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Hi Rachael,
welcome to this course, you’ll find a lot of suggestions from other teachers of infants, so I do urge you to explore the forums as well as the course material.
In this course we are specifically referring to the Curious Minds ESERO Framework for Inquiry when we look at inquiry activities. So for making a model of space using children as stars/suns/planets/moons – the actual scenario could be the prompt, they could then share what they know and ask questions that they might use secondary sources to verify.
So – a child who knows that the Moon goes around the Earth, but thinks the Sun also goes around the Earth can share what they think the model should look like, then can check it from books or other sources.
Questions that can lead to further investigations are a sign that the inquiry is at the right level. I heard once that if a class are saying “we get it, we get it” then they don’t – since a class that “gets it” will have lots more questions (whatever ‘it’ is!)
Coral,
if you have access to paint programmes on computers, you can actually edit the images that the Stellarium app uses. Copy them and give them out to the children to draw over and you will have personalised images!
There are instruction on how to do these at our DOME project:
https://dome.nuclio.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/D.O.M.E.-QuickStartGuide-Stellarium.pdf
The Week in a Life of an Astronaut is lovely – it is suggested for ages 8-12, do you reckon you could use it with infants?
Aoife,
Floating and sinking and observing different objects to see if they float or sink is a standard of infant classes- and has some lovely complexity to if you choose flat objects like plastic rulers – where surface tension comes into play.
I’d be sure to ask the children to give a reason why “they think [it] can sink or float.” Then you are connecting their understanding to the investigation. If they are only guessing, then give them some time to play with water and objects and see what they notice and what concepts they form to explain what they see.
I’d be cautious about density as a concept – it appears nowhere in the Science Curriculum for primary school except in the glossary as
floating: the tendency of an object to remain on the surface of
a liquid; an object will float if its density is less than that of the liquid; the weight of a floating body is equal to the weight of fluid displaced; the force up and the force down on the body are equal.You might use “heavy for its size” “light for its size” instead, considering that measurement of weight and measurement of capacity is higher up the progression criteria in Maths / Measuring.
Coral,
I think it is worth splitting this into two different inquiries, since the requirement for seeds can be quite different from plants.
Some seeds can start to grow in light, but most need darkness (which is why we plant them!) Seeds generally need water, oxygen and a suitable temperature.
See this resource: https://web.extension.illinois.edu/gpe/case3/c3facts3.html
Once the seed has sprouted, then the growth of the plant can be investigated.
Jennifer,
other teachers had recommended that book, I’d forgotten it. But, reviewing it, I remember it, and remember that the science of them flying “millions of stars till at last they landed on the moon.” bothered me last year as well!
https://youtu.be/6c5cb0u0rPM?si=EV7hFPHZU5Cyhfkl
Cute pictures, nice rocket from a cardboard box, great opportunity to discuss if the baby bear would need anything else on his trip to the Moon (like a spacesuit!)
Amy,
Egg-stronauts is a favourite of mine too! I like to show them the spacecraft that some astronauts use to return to Earth as a prompt towards designing a good seat for their eggs.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2014/05/Alexander_last_check_of_Soyuz_TMA-13M
This is ESA’s Alexander Gerst, checking the Soyuz a few days before his flight in 2014.
Do you know this song? 🙂
aw thanks! In this case, it’s my son who alerted me to the phenomena. He says of his grandmother, who passed away when he was 10, that “she was kind” – when asked to describe her. He recognises her in photos, but doesn’t have a mental ‘picture’ of her at all.
Sheelagh,
great description of how you used bubbles with your class. Varying the proportions is such an easy way to incorporate inquiry (since you already have the materials!) and lends itself to simple predictions.
Children could time how long the bubbles last with sugar in the mix and without.
This site suggests that the sugar slows down evaporation, so bubbles should last longer.
Niamh,
lovely plan, which rocket launch would you use? I do like the Starship integrated tests, particularly the first one that doesn’t work too well.
One slight physics bit of pedantry – the rocket gases push against the rocket body to make it move. “pushes down hard against the ground” – this is for people jumping, but the rocket gas is coming out of the rocket – it still works when the rocket is in the air.
If a child suggests that, you can ask them to try out what happens to the rocket balloon launched horizontally along a string. Does it move?
Patricia,
the beauty of inquiry is really when the children take ownership, as you have described. When one child is vigorously arguing their case, you know that they are invested and interested.
Letting the science come through means that you don’t need to be an expert on the topic – and indeed, I often find an air of slight befuddlement serves me well. I’ll say something like: “I’ve seen this with another class, but they did XX and you are doing YY so I’m not sure how it will turn out — what do you think will happen?…”
Lovely video
https://youtu.be/Smeg1KUa3qU?si=t-gBXfYhbUf9WY7q
I like the “aliens come from our imagination” and then links to conditions for life.
water, atmosphere with oxygen, food (mentioned with respect to soil, but note that plants use light and gases for food).
Interestingly, we think that life evolved on Earth without oxygen and the presence of oxygen itself (or might not!), since oxygen reacts with so many things, that if it is present in the atmosphere of another planet, it must be being produced – and one of the ways to produce oxygen is from plants/life.
Mystery boxes are great. Have you used them in the original sense? In that, the children do NOT ever open them, this is said to mirror Science, in that we can NEVER be entirely sure that we have it right.
The sound mystery boxes are a great prompt. From their initial exposure to the mystery sounds, children can explore the sounds that different materials make when hit, thumped, struck, bashed, clinked… so many words!
This also covers the whole Energy and Forces > Sound area of the infant Science curriculum.
Hi Catherine,
Design a space suit is a great example of a simple design and make for young children. Do you use the template from the ESERO activity: https://esero.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/20_A-real-spacesuit.pdf
This offers the suggestion that the suit
the suit must be able to stop the astronaut losing heat;
so children might explore various materials to see which keeps something warm longest. A slightly safer activity (no hot water needed) is to see which material can keep an ice cube cold longest – and this really connects the material to how heat moves through it.