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Fiona – we look at rockets in more detail in module 5 – but I love how you have planned to engage the children, and concentrated on forces as the science topic.
I have given children a toy car and asked them to make it move in as many different ways as possible that they can think of — this is very open ended and the children can discuss and play as they learn.
There are pictures of a rocket launch that can be sequenced in the ISS Primary Education Kit from ESA – you can find it on page 54 here.
Eilis – my colleague was a volunteer at Dunsink at the time, and says that the fire left precious little whole, and there was no way that they could have located the tiny bit of Moon rock! The Independent has an article about it.
This video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdj8lPvW0rc
Cute characters- but it builds on the misconception that the Moon can only be seen at night! When they are arguing about the crescent Moon – they should have just looked up and seen it in the morning sky!
How would you help the children explore the reasons for the different phases of the Moon? – remembering that phases of the Moon are not part of the primary curriculum, so the emphasis should be on what is lighting up the Moon and how we can only see something that is lit up or gives out its own light.
Marie – I like how you have started with cold objects that have warmed up – and then extended the thinking to a room temperature chocolate that needs to be melted. This will really pull out the children’s thinking about heat and how it affects everyday materials.
This is a lovely way to access: explore the effects of heating and cooling on everyday objects, materials and substances.
For infants this could be a complete investigation — they could explore lots of different items to see if warming them up makes them liquid.
I see that you have planned to explore removing heat from a liquid to make it solid –but is there a way to that easily other than put it in a freezer? – which isn’t particularly visual and obvious – compared to holding onto a bit of butter or chocolate until it goes melty!
Hi Keith – can you check permissions on the mind map please, I’m getting a “not found”.
Keeping food hot and cold for a picnic is a lovely engaging scenario. The children can consider what they already know and there is a nicely inexpensive set of materials that they might use to test out if the hot chocolate stays hot, and if the icecream stays iced.
Aisling – in your outline about the differences between day and night, you have included
- day vs night activities
- how we see objects (light travels from the object to our eyes),
- sources of light,
- and formation of shadows.
- extension: Sun in the sky.
That strikes me as an ambitious plan. Would you be guided by your class and what they are most interested in? Would you have a range of small torches and opaque objects to let them play with shadows?
Michael – I like the emphasis on the dangers of sunlight for young children, I don’t quite understand why it only shows in SESE Geography for 3rd and 4th class.
Alexandra – do you use them in a very general way to capture all ideas that the children have about a theme? How do you narrow down the W to create a streamlined inquiry question?
Inquiry in science is about letting the children predict what they think will happen based on their understanding – and allowing the activity to verify or challenge their models and assumptions.Georgia – would you use Amazing Triangles as part of this? I’ve tried the marshmallow towers with 8-10 year-olds, and they enjoyed making the triangle structures, agreed that they made a stronger shape, and then made towers without a triangle in sight!! We rested our toy red panda on the towers – and over they went!!
Karen – this engineers week resource from 2021 has a completed framework for inquiry for design a raincoat.
As you have outlined, when carrying out a design and make activity with children, the sections of the framework under Investigate change in emphasis slightly:
STARTER QUESTION > EXPLORE
PREDICTION > PLAN
CONDUCTING THE INVESTIGATION> MAKE
SHARING / INTERPRETING DATA > EVALUATEYou have done a great job of detailing how the children will follow each of those steps.
Aoife – I love the idea of including solar system exploration. You could tell the children that they have to decide which space mission is going to be built and launched– which planet will it go to? what will it try to find out?
This happens every few years in all the major space agencies – there are always more proposals than there is money – so different mission ideas are developed, but only one or two actually get built.
Denise – do you have a link to the poem: Planet Roll Call?
Have you a particular set of planet images you like? I acquired a set of planet lithographs a few years ago and have used them over and over again, as well as this simple poster from ESA:
