Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Laura,
I like how you have included “guess which material would keep a drink the warmest in advance of the experiment taking place and to justify their answer.”
Science happens when children explore their world with science eyes – and make predictions based on their understanding and check if those expectations come to pass. A pure guess doesn’t improve a child’s understanding, and if a child knows nothing about a topic, then guessing is all they can do. This is why the wonder and explore section of the inquiry framework are so important – children need time to share their knowledge and explore how things work.
Olivia – you could use the ideas you have suggested and make explicit links to the Inquiry framework as “design and make”.
You have identified your prompt – the question “can we make a strong bridge” and the children can wonder and explore as they look at images or find examples of bridges in their locality.
Then the investigate section becomes: Explore > Plan > Make > Evaluate
The sharing of results is a “next step” particularly if they consider what they would change if they were to do this again.
You might find the curious minds resource useful: https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/pdfs/col/Curious_Minds_Resource_-_Design_a_bridge.pdf
Karen,
You could show the children videos of the astronauts on the Moon – this one shows the bouncing and jumping, which is a bit different from the “small, slow steps mimicking an astronaut.”
https://youtu.be/Zl_VdN6rfrQ?si=zkS6agAwEFAYuEoT
Apparently real moon rocks are jagged and sharp, because without an atmosphere there is no wind to assist in erosion, similarly, no water means no smoothing of the rocks.
Irene – do have a look at the Ramps and Pathways – it is a super approach. I have used foam pipe lagging from a builders’ providers, inexpensive and re-usable, I have lengths that I have been using for at least 10 years!
Susanne, there is a whole pedagogy “Ramps and Pathways” that is worth exploring from the University of Iowa. It has a superb page of questions to probe different types of reasoning and understanding:
Attention-focusing Questions
Where do you notice the marble coming off the track?
What have you noticed about the way this object moves down the track/along the pathway?
Why did you decide to put it here?
What did you do first?
Measuring and Counting Questions
How far did the marble travel/roll across the floor after it left the ramp?
How far did the marble fly off the end before it landed on the floor/hit the surface?
How high do you need to elevate the start of your ramp to make the marble travel all the way to this target?
Comparison Questions
How do these objects move differently on the track/pathway?
Which marble travels the farthest off the end of the ramp?
Is there a difference when you use a big marble versus a small marble? Heavy marble versus a light marble?Curious Minds have: https://www.sfi.ie/site-files/primary-science/media/flash/act23/Investigating_Slopes_Activity.pdf
Treasa- ack – I missed Helios! The scale comparison is 1:100. so if you have meter sticks you can have the children mark out the meter – and the Earth will be 1 cm.
If you have string you can prepare a 3.14m length of string, tie into a loop and have the children shape it into a circle (which will be 1m diameter), then you might ask them to make a circle of paper the size that they think the Earth is – most are very surprised at how small the Earth is vs the Sun.
Hi Eleanor,
I’ve seen a suitable activity on the Earth/Moon where children have different size spheres and have to try to find a partner to be Earth to their Moon, or Moon to their Earth.
https://www.exploratorium.edu/snacks/earth-moon
This would be suitable for an older class, and naturally groups the children into pairs to work together.
It would be interesting to see if it could be extended to the solar system – the space week resource has ideas on modelling the solar system with fruit – so perhaps the children could choose from a variety of fruits to make their own solar systems in table groups.
https://www.spaceweek.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Classroom-Resource-Booklet-Our-Solar-System.pdf
Louise – I love your suggestion of extending the activity “by investigating areas most likely to have fingerprints.”
This really allow the inquiry thinking to come to the fore, as the children have developed the skill of taking fingerprints, have tried to make patterns from what they have seen and are now being challenged to apply this to a new context.
What a nice looking book:
https://www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com/Books/I-Am-Neil-Armstrong
A way to make the “our own moons using cornflour and conditioner.” into an inquiry approach is to wonder: “how much cornflour and conditioner will work?” and to let the children explore different mixtures, rather than giving the children a ‘recipe’ for them to follow. It takes a bit longer, but the learning is deeper as they mix and find out the proportions. Even better if they can start to explain that the mixture ‘works’ because…
I love the grains of sand and beach analogy. I also really like the author of the cartoon XKCD/ What If? has taken that idea and extended it (for adult level readers!) by considering the sizes of different types of stars>
“The little sand patch would contain 99% of the pile’s individual grains, but less than 1% of its total volume. Our Sun isn’t a grain of sand on a soft galactic beach; instead, the Milky Way is a field of boulders with some sand in between.
But, as with the real Earth seashore, it’s the rare little stretches of sand between the rocks where all the fun seems to happen.”
Hi Veronica,
With a 1st class you may find that they have a good grasp on objects falling down and you’ll be able to help them wonder why different objects fall down at different speeds. The ESERO activity falling objects was designed for Infants, but can be adapted for an older group if they can ask their own questions about the objects and try different ways of tossing/throwing up in the air etc.
Note that “Speed is measured as distance travelled per unit
of time.” only appears for 5th/6th class Maths, so I’d be careful introducing it – it might be easier to use the idea of which hits the ground first and have “races”.A super view of the solar system to scale is with this crowd who created the solar system in the desert.
https://youtu.be/zR3Igc3Rhfg?si=26Xxb1fPtfkkjAUj
With young children you can use the ideas from the Solar System resource from spaceweek.ie: https://www.spaceweek.ie/for-organisers/for-teachers/
I had to look that up!
https://youtu.be/NqceTZ0_0Hk?si=Hys4gYVYScy2IWoj
Not a show I am familiar with!
With older children you can ask them to create their own way of remembering. When I was an astronomy undergrad we used:
Man Very Early Made Jars Stand Upright, Nearly Perpendicular – but that wouldn’t work now – no Pluto!
Hi Ciara,
you can connect towers to space by using the idea of Newton’s cannonball. Newton (he of the apple falling out of a tree), suggested that to get an object into orbit, you just had to get it to go high enough and throw it sideways fast enough that by the time it came down it would have fallen over the horizon.
That’s the idea behind rocket launches for satellites to go into orbit. The rocket carries the up and gives them the sideways speed. Then then (mostly) stay up because there isn’t anything to slow them down in space, and the Earth keeps pulling them down, they keep falling, but keep missing!
https://physics.weber.edu/schroeder/software/NewtonsCannon.html
Hi Darren,
the inquiry framework has been developed to be simple to use with children. As you note: ask a question, wonder together and share knowledge, then allow the children to guide their investigation with their own thoughts and ideas.
Science at its core is about investigation and checking understanding – and simple predictions that are based on a child’s thinking are key, as is the activity to verify or refute that prediction.