects so nicely with the rest of the star activities you have planned.
Hold onto this lesson plan and do it in Space Week this year – I’m sure it would be a hit!
Saoirse,
I think the images from Lots and Lots of Stars might be worth sharing, but not the full document.
Other beautiful night sky images can be found at ESO.
I like to share ESO images since many of them were taken with ground based telescopes, but images from Hubble or Webb may also be suitable.
Great stuff Eleanor.
Don’t forget to paste as plain text to avoid the extra formatting coming through.
Kate,
would this work for Junior Infants? Are there specific websites or videos that you would recommend for them to use as resources?
There is a lovely way to engage the children around the question of the weather on Venus – developed by Dr Elizabeth Tasker of JAXA. She compares Venus to a person who is in the Sahara (where it is hot) but is wearing a thick coat (the atmosphere of Venus is really thick!). This could be linked to the children’s coats and how their coats should be chosen with weather in mind. Curious Minds explores this more fully with “Investigating Children’s Coats” in English and Irish.
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