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Sarah, I look forward to seeing your school register an event with space week. And is this the Hippo on the Moon?
Eilis – aliens can be used in so many ways – but I really like your connection to space facts. Mars will continue to be in the news as rovers drive around taking pictures, and the Ingenuity helicopter keeps flying (once it is less dusty!)
Eilis – I like how you have taken modelling first, then asked the children to use their model to predict real world behaviour- and then they can verify — absolutely the essence of learning science through inquiry!
Séamus – the light touch on written material is quite deliberate for the low number ESERO activities (from 1-20) since they were developed for very young children. And with space week in early October, it is likely that a teacher might use these resources to support that themed week – when junior infants will only just be settled into “big school.” The Goldilocks zone always makes for interesting conversations — and this video (for teachers!) outlines some of the other issues in planet habitability.
Maura, great that you identified the needs of your class and planned active movement to suit them.
All this exploration and wondering can lead to specific questions that can be investigated, and those questions might come from the children, or from yourself – as you pick up on the discussions that they might be having as they explore and play.
Miriam, great possible starter questions for the children to answer. You’ll probably need a few sets of rocket strings and the children could move between one set up and the next, and note carefully what is different from one rocket balloon to the next.
Angle of string is great– I have tried to send this straight up (I have a light fixture that I can tie string to), but not with much success.
Aisling – which type of rocket would the children make? would they make rocket shapes that could be tossed? and see how well they fly through air?
Aisling, I like how you have planned for the children’s observations of weather to link to climate and seasons- and have it planned for an extended set of observations over the year.
I grew up in Canada, with a continental climate and it was very very different to Ireland.
Christine – Each class showing their work would fit right into the DPSM Awards of Maths and Science Excellence.
I hope you and your colleagues will participate in both Space Week in 2022, and in the awards programme.
Christine – I think it is important to make that science link to materials used to make buildings. Are there any new buildings in your area? Weekly trips to see the site could be valuable, showing change over time and the construction techniques.
Rockets really are a great theme – and the Queen of the Rockets is Jane Shimizu – you can see her school’s posts here.
Roisin – a tiny feature of many of the model rockets that I have used, is that they fly better if they are slightly “nose-heavy” – a little bit of extra weight at the nose moves the centre of gravity away from the fins, and they are more stable.
You could test that with rocket mouse — do they fly better if they have a little wodge of masking tape inside the tip of the cone?
Roisin – I like the game you have included, and the actions reinforce the maths — a semi-detached = two houses, so has two people.